Anti-Israel activists attempt to ‘wipe Tel Aviv off the map'

Anti-Israel activists attempted to remove Tel Aviv from Israel's map. To be more precise, an anti-Israeli user tried to delete all mapping information about Tel Aviv from open mapping platform OpenStreetMap (OSM) on Saturday evening. For a brief period, he succeeded before being detected and stopped by the community of Israeli editors.

Established in 2004, OSM can be described as the Wikipedia of mapping services. It is operated and maintained primarily by volunteers who utilize data from GPS devices, aerial photographs, open government databases, and manually collected information. It is not uncommon for an editor seeking to complete information on a map to make a public query and request assistance from nearby users in the editing area.

The flexibility and speed of updates within OSM's operational structure, combined with its open-source nature, have made it a popular platform for various applications that rely on mapping services. These applications include the fitness app Strava, the augmented reality game Pokémon Go, and Wikipedia, which uses OSM to display maps and locations with relevant information.

The same flexibility and openness that made OSM popular also allow any determined and knowledgeable map editor to disrupt the service's work. This is what occurred on Saturday evening when a user named kasiva6740 deleted most of Tel Aviv from the platform's database. Instead of streets, roads, and other landmarks, an empty gray area appeared on the map, erasing all the mapping information previously saved in the system.

Kasiva6740, who registered on the platform shortly before the deletion, explained their actions by stating, "There is no country called Israel, and Palestine will be liberated." Other users condemned this act, with one writing, "There is no place here for supporters of terrorism," and another adding, "Your vandalism is meaningless and easily fixable. Don't waste time on this senseless act." Simultaneously, an experienced user with administrative powers blocked kasiva6740 from the platform for 10 years, explaining, "Your account has been blocked due to vandalism."

Ben-Tzion Macales, an OSM editor with over a decade of experience, explained to Calcalist that the mapping information of any geographical area contains many layers of depth collected by users over the years. Deleting this information can cause significant harm to their work. He stated, "Since the site relies on community contributions, everything is based on the work contributed by everyone. This kind of work doesn't happen overnight; over time, more information and layers of knowledge are gathered. When the information is suddenly lost, it's almost impossible to recover this knowledge unless there is a built-in recovery capability within the system. Fortunately, there is a change cancellation system that can restore the data to its state before the deletion. Without it, it represents a severe loss of data."