The Middle East’s Map War: How Cartmakers Shaped Regional Conflicts

Maps are ubiquitous. Telephones, in-flight, car displays, and textbooks from around the world. Some maps draw and name territory, while others show different voting blocks in elections, and GPS devices help drivers move to their destinations.

However, regardless of purpose, all maps have something in common. They are political. Creating a map is making decisions about what to omit and what to include. They are subject to selection, classification, abstraction and simplification. And, like me, studying the options to enter the map can reveal various stories about the land and those who claim it as their own.

This is not as true as the contested regions today, including modern Israel and Palestinian territory. Since the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948, different governments and non-governmental organizations and political interest groups have been involved in what could be described as a “maps war.”

Regional maps use the inclusion or omission of specific territories to present location naming, border locations, and contrasting geopolitical visions. To this day, Israeli or Palestinian territory may fall from some maps, depending on the politics of their makers.

This is not exclusive to the Middle East. A “maps war” is underway all over the world. Some well-known examples include the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, Taiwan and China, and India and China. All are engaged in debates over the territorial integrity of nation-states.

A short history of maps

Traditionally, maps have been used to represent cosmology, culture, and belief systems. By the 17th century, maps representing spatial relationships within a particular realm became important for the creation of nation-states. Such an official map helped annex the territory and determine property rights. Certainly, mapping territory intended to know and control.

Recently, tools for creating maps have become more widely accessible. Anyone with computers and the Internet can now create and share “alternative maps” that present different visions of the territory and make various geopolitical claims.

And maps produced in conflict zones such as Israel and Palestinian territory tell a rich story about the relationship between cartography and politics.

Middle East Mapping

During the British Palestinian mandate from 1917 to 1947, British surveyors mapped the territory to control the land and its people. It was an attempt to replace the more informal Ottoman land claims of the time.

With the establishment of Israel in 1948, only about 20% of the total area of ​​what is known as historic Palestine was mapped. This is a fact that has promoted land conflicts to this day. The UK’s mapping efforts and its omission allowed the newly established state of Israel to declare most of its territory as national lands, thereby outlawing the claims of Palestinian lands.

The map also helped to build the nation of Israel. Surveyors and planners mapped the land to allocate land rights and helped build the state’s infrastructure, including roads and railroads.

However, maps also helped to create a sense of national character. A map that represents a country’s shape by drawing borders is known as the “logo” map. They can raise the sense of unity among the people and the sense of belonging.

Once the Israeli state is established, it will remake a map of the region. The Israeli government’s name committee came up with Hebrew names to replace the previous Arab and Christian names of various towns and villages on Israel’s official maps. At the same time, Palestinian topography and locations were previously omitted from the map.

However, some Palestinian mapmakers have continued to create maps containing sites with names of Palestinians and depict historical Palestine before 1948. Such maps are used to advocate for the right to landing for Palestinians and develop a sense of belonging in the country.

At the same time, Palestinian cartographers, working with Palestinian authorities (the governmental body that governs partial civil control over Palestinian enclaves in the West Bank), have been hoping to establish a future Palestinian state, in the hopes of establishing the Jordan River. We will create official maps of the West Bank and Gaza. They map to the UN’s efforts to map territory in accordance with international law, separate from Israel and by demarcating the West Bank and Gaza as Israeli occupation.

After the 1967 war between Israel and its Arab neighbors, Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. As a result, the map wars intensified, especially among different fractions within Israel. The left-wing “peace camp” dedicated to territorial compromise with the Palestinians was pitted against the Israeli right-wing who had pledged to reclaim the “promised land” to ensure Israel’s security.

This incompatible geopolitical vision continues to be reflected in the generated maps. The “Peace Camp” map adheres to the description of the territory in accordance with international law. For example, it includes the Green Line, an internationally recognized truce between the West Bank and Israel. In contrast, official maps produced by the Israeli government have stopped portraying green lines since 1967.

Broader border conflicts

Not only have a variety of interest groups, political actors have not only made competing geopolitical claims using maps of the region, but maps also sporadically to establish peace in the region. It has played a central role in the efforts.

For example, the 1993 Oslo Agreement relied on maps to provide a framework for Palestinian autonomy in exchange for Israel’s security. The purpose was to negotiate a permanent peace settlement based on the borders laid out on these maps after a five-year interim period.

As a result, Palestinian planners and surveyors mapped the territory allocated to the future state of Palestine. The Oslo Agreement only promises future states, but the sovereignty of its boundaries and levels is still uncertain, so Palestinian experts nevertheless govern the territory by mapping them. I’m continuing to prepare.

The Oslo map is used today and depicts Israel’s geopolitical vision and the future state of Palestine based on international law. However, for many Israelis, Oslo’s vision of a two-state solution by Hamas, the Palestinian nationalist political organisation governing Gaza in Israel, died on October 7, 2023.

The subsequent war between Israel and Hamas is currently subject to a ceasefire, but maps have been involved from the start.

In December 2023, Israeli military posted an online “evacuation map” splitting the Gaza Strip into 623 zones. Palestinians can go online. Electricity and the Internet are now available in territory suffering from power outages. Israeli military commanders used the map to determine where to launch the airstrike and carry out ground operations.

However, the map also served political purposes. Convinces a skeptical world that Israel is paying attention to protecting civilians. Anyway, its introduction caused confusion and fear among the Palestinians.

Chart how to move forward

Maps are not just for understanding the past and present. They help people imagine the future. It also allows different maps to reveal conflicting geopolitical visions.

For example, in January 2024, various Israeli right-wing and settler organizations held meetings for Israeli victory. The aim was to resettle Gaza and plan to increase the number of Jewish settlements on the West Bank. The speaker advocated the transfer of Palestinians from the strip to Sinai through “voluntary immigration.” The speaker, who is planning a return to Gaza and cites both the Bible and Israel’s security for justification, is an oversized map of the proposed Jewish settlement. I have shown the location.

Similarly, the Israeli settlement movement in southern Lebanon has released a map of planned Jewish settlements in southern Lebanon.

Such maps reveal the desire for “Great Israel” in some Israeli. The area described by Theodor Herzl in 1904 was considered the father of modern Zionism, from the Egyptian creeks to the Euphrates.

Naturally, Palestinians create a variety of maps to imagine the future. Emergence of Palestine – Palestine, a Palestine and international initiative that brings together a variety of experts, organizations and funders, uses maps connecting Gaza to the West Bank and the wider region.

Their aim is to transform Gaza into a commercial hub for trade, tourism and innovation, and integrate it into the global economy. Therefore, maps of urban projects, airports and ports cover the outline of Gaza’s mapping. The Gaza West Bank corridor, sealed for Israel’s security, can connect two geographically separated Palestinian territories.

Such a map reflects efforts by Palestinian stakeholders to continue the investigation of the territory that had been to compensate for the future state of Palestine since the Oslo agreed.

A new era of expansionist geopolitics

As the current US administration is more consistent with right-wing Israeli policies, the Greater Israel map may guide what Haggit Haggit from peace calls the beginning of a new “great Israel” policy period Not there.

On February 4, 2025, President Donald Trump gave a novel twist, and the US planned to “take over” Gaza, bringing current residents outside and turning the enclave into the “Middle Eastern Riviera.”

Such a move is another attempt to recreate the borders of the Middle East. However, it will not end the “maps war” in Israel/Palestinian.

This article will be republished from the conversation under a Creative Commons license. Please read the original article.