Anyone searching for the state of Palestine on Google Maps right now would be brought to a geographical boundary labelled only as Israel. The state is marked out on the map, intersected with lines outlining Palestinian territory.
However, there is no label recognising the state, which has triggered online outrage, particularly from pro-Palestinian groups.
Social media users have accused both Apple and Google of erasing Palestine, a partially recognised state and neighbour of Israel.
However, neither tech giant included the state in their maps before, and it has drawn controversy in the past.
Still, the revelations have brought the ongoing conflict between the two territories back into the public gaze.
Israel’s origins can be traced back to Abraham, who is considered the father of both Judaism, through his son Isaac, and Islam, through his son Ishmael.
The complex hostility between the two groups dates all the way back to ancient times when they both populated the area and deemed it holy.
Both Jews and Muslims consider the city of Jerusalem sacred.
It contains the Temple Mount, which includes the holy sites al-Aqsa Mosque, the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock and more.
After World War II and the Holocaust, in which six million Jewish people were killed by Nazi forces, more Jewish people wanted their own country.
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The United Nations approved a plan to split Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state in 1947, but the Arab High Committee rejected the partition.
Still, in 1948 Israel declared independence as the British mandate ended – Britain conquered Palestine from the declining Ottoman Empire in 1917.
They were given a large part of Palestine, which they considered their traditional home but the Arabs who already lived there and in neighbouring countries felt that was unfair and didn’t accept the new country.
Civil war broke out throughout all of Israel, but a cease-fire agreement was reached in 1949.
As part of the temporary armistice agreement, the West Bank became part of Jordan, and the Gaza Strip became Egyptian territory.
They contained thousands of Palestinians who fled what was now the newly created Jewish home, Israel.
Numerous wars and acts of violence between Israeli’s and Palestinians have ensued since the 1948 war.
Some of these include the Suez Crisis, Six-Day War, Yom Kippur War, Lebanon Wars and Hamas Wars.
One glance at the news agenda on any given day will tell you that the two are still clashing frequently.
Israel does not recognise Palestine as a state, even though 135 other UN member nations do.
Most recently President Trump declared that he recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, upsetting the Arab world and Western allies.
In 2019 the US says it no longer considers Israeli settlements on the West Bank to be illegal.