Apple has been accused of breaching discrimination laws and its own policies by programming the Palestine flag emoji to pop up when the word Jerusalem is typed into its phones.

UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) has written to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, regarding the rogue emoji.  Ever since the IOS Update 17.4.1 in April 2024, Apple users searching for the word Jerusalem find that an emoji showing the Palestinian flag comes up in the text bar.

If a search is made for London, New York, or Tel Aviv, no flag comes up.

UKLFI has told Apple: “You have effectively designated the capital city of the only Jewish state in the world, which is also the religious centre for Jews, as part of Palestine. This constitutes harassment of UK consumers of Apple’s products who are of Jewish and Israeli origin, contrary to section 29(3) of the [UK’s] Equality Act 2010.”

UKLFI explained to Apple that the flag creates  “an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment” for Israeli and Jewish consumers and therefore amounts to “harassment” as defined in section 26(1) of the Equality Act.

Pairing up the word Jerusalem with the Palestinian flag also breaches Apple’s policies.

Under its “2020 Commitment to Human Rights” Policy, Apple states that it is committed “to treating everyone with dignity and respect” including staff and customers. UKLFI told Apple that by harassing and discriminating against Jews and Israelis Apple is breaching this commitment.

Apple also says:  “As a global technology company, we feel a deep sense of responsibility to make technology for people that respects their human rights, empowers them with useful tools and information, and enhances their overall quality of life”.

By using its emoji technology to make a partisan political statement Apple is not respecting the human rights of Jewish or Israeli consumers to be protected from discrimination and is not enhancing their quality of life.

Apple has claimed that the Palestinian flag is popping up due to a bug in its predictive emoji.

UKLFI has requested that Apple remove the emoji for Jerusalem without delay.