Google can be quite opinionated when it comes to sensitive matters to do with international politics. Last year it took a lot of heat in Cambodia due to its controversial border demarcations with its neighbor Thailand, while it has a long track record of conflict the Chinese government. Last week though, Google pushed the boat out much further than it usually does, taking the controversial decision to officially recognize “Palestine” by placing that name under the banner of its Palestinian territories search page.

Naturally the Palestinians were delighted at the news, and promptly celebrated Google’s decision as a kind of “virtual victory” in their quest to carve out a country of their own. In contrast, the Israeli side were less than pleased about the move.

It took a few days to get an official reaction out of Israel, but earlier this morning one of its senior officials had quite a bit to say about the matter, insisting that Google’s decision could set back the stalled peace process even further.

Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin didn’t mince his words when he spoke to the Jerusalem Post this morning:

“Google’s decision is very, very problematic. When a company like Google comes along and supports this line, it actually pushes peace further away, pushes away negotiations, and creates among the Palestinian leadership the illusion that in this manner they can achieve the result. Without direct negotiation with us, nothing will happen.”

“Google has brought about so many positive changes in the world by promoting connections between people and between peoples. This decision, however, is in contradiction to such aims, and distances the parties from real dialogue.”

Elkin went on to address Google directly:

“I would be grateful were you to reconsider this decision since it entrenches the Palestinians in their view that they can further their political aims through one-sided actions rather than through negotiating and mutual agreement.”

Elkin might be pissed, but it looks like he’s just going to have to stew for a while. Google seems to have made up its mind already, and it’s obviously considered the implications of recognizing Palestine quite carefully. When it made the change, it insisted that its move simply reflects the decision by the UN to recognize Palestine as a “non-member observer state”. It further claimed that it had followed the advice of “a number of sources and authorities” before making its decision, without digressing which ones.

It’s clear enough that Google has “taken sides” in this eons-old conflict, but given the UN’s recent vote, it probably felt that it had little choice but to do so. By maintaining the status quo, Google would have effectively been on the side of the Israelis anyway. Moreover, refusing to recognize an entity that has been accepted by the UN would have been contrary to its previous leftist policies, even if the whole Israeli-Palestinian thing is a decidedly touchy subject. Google probably felt that it didn’t have any choice BUT to recognize the Palestinians.

For what its worth though, regardless of where one’s own opinions on this might lie, Google probably deserves applause for at least confronting the issue. Very few companies will even approach the subject.  Yahoo for example, just sidestepped it altogether by redirecting Yahoo.ps to Maktoob, the Arabic language version of its main site. Meanwhile, Microsoft has so far ignored the issue altogether – Bing.ps is just an inactive domain.