Google has de facto recognised the state of Palestine by changing its online designation from Palestinian territories to Palestine.
The web search giant introduced the change on May 1 on its main Palestinian portal Google.ps, which now has the tagline Palestine rather than the previous Palestinian territories.
The move followed the decision in November by the United Nations to give Palestine the status of a non-member observer state, a move bitterly opposed by Israel and the United States.
“We’re changing the name ‘Palestinian Territories’ to ‘Palestine’ across our products,” Google spokesman Nathan Tyler said in a statement.
“We consult a number of sources and authorities when naming countries. In this case, we are following the lead of the UN, Icann (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and other international organizations.”