Google and Apple: Put the Palestinian Villages on Maps

Ms. Jen Fitzpatrick - Google’s Vice President, Local & Maps, Ms. Di-Ann Eisnor - Chairman of Platial and Community Geographer at Waze, and Mr. Eddy Cue - Apple's Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services

On Thursday, October 13th, nine Palestinian marathoners, who normally train in the Israeli-occupied West Bank countryside, will be running through the streets of Mountain View and Cupertino to convince Google and Apple to add hundreds of missing Palestinian villages to their maps. (Video of them training in the Palestinian countryside can be watched here).


The marathoners will run from Google headquarters (and its subsidiary Waze) to Apple headquarters to deliver this petition. Though Apple and Google claim it is not a priority to map the West Bank, many Israel settlements can be found on their maps. Israel’s settlements are illegal under U.S. and international law. The runners will speak to Google and Apple executives from their unique perspective as athletes who live under Israeli occupation and deal with mobility restrictions and the threat of violence on a daily basis.

Please sign now and ask everyone you know to sign too.

Petition by
Donna Baranski-Walker
Redwood City, Palestine, State of
Sponsored by
Rebuilding_alliance_2020_logo_borderless
Redwood City, CA

To: Ms. Jen Fitzpatrick - Google’s Vice President, Local & Maps, Ms. Di-Ann Eisnor - Chairman of Platial and Community Geographer at Waze, and Mr. Eddy Cue - Apple's Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services
From: [Your Name]

The maps your Companies are showing of Israel and Palestine are inaccurate. They are missing hundreds of Palestinian villages.

Though Apple and Google claim it is not a priority to map the West Bank, many Israeli settlements can be found on your maps. Israel’s settlements are illegal under U.S. and international law.

Our message is urgent because, according to the Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem, more Palestinian homes have been demolished this year than in any year in the past decade in a surge of demolitions still underway against these “invisible” villages. It is now more important than ever that the villages are given the recognition they deserve. Being shown on the Maps will lend them more permanency and legitimacy locally, regionally, and in the eyes of the international community, to help prevent the bulldozing of Palestinian homes to make room for the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements.

The difference is surprising. Here's an example of what the Google maps show now in the South Hebron Hills, and via animation, what they should be shown instead: http://www.rebuildingalliance.org/maps

Your technical teams already have the data they need. In September, they both received the data required to add the missing villages, and both the Google and the Apple tech teams confirmed receipt. Rebuilding Alliance, a U.S. non-profit, partnered with the Israeli human rights group, BIMKOM: Planners for Planning Rights, to provide the data in .shp polygon format.

Worldview is shaped through your company's mapping technologies. There's no time to lose. Please put the Palestinian villages on Google Maps, Waze, and Apple Maps.