Is Hebron in Israel? Facebook’s Weird Palestinian Geography

While browsing Facebook this morning, I happened to see a friend tagged in a photo of “Betlehem Israel.” I find this very strange. After all, Bethlehem is in Israeli-occupied Palestine, not the apartheid state of Israel.

Maybe, I thought it was a wrong label and actually meant Bet Lahem Haglilit Bethlehem of the Galilee, once a Palestinian town, was ethnically cleansed in 1948 and taken over by Israeli farmers. But no, clicking the “Beit Lehem, Israel” link brought me Go to a page Attached is a map of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.Thus, Facebook would have us believe that Bethlehem, or “Beit Lehem,” is not in Palestine, but in Israel.

However, Facebook wants to have its cake and eat it, because it also lists — as a separate location —”Bethlehem, West Bank‘. The West Bank in my mind is not “Palestine”. In fact, as we will see, Palestine does not appear anywhere in the Facebook city locations.

I then searched for “Hebron” and sure enough, both had “Hebron, Iser‘ and ‘Hebron, West Bank‘. Hebron is the largest city in the occupied West Bank and a typical apartheid city. The lives of more than 200,000 Palestinians are controlled by about 1,000 illegal Israeli settlers in the city center and another 1,000 Israeli occupation forces who ensure that The Palestinians were completely conquered. Jews and Arabs had their own roads, Palestinian shops were forced to close, the Ibrahim Mosque was divided, and settlers and the army regularly attacked Palestinian civilians. a report +972 magazine website reads:

Jewish settlers in Hebron are notorious for violently harassing their Palestinian neighbors with the surveillance and tacit approval of the IDF. Some Palestinian residents in and around Shuhada Street have built cages around their homes to protect themselves from violent settlers. The open-air markets in Hebron’s Old City are covered with metal mesh to catch the bricks, urine and other objects that Jewish settlers often throw at Palestinian merchants and passersby.

By allowing Hebron to be classified as within Israel, Facebook not only tacitly endorses this atrocity and violation of international law, it actually helps normalize it.

In some ways, Hebron and Bethlehem were lucky. At least, they’re designated to be in the West Bank. Apart from JerichoNo other Palestinian city—either currently actually political capital RamallahMajor cities Nablus, Qalqiliya, Jenin or Tulkarmor Gaza City With a population of 750,000 – earn any such title. Instead, each city is listed as merely a “city,” presumably existing as an independent entity in some geographical ether. Also applies to Mazhar ShamsIt is a major Druze city in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which is recognized under international law as part of the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic.

What about Jerusalem?As expected, “Jerusalem” is listed as part of israel – illustrates this with a picture of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Israeli-occupied part of the city. However, oddly, it also lists “east jerusalem(This also exists in the same Facebook Earth ether as other Palestinian cities) – but its image is not of any of the Old City’s most iconic images – such as the mosque mentioned above – but simply a map.

Finally, what about the more than 200 other illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine and occupied Syria? As it turns out, Facebook couldn’t make up its mind. Some, such as Ariel, Own Houmaand crazy are listed as being within Israel, while some other areas, e.g. Maal Adumin, alba village, Baita Elitand Modine Elituntil the tiny Niland All of these exist only in the form of “cities” in indeterminate locations.

Facebook’s final geographical failure is that while Israel does not exist only As a “national site”, its entrance is illustrated by a satellite map of the entire historic Palestine, which does not delineate the boundaries between the apartheid state of Israel and the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories. OK!

Facebook will no doubt claim that it simply uses third-party data like Wikipedia and its own algorithms to compile this data. But this is nonsense – we all know that algorithms are not neutral, they reflect the values ​​of the programmers. When it comes to such a contentious and contentious situation as the Israeli-Palestinian issue, Facebook actually has a special responsibility to accurately reflect international law and not just arbitrarily draw borders as it sees fit.

In its dealings with Palestinian cities and Israeli settlements — all of which are illegal and war crimes under the Geneva Conventions — Facebook is actively helping to normalize serious violations of human rights and violations of international law. It is helping to solidify Israel’s decades-long colonial occupation of Palestine and its ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. It is erasing Palestine’s historical, cultural and national ties to its homeland. It is literally wiping Palestine off the map.

Facebook wants to teach people about “fake news”?

Explore posts in the same category: Apartheid Israel, civil rights, colonialism, Facebook, Gaza, Hasbara, Israel, Palestine, Jianguo, uncategorized, Bank of the West, Zionism