Google has launched an enquiry into its interactive atlas program Google Earth after an investigation revealed the online mapping and navigation service is replete with anti-Israel propaganda.
Google Earth, which claims to provide “local facts” and “critical tools for understanding a story” about the world, also contains factually incorrect data and biased images relating to Israel and the Middle East.
One Israeli settlement is displayed alongside comments implying citizens are stealing water from neighbouring Palestinians, while other images purport to show copies of land confiscation orders as well as plans to extend the security fence into Bethlehem.
And while Google claims that it defines its state borders according to UN regulations, the Gaza Strip is still listed as being under Israeli occupation. However, Israel pulled out of Gaza and handed it to the Palestinian Authority two years ago.
Meanwhile, a posting next to the town of Kiryat Arba says: “Note the well-tended lawns in a region deprived of water.” Clicking on a weblink in the posting brings the user to a site which says “the principal reason for the water shortage is an unfair distribution of water resources shared by Israel and the Palestinians.” It goes on to decry Israel’s policy as both illegal and racist.
Elsewhere, visitors to Google Earth who click on the settlement of Kibbutz Revivim are shown an image of a wrecked C-47 plane. And just outside Jerusalem, a computer generated image, believed to have been taken from a computer game, claims to depict an Israeli missile factory.
The negative image given of Israel clearly outweighs any positive or even balanced portrayal of the country, which consists of just a handful of pictures of hotels and scenery in Eilat.
After TJ alerted Google to the blatantly biased postings, a spokesperson insisted the company was not getting involved in politics, She said the comments and pictures are posted by members of the public who are registered members of the site’s Google Earth community, and can be switched off if visitors don’t want to see them.
However, the spokesperson promised that the company would investigate the offending postings.
And referring to the Gaza Strip error, she said: “Borders and place names are not always updated straight away. Occasionally there are discrepancies, we are happy to receive feedback and will pass it on to the Google Earth team and take the necessary steps.”
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
25 Responses
Google Earth and Wikipedia are two of the main www sites that are replete with anti-Israel material. They are open use sites, i.e. sites where anyone can post whatever they want. There is some degree of “post posting” moderation but it is very shvach. These sites are a major problem. The owners of the sites are really not to blame for what is posted. As shutting down the sites is clearly not an option does any internet geek have a solution to suggest? I don’t think the Torah community has the time to spend monitoring these sites.
Charles Johnson (LGF) has been posting for years about the bias at Google News. They are exceedingy anti-Israel, and thus anti-Semitic.
eisov soineh es yakov. period.
“eisov soineh es yakov. period.”
An inane comment. Period.
There are any number of Jews working at Google, so where does Eisav sonei l’Yaakov fit in?
1st Direct :
“Google Earth and Wikipedia are two of the main www sites that are replete with anti-Israel material.”
Question: When did Neturei Karta find out and start posting to Google Earth
?
kishke-chances are the Jews arent promoting the anti-Israel tirade (though today you never know)
Kishke:
‘they are exceedingly anti Israel, and thus antisemitic’
?Anti Israel means that they dont agree with the Zionist regime and there ‘infliction’ on the Palestinian People…ITS PURELY POLITICAL.
Anti Semitism existed long before the State of Israel was created, and started since the death of J. Anti Zionist is NOT nessessarily ANTI sEMITIC.
As I said these are open use sites. It is irrelevant if Jews do or do not work there. Eisov soineh es Yakov is also not relevant in so far as it is a remark directed to the sites. They are set up worshiping the democratic idol of freedom of speech. The whole idea behind them is that every yotz can make his own contribution and have his own say. There are few boundaries. If we had the time we could flood Google Earth with placemarks and notes of where Yidden have been attacked or worse round the world. Most of the entries would be left provivding they were well written. The sites are somewhat sympathetic to removing proven bias. The problem is seeing it. Is there a computer geek who reads this list who could coem up with a program to automatically notify a “checkung site” when certain key words are used? That way when something objectionable comes up, we can be asked to protest. That would at least be histadlus against the hate mongers. This however is all very time consuming. Our haters don’t have Gemora to learn!
I don’t know why everybody’s going crazy over this. The Internet is full of anti-semitic things. This is not a Google issue. Google responded very well. The said it is user-generated content which you could turn off. By default you don’t see it. You have to want to view user-generated content in order to view it. Everybody reading it knows it is all user-generated and not from Google. It is not Google’s responsibility to read everybodys post and take out the non-politically correct ones. They do the same thing with their web-site. Google the word failure and see what comes up first. That is one example of how Google doesn’t change things to avoid politics. If you Google the word Jew you’ll get a lot of anti-semitic material. (Although it used to be a lot worse) Google explains there why they don’t do anything about it. If you want to sink to their level and flood Google Earth with political propaganda, go ahead. But you won’t win. There are much more of them then there are of us. Just turn off the user-generated comments and forget about it.
Just my personal opinion – Feel free to argue
eisav soneh es Yaakov
“an inane comment?” (as written by poster: “kishke”)
it doesnt mean we do not have an obligation for hishtadlus, but certainly we must be aware that HaKodesh Borchu has poskined that eisav soneh es Yaakov.
as to the Jews that work for google, i dont know any of them, but it is quite likely that most or all of them are assimilated, and thus are also “eisav” as far as the above klal is concerned.
Feival – WOW!!! thanks fpr the clarification. I have always learned that the assimilated are like newborn babies – uninformed, not knowing/understanding. How misguided I was!!! Now you come along and clarified everything and declare all of the assimilated Jews as Eisav. Novel approach I’ll bet when you try to do kiruv work with the assimilated they really react positively to being called Eisav. b/t/w – what is your source?
Check out google earths map of Israel. They have red lines demarking Gaza and the West Bank. With the red line around the West Bank, they are effectually cutting out 30% of Israel (including the parts of Jerusalem and the Kosel). If this were to ever really happen Israel would be around 20 miles wide along central Israel from chadera to Tel Aviv. This subtle suggestion of theirs is truly disturbing.
hey feivel,
who said that all the jews working at google are assimilated, and whys that make them EISAV….. careful of what u say.
To the people who say that they are just worshiping at the altar of the god of freedom of information, you’re off-base. B/c in fact Google News does not include news from what they deem to be hate sites. But anti-Israel stuff is fine.
To those who say it’s the work of a lone programmer, you’re wrong. LGF has posted on this numerous times. This goes on all the time with Google News.
To those who argued that anti-Zionism is not necessarily anti-Semitism, you ought to know that you are parroting the arguments of virulent anti-Semites (and of our loony NK co-religionists). In fact, anti-Zionism has been code for anti-Semitism for many years now. Anyone who hasn’t figured that out yet is either hopelessly naive or stunningly dumb.
Martin Luther King Jr. recognized this years ago when he so eloquently proclaimed: “You declare, my friend, that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely ‘anti-Zionist.’ And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God’s green earth: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews–this is God’s own truth.”
King wrote this in 1967; things have not improved since.
I just noticed Feivel’s comment, which is even more idiotic than the earlier one. Assimilated Jews are now Eisav? For shame!
More from Martin Luther King Jr., on the subject of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism:
“The antisemite rejoices at any opportunity to vent his malice. The times have made it unpopular, in the West, to proclaim openly a hatred of the Jews. This being the case, the antisemite must constantly seek new forms and forums for his poison. How he must revel in the new masquerade! He does not hate the Jews, he is just ‘anti-Zionist’!
“My friend, I do not accuse you of deliberate antisemitism. I know you feel, as I do, a deep love of truth and justice and a revulsion for racism, prejudice, and discrimination. But I know you have been misled–as others have been–into thinking you can be ‘anti-Zionist’ and yet remain true to these heartfelt principles that you and I share.
Let my words echo in the depths of your soul: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews–make no mistake about it.”
Hey Kishke – perhaps you send this post to the NK-USA. Either they don’t seem to understand this OR “Mr. Green” (money/bribes) have blinded them to this
The founders and of Google are both Yidden. One of them has a goyishe father and a Yiddishe mother. The other comes from a proud Jewish family of immigrants.
They are clearly not anti-Semitic. Read up about them.
As a leading provider of Internet technologies, they empower the individual (every individual) to have a voice. This blog is a sample of how the Internet enabled everyone to speak their mind. It is what the Internet is all about. They would suffer greatly if they suppress this ability.
In fact they already took a lot of heat for the disclaimer they put on their search engine (the only disclaimer ever made by Google on their search engine) for the search term “Jew”. Since natural rankings make “Jew Watch”, an anti-Semitic site of highest order appear as #1 or #2, they put a disclaimer in the sponsored links as follows: We’re disturbed about these results etc. Search for the term “Jew” and see for yourself.
Mr. Facts:
(a) As I said before, they in fact do exclude hate sites from contributing to Google News. They clearly do not wish to empower every individual. Yet, they do not exclude jihadists and other anti-Semitic hatemongers. That is a manifestation of anti-Semitism, whether of the owners of the staffers makes no difference at all.
(b) Don’t believe every bit of Google propaganda you read in the papers. They claim to be against censorship and for empowering the individual, but they knuckled under when China demanded the right of censorship. For them too, money trumps principles.
If KISHKA wants to delight us with his bogus grandstanding (I especially admire his tireless effort in researching Martin Luther King’s philosophy and thus being talented enough to COPY it onto this post) so be it!
HOWEVER , ‘blasting’ people away by calling them dumb and idiotic, should have been censored a little more cautiously!
YW please dont allow such aggresive comments against other posters in the future!
PS. Mr. King was a civil rights activist. His public rhetoric on discrimination is based on emotion rather than facts. Lets just say that its more possible for every antisemite to be anti zionist. But NOT every anti Zionist is neccessarily anti semitic.
Ever hear the expression “Self-hating Jews”, very popular among jews. Who cares MR FACTS if they were born Jewish, being born Jewish is one rung on the ladder of acting Jewish.
“I had a dream” good reading for today kishke.
But of course I’ve heard “I have a dream!” That man was so eloquent. If only some of our so-called public speakers had a tenth of his skill.
i didnt say “assimilated Jews” were not tinuk sh’nshbah.
i didnt say they were in any way blameworththy.
to what extent in any individual case they are responsible for abandoning their role is not for you or i to decide.
i said they are eisav as far as the klal of eisav soney es Yaakov, certainly NOT in terms of their Neshama or potential or Halacha.
when a Yid dresses, behaves, has the values, and THINKS like eisav and not like his Fathers, he also views the Jewish People like eisav does.
to those that requested my source, it is the many, many statements to this effect by HaRav Avigdor Miller ztz’l (who phrased it far more strongly and directly than i). i am not a great Talmid Chochum and i cannot give you his sources. You may think i have misunderstood him…possibly. You may think he was, chas v shalom, not a Godol b’ Yisroel…this would be a most absolute mistake.
if i may also respond to the poster who raised a tirade of words against my statement, and mentioned kiruv. you should know that a negative tirade results when a statement resonates with the Neshama. so too anyone who has been successful in kiruv work knows that a lasting, stable success ONLY comes from providing the EMES, which resonates with a Yiddish Neshama, and not from crooked or watered down “truth”, which although pleasing to the consciousness (which is saturated with ideas of the nations), does not awaken the spark of holiness within every Yid.
feivel