Adding borders of Palestinian and Israeli Localities in W-Bank & Gaza

Hello Israeli OSM’ers!

What do u think about adding borders of Palestinian and Israeli Localities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza strip, like we did in the Israeli sovereign territory?

We can find the borders of the Palestinian Localities in the site of Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/) (But we have to find a way to retrieve the data), and we can find the borders of the Israeli Localities in Israeli MOIN site.

That would be very nice indeed.
In the file we got from MOIN, there wasn’t any municipal borders in Judea and Samaria though. Did you see it elsewhere on the MOIN site?

PeaceNow gathers information on the location of Israeli controlled areas in the West Bank. They don’t make the data available for download, but they could be asked. http://peacenow.org/map.php

We are talking about administrative boundaries like regional councils:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judea_and_Samaria_Area#Administrative_sub-regions

Hello again…

As you can see, i’ve started with some examples: Ariel, Ma’ale Adumim, Bet-El and Salfit. Soon I will add Ramallah and AlBireh.

I’ve got the the Israeli towns’ boundaris from here: http://beta.govmap.gov.il/ (You can find it in the layer “Statistic Areas” - אזורים סטטיסטיים) , and the arab town’s from here: http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/ (search for it in the site - it’s somewhere there).

Even though I prefer not using their Information, I’ll try to contact with “Peace Now” about permission to use their data, then we should find a way to use it.

thanks for your interest!

I’m not sure we are allowed to use this information, but I may be wrong. As far as I remember, the Central Bureau of Statistics releases their data under very permissive license, but if this data belongs to Israel Mapping Center, then no-no.

@mikel, perhaps you can use your experience and position in OSM and help us approach the Israeli government in order to persuade them to release their data?

I agree, but if their information came from a reliable source such as the various treaties and agreements (Oslo, Hebron etc.) then it may be OK. Please try to ascertain what are their primary sources.

Mikel, just as long as we remember that the Data (if indeed we are allowed usage of it) from PeaceNow should only be used in reference to the areas of the West Bank. I say this, because unfortunately PeaceNow is a group that is positioned on the extreme left side of the Israeli political spectrum. As much as we may strive to keep politics out of what we are trying to accomplish here, its not an easy task. There are sides on all ends of the spectrum which feel entitled to claim certain cities, locals, etc’ because of their beliefs etc’. But we shouldn’t deal with issues such as these, rather we should aim to have the OSM data reflect the reality “on the ground” as it is today.

This can also aid in saving lives, as an Israeli who finds his way into PA territory by mistake may very well pay for it with his life. The flip side to that equation, is that a Palestinian may find himself arriving at a checkpoint unintentionally, and may also pay for it with his life. These are all parts of an unfortunate reality that we all face while living on this small piece of rock. Its what we (level headed people) are trying to avoid, and the best way to do that is to stick to the facts, not the politics.

We’ve been over this before, and I know that services such as Google’s maps are proprietary, however a simple tour of said services will give most an objective, current point of view regarding the places that are currently in dispute in OSM.

Thanks everyone, for all the hard work.

Oops… i was strangly sure this information came from MOIN and not from CBS (as i said i took it from beta.govmap.gov.il and i brobably saw the soure of other layer there)
Do you know someone from the Central Bureau of Statistics we can ask for permision?

If I understand correctly - the Israeli government divides the West Bank one way (“8 military administrative regions”), the Palestinian leadership divides it another way (possibly using the same divisions Jordan did 1948-67). So there potentially could be two contradictory region divisions. Is that a problem?

Can anybody, who understand how all these administrative boundary works, explain to me how while searching “רבקה” in Nominatim I get result like: “Residential Rivkah, Neve Menachem, Beer Sheva, South District, Gaza Strip”?

Last time I had a problem like this I contacted the devs via IRQ and they answered me within minutes.
It was a faulty entry of WestJordanland Country that caused a little mess in the results. Probably its the same now for the country: Gaza.

I can’t find where exactly I found them and couldn’t find it in a small search.