China has removed Israel from leading online digital maps following the outbreak of the war against Hamas.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Internet users in China are expressing bewilderment that Israel’s name no longer appears on major online digital maps from Baidu and Alibaba.
Baidu’s Chinese-language online maps demarcate the internationally recognized borders of Israel, as well as the Palestinian territories, plus key cities, but don’t clearly identify the country by name.
The report states that Israel’s name has also disappeared from online maps produced by Alibaba’s Amap, where even small nations like Luxembourg are marked. Neither company responded to questions.
The news comes just days after an earlier report in The New York Times over a surge of antisemitic expressions on Chinese social media following the war with Hamas.
Last week, China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution at the U.N. Security Council that condemned Hamas and called for “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group in Gaza.
The U.S. resolution denounced the “heinous terrorist attacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups” on Oct. 7, as well as the “taking and killing of hostages, murder, torture, rape, [and] sexual violence,” and demanded the “immediate and unconditional release of all remaining hostages.”
Hamas terrorists murdered at least 1,400 Israelis, wounded over 5,000 and took 240 captives back to Gaza during its assault on western Negev communities.
