A new software update means that iPhone users in Britain who type in “Jerusalem” are now presented with a Palestinian flag emoji.
The change resulted from an Apple feature called predictive emoji, which suggests emojis based on typed words.
According to Apple, the change was unintentional, and simply resulted from the update. The tech giant told BBC News it would rectify the issue in a future update.
At the time of reporting, the emoji suggestion still appears on UK English keyboards, though it doesn’t occur when using a US keyboard.
Apple did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
Israel supporters online were furious with the change.
Rachel Riley, a British TV presenter who is vocally pro-Israel, posted on X that the update was a “form of antisemitism, which is itself a form of racism against Jewish people.”
Riley noted that the input of many other cities does not prompt the suggestion of a national flag.
Eve Barlow, a pro-Israel journalist, accused Apple programmers of being “intentionally provocative” in a post on X.
While Israel War Room, a pro-Israel account with more than 285,000 followers on X, wrote: “Jerusalem is the eternal undivided capital of Israel. Did you miss the memo @Apple?”
Eylon Levy, a former spokesperson for the Israeli government, told The Sun that it was likely “human error.”
But he went on to say that the update “erases the capital city of Israel,” which he argued was part of the broader “global wave of hostility” against Israel.
Jerusalem‘s status is one of the most contentious issues in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, with both Israelis and Palestinians claiming it as their capital.
The Old City is home to holy sites for Jews, Muslims, and Christians, making it of significant religious and historic value to the Abrahamic faiths.
The west of the city is primarily home to Jewish Israelis and Israel’s government building. Under international law, the east of the city is considered to be part of the Palestinian Territories, though a large number of Jewish settlers live there.
This incident is not the first time a tech giant’s automatic features have inadvertently exacerbated tensions in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Last year, X’s competitor Meta issued an apology after Instagram’s auto-translation feature added “Palestinian terrorist” to the bios of some users, despite the words not being in their original descriptions.
