Why Did Google Change It To Google Palestinian?

As you may have seen across the news, Google changes the label on Google.ps from "Palestinian Territories" to "Palestinian."

The question is why did Google make the change? Is it because they are making a political statement?

As you probably know, a ton of Google innovation comes out of their Tel Aviv and Haifa, Israel offices. They have tons of Israeli employees.

Google told the BBC:

We're changing the name 'Palestinian Territories' to 'Palestine' across our products. We consult a number of sources and authorities when naming countries.

In this case, we are following the lead of the UN, Icann [the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers], ISO [International Organisation for Standardisation] and other international organisations.

Okay, so ICANN told them to do so. They are a governing body of the internet. Google should not be a governing body of the internet.

Israel says this threatens the security of Israel by limiting peace hopes. But do you really think Google made the change to harm Israel, a place where so much Google innovation comes from?

As you can imagine, this can be a heated topic, so I am a bit afraid of what will take place in the comments here. So take the comments to the forums...

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.