Existence Denied: Apartheid on Google Maps
If you are trying to drive from Ramallah to Bethlehem — Palestinian towns in the West Bank (which Google automatically labels as “Israel”) — Google Maps won’t help you find your way.
But if you are in an illegal Israeli settlement right next to Ramallah and you want to drive to an illegal Israeli settlement right next to Ramallah and you want to drive to an illegal settlement right next to Bethlehem, your route pops right up — on roads that Palestinian cars are forbidden to drive.
Palestinians have cobbled together a winding, nauseating, dusty and dangerous route that forces them to drive around the ever-expanding land in the West Bank that Israel claims for their illegal settlements. (See AP story, “Separate Roads Push West Bank Arabs to the Byways.”)
