Palestine doesn't exist on Google and Apple Maps.

The Race to Recognize Palestinian Villages was a race to acknowledge 554 Palestinian villages that have been wiped off Google and Apple’s virtual maps. This effort to influence the tech giants to have their technology match the reality was led by the non-governmental organization Right to Movement and supported by Rebuilding Alliance. 

Rebuilding Alliance acknowledges that mapping out Palestinian villages online is integral to honoring the lived reality of the Palestinian people and the territorial integrity of Palestinian lands. 

In October 2016, nine Palestinian marathoners, who normally train in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, ran through the streets of Mountain View and Cupertino to convince executives at Google and Apple to add hundreds of missing Palestinian villages to their maps. The initiative, which called for the immediate recognition and inclusion of Palestinian villages on both platforms, was captured on video by Rebuilding Alliance and in a viral video by Al Jazeera.
Marathoners were from Right to Movement, a non-profit, non-political, non-religious organization of over 300 runners with branches throughout Palestine, in Great Britain, Norway, and Israel. The grassroots organization uses sports as a tool to highlight the basic human right to freedom of movement. Notably, the group organizes the annual Palestine Marathon along the Separation Wall, which began in 2013. 

During the run, the Palestinian marathoners spoke face-to-face with company representatives and delivered letters to the Google Maps and Apple Maps Vice Presidents urging them to recognize Palestinian villages on their platforms. 

Their message is urgent because, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, more Palestinian homes were demolished in 2016 than in the decade prior in a surge of demolitions still underway against these “invisible” villages. Being shown on the maps will give the villages more permanency and legitimacy locally, regionally, and in the eyes of the world community and help prevent the bulldozing of Palestinian homes to make room for the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements.

“What a difference it makes when you see the land as it really is, including the Palestinian villages that dot the countryside. Literally putting us on the map would show the world that we exist and that there's hope for the future,” said George Zeidan, 27, a co-founder of Right to Movement