When the UN recognized Palestine as an observer state last November, Israel retaliated by announcing new settlements. Now an organization of arguably greater authority has recognized Palestine: Google.
On Friday, the search engine changed the tagline on its home page in the occupied territories from "Palestinian territories" to, simply, "Palestine".
"We consult a number of sources and authorities when naming countries," a Google spokesman, Nathan Tyler, told the BBC. "In this case, we are following the lead of the UN, Icann [Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers], ISO [International Organisation for Standardisation] and other international organisations."
What to call the area south of Lebanon and Syria, west of Jordan and north of Sinai that isn't Israel is a matter of fierce debate. Before 1948 the entire area, including present-day Israel, was called Palestine. In 1988, leaders of the remaining territory declared a state of Palestine, but the state has had trouble gaining recognition. In November's UN vote, 138 nations voted to recognize a state of Palestine, nine voted against and 41 abstained.
Google's homeland, the United States, is currently the most powerful opponent of recognizing Palestine.
