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Journalism of Courage
Google has recognised the Palestinians8217; upgraded UN status,placing the name 8220;Palestine8221; on its search engine instead of 8220;Palestinian Territories,8221; a company spokesman said today.
The domain name http://www.google.ps,Google8217;s search engine for the territories,now brings up a homepage with 8220;Palestine8221; written underneath the Google logo.
The change took effect on Wednesday,Google spokesman Nathan Tyler said in a statement.
8220;We8217;re changing the name 8216;Palestinian Territories8217; to 8216;Palestine8217; across our products. We consult a number of sources and authorities when naming countries. In this case,
we are following the lead of the UN8230; and other international organisations,8221; he said.
The UN General Assembly in November upgraded Palestine to the status of non-member observer state by a vote of 138 votes in favour,nine against and 41 abstentions.
Palestinian authorities have since begun to use the 8220;State of Palestine8221; in diplomatic correspondence and issued official stamps for the purpose.
Israel questioned Google8217;s decision.
8220;This change raises questions about the reasons behind this surprising involvement of what is basically a private Internet company in international politics 8212; and on the
controversial side,8221; foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP.
