Apple Maps Has Removed Place Names Across Lebanon Amidst Israeli Invasion
Apple Maps no longer displays the names of towns and villages across Lebanon. The removal is not limited to the area of the country facing Israeli invasion and attacks, it applies nationwide. Only a handful of larger cities remain labeled: Beirut, Tyre, Sidon, and a small number of others. Everywhere else, the map is blank.
Apple sources their maps in the area from TomTom, OpenStreetMap and others. OpenStreetMap and TomTom continue to label Lebanese towns and villages normally. This means that the removal of these place names happened after the information arrived in the hands of the U.S. tech giant. It is unclear why Apple removed these town names, and if there was a political motivation behind the decision, but we cannot request comment, as Apple does not maintain a public press contact.
The removal comes as Israel conducts an ongoing ground invasion of southern Lebanon, now in its second month. Israeli forces have been advancing along three axes, western, central, and eastern, with fighting concentrated around the south’s major towns and the coastal approaches to Tyre. Entire villages have been destroyed in the process. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has stated publicly that homes in border villages will be demolished and that more than 600,000 displaced Lebanese residents will not be permitted to return. Israel’s publicly stated objective is control of territory up to the Litani River, with several Israeli leaders highlighting that they will annex the region, amounting to more than a third of the country of Lebanon.
The scale of the humanitarian crisis is enormous, and promises to increase. Lebanese health authorities have recorded thousands of deaths since the escalation began in March, including hundreds in a single 10 minute window. Nearly one in five Lebanese citizens has been displaced.
Against that context, Apple’s decision to scrub Lebanese place names from its maps, while continuing to display Israeli and Syrian localities in the same region normally is highly suspicious, especially as the source of the data shows these names. The practical effect is a map that renders Lebanese geography largely nameless at a moment when the physical existence of Lebanese villages is itself in question.
The question of who made the decision, when, and on what basis has not been answered, Apple have not addressed this matter publicly, and at this time, we are unable to find or request an answer from the company.
This story will be updated as information becomes available.