Thursday, June 26, 2008

Google Earth And Israel: Replacement Geography (Updated)


by Andre Oboler
  • Virtual Israel, as represented by Google Earth, is littered with orange dots, many of which claim to represent "Palestinian localities evacuated and destroyed after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war." Thus, Israel is depicted as a state born out of colonial conquest rather than the return of a people from exile. Each dot links to the "Palestine Remembered" site, where further information advancing this narrative can be obtained.
  • Many of the claims staked out in Google Earth present misinformation, and sites known to be ruins in 1946 are claimed to be villages destroyed in 1948. Arab villages which still exist today are listed as sites of destruction. The Google Earth initiative is not only creating a virtual Palestine, it is creating a falsification of history.
  • The concept of "replacement geography" replaces the historical connection of one people to the land with a connection between another people and the land. The inclusion of virtual Palestine, superimposed on Israel in the core layer of Google Earth, is an example of replacement geography advanced by technology.
  • Those wishing to explore Israel in Google Earth are immediately taken to a politically motivated narrative unrelated to their quest. Google should remove the narrative and treat Israel as it treats every other country on the globe. The core layer of Google Earth should be ideology free and not serve as a platform for indoctrination or a campaign to wipe Israel off the virtual map.
This is the summary of the article--read the whole thing.

One of the footnotes in the article points to an article by David Shama in The Jerusalem Post: Digital World: Google Earth's 'false flags'. Shama addresses the claim by Thameen Darby on Google Earth that Kiryat Yam is built on the ruins of an Arab village named Ghawarina.

Shamah writes:
Well, I can help Thameen out a bit - from a site he is quite familiar with himself. A site called "Palestine Remembered," which purports to catalog the villages within the 1948 borders from which Israel evicted the Arabs, turning them into refugees, and which Darby refers Google Earth users to for more information. It displays a 1946 map of Mandatory Palestine, with all extant villages, cities, railroads, etc (http://tinyurl.com/262zte). The map bears the signatures of Moshe Dayan and Transjordan's Ahmed Sudki El Jundi, establishing the "green line" cease-fire lines in 1949. The map was based on an extensive British survey of the territory in 1944 (updated in 1946, a year before the end of the Mandate and two years before Israel was officially established).

Guess what? No Ghawarina! Neither is Kiryat Yam there, for that matter. But since the town was basically a tent on a sand dune (http://tinyurl.com/3bf2tb, seventh photo down) when first established, it would make sense that it not appear on the map. In fact, the Palestine Remembered page with information on Ghawarina (http://tinyurl.com/2uqlea) is completely blank - save for the claim that the village did indeed exist, contradicted by that "original source" map on the same site [Note: correct reference to PR should be http://tinyurl.com/4shsye DA].

Comparing Darby's Google Earth posts with the British map, I came up with some other questionable claims: villages claimed to have existed that don't appear on the British map at all (Wadi Qabbani, said to be be outside Netanya on Google Earth); villages that do exist today claimed to have been destroyed (the Arab Ein Hawd - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ein-Hod). In addition, Darby has "claimed" as Arab villages all sites on the British map that use the term "Khirbet" - a ruin - even if they clearly show up as ruins, wells or springs on the map (numerous examples).

For another issue, check out Zombietime on Google Earth's treatment of Jerusalem.

Apparently, Google's problems go further than not recognizing Memorial Day.

Update: For some perspective, check out Mere Rhetoric.

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