7amleh Secures Inclusion of Palestinian Geographic Terminology Across Microsoft Platforms Maps

April 27, 2026, 7amleh - The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media confirms that recent changes across Microsoft platforms' maps have ensured the inclusion of Palestinian geographic references and the removal of a number of false and misleading Israeli labels that had been imposed in the occupied West Bank.

This matters all the more at a time when Israel is accelerating de facto annexation across the occupied West Bank while intensifying settler violence and forced displacement, which amount to ethnic cleansing. In this context, the way digital systems classify Palestinian places cannot be treated as incidental. Such classifications can reinforce the erasure of the Palestinian geography and normalize unlawful Israeli claims over the occupied territory.

Following months of documentation, direct engagement, and sustained pressure, 7amleh succeeded in compelling changes across Microsoft platforms. This includes Bing’s geolocation infrastructure, which had misclassified locations across the occupied West Bank under the so-called “Judea and Samaria, IL”; a legally incorrect and politically dangerous term used by Israeli settler movements advocating annexation and implicated in ongoing violence against Palestinians. Microsoft has now introduced the appropriate label “West Bank” across these locations, removing “Judea and Samaria” and Israeli attribution from Palestinian areas. This is not a gesture of goodwill but a necessary correction secured through Palestinian pressure after Palestinian geography was misrepresented within a major company’s digital infrastructure. What had been rendered through colonial and settlement-driven nomenclature is now being pushed back toward accurate Palestinian geographic identification.

“This is a necessary correction. We now call on all platforms and companies to respect international law and stop participating in the digital erasure of Palestinian geography and the normalization of annexation in the occupied West Bank,” says Lama Nazeeh, Advocacy Manager at 7amleh.

What remains unresolved is accountability. Microsoft cannot reduce this to a limited data issue while leaving unanswered how Palestinian locations were placed under Israeli labels and why no safeguards prevented it before Palestinian advocacy forced a correction. This is not an isolated case, but part of a wider digital reality in which Palestinian rights and geography are treated as negotiable, while Israeli domination is reproduced through supposedly neutral systems.

7amleh will continue to monitor these services and pursue full transparency, accountability, and effective guarantees against recurrence. Technology companies must respect international law and uphold their responsibility not to contribute, directly or indirectly, to the erasure of Palestinian geography or the normalization of Israel’s unlawful annexation and settlement policies in the occupied West Bank.