How Google Maps refocused our attention on Palestine’s borders

Google found itself at the centre of a social media firestorm last week, accused of erasing Palestine from its maps. The company said it had never, in fact, used the term “Palestine” in the first place, and promised to fix what it said was a software bug that had removed the designations “West Bank” and “Gaza” from a map that distinguishes those occupied territories from pre-1967 Israel only by a dotted line.

The uproar was hardly surprising, but Google may actually have inadvertently done the Palestinians – and all who support their struggle for justice – an important service: its map reminds us that the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem that began in 1967 is not a temporary anomaly. Having persisted through three quarters of Israel’s history with no prospect of ending in the foreseeable future, it is a permanent feature of the political landscape.

The majority of Israel’s current Jewish population was not yet born or had not yet immigrated to Israel in 1967. They are not taught at school that East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and the Syrian Golan Heights are occupied territory, in which settling Israeli civilians violates international law. The maps in most of their textbooks don’t distinguish between pre-1967 Israel and occupied territories.

Israel’s leaders no longer even pretend that they intend to withdraw from those territories, and illegal settlements continue to expand. The 1993 Oslo peace process that envisaged creating a Palestinian state in the 1967 territories died in the year 2000. Sporadic conversations between president Mahmoud Abbas and his various Israeli counterparts in the 15 years since, when they weren’t simply photo ops, were “talks about talks”. And they don’t even bother with those any longer.

It remains important to Mr Abbas to sustain the belief – evidence notwithstanding – that a State of Palestine is emerging in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. This aspirational state may have been recognised by 136 countries, but Palestinian sovereignty as a physical political reality remains as remote as ever. Despite acquiring some of the symbolic accoutrements of statehood, the Palestinian Authority governs entirely on terms set by the Israeli occupiers.

The illusion that a process is underway to end the occupation also allows western governments to evade any responsibility to protect Palestinian human rights, and to suppress efforts to hold Israel accountable.

But last week’s demand that Google restore or recognise Palestine on its maps also raises the question of where Palestine begins and ends. The widely recognised right of return of Palestinian refugees to homes from which they were expelled during the Nakba of 1948, for example, refers to homes in pre-1948 Israel – or Palestine, as it was then known. (It is a demand for justice and restitution within what is, today, Israel.) That may be why the majority of Palestinian school text books describe as Palestine everything between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.

History, apparently, is not convinced by Oslo’s envisaged partition. The West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem were part of historic Palestine before 1948. This is not to deny Palestinian claims to justice, restitution and equal rights. On the contrary: what Google’s map can’t show is the unequal distribution of power relations within Israel/Palestine. Perhaps former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak can help: “As long as in this territory west of the Jordan River there is only one political entity called Israel it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic,” Mr Barak said in 2010. “If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state.”

His use of the future tense is strange, because his “apartheid” scenario has been the status quo for the past 68 years. If the rituals of a zombie “peace process” fail to convince the world that the occupation is being ended, Israel faces the same prospect of international isolation as South Africa’s white-minority regime faced over its own apartheid system.

But Google Maps’ latest “bug” punctures the peace-process illusion. Users of the app will be familiar with “re-entering”, which is what Google Maps does when a turn-off has been missed, as it offers the driver a new route to the desired destination.

Israel long ago closed down the “two-state” route; Google Maps’ latest bug could be read as subtle re-entering, showing Palestinians that their route to justice may lie in seeking democratic equality and restitution in the single sovereign entity that exists west of the Jordan River.

Tony Karon teaches at the New School in New York

The White Lotus: Season three

Creator: Mike White

Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell

Rating: 4.5/5

Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)

Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi

Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi

Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai

Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi

Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia

Company%20profile

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Key facilities

Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
Premier League-standard football pitch
400m Olympic running track
NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
600-seat auditorium
Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
Specialist robotics and science laboratories
AR and VR-enabled learning centres
Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills

How to donate

Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200

BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES

SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities

Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails

Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies

Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

Bareilly Ki Barfi
Directed by: Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Starring: Kriti Sanon, Ayushmann Khurrana, Rajkummar Rao
Three and a half stars

While you're here

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Company Profile

Company name: NutriCal

Started: 2019

Founder: Soniya Ashar

Based: Dubai

Industry: Food Technology

Initial investment: Self-funded undisclosed amount

Future plan: Looking to raise fresh capital and expand in Saudi Arabia

Total Clients: Over 50

Real estate tokenisation project

Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.