Ashraf Creish, owner of the West Bank restaurant Zest, anticipated that the Israel-Hamas conflict would severely impact his business. After October 7, the usual stream of customers from international organizations and consulates in Jerusalem vanished and hasn’t returned since.
However, when Creish tried to attract new customers to his Ramallah café, which boasts a 4.7-star rating on Google, he encountered an unexpected obstacle. Alphabet Inc. had blocked new reviews for businesses in Israel and the Palestinian territories following Hamas’ invasion of southern Israel nearly eight months ago.
“People check reviews before deciding to visit a restaurant, and now they don’t see them,” Creish said in an interview. Before the war, Zest averaged four or five reviews a week on Google, which he credited as “part of our success.” Google’s open-ended policy, aimed at preventing trolls and protesters from misusing the review system during conflicts, is just one of the many challenges small businesses in Israel and the Palestinian territories have faced since the war. The conflict has devastated the economy and disrupted the tourism industry they rely on. New businesses formed since October have told Bloomberg they are unable to register on Google Maps.
“As we have done in previous conflict situations, we implemented additional protections to monitor and prevent content that violates our Maps policies, including temporarily blocking new reviews, photos, and videos in Israel and Gaza,” a Google spokesperson said, without addressing specific cases. A similar policy was enforced in Russia and Ukraine during 2022, according to media reports, but it has since been lifted.