In a move that met with strong Israeli criticism, Internet giant Google yesterday changed the tagline on the homepage of its Palestinian edition from “Palestinian territories’’ to “Palestine’’.

The domain name www.google.ps, Google’s search engine for the territories, now brings up a homepage with “Palestine” written underneath the Google logo.

The change took effect on Wednesday, Google spokesman Nathan Tyler said in a statement.

“We’re changing the name ‘Palestinian Territories’ to ‘Palestine’ across our products. We consult a number of sources and authorities when naming countries. In this case, we are following the lead of the UN... and other international organizations,” he said.

Israel questioned Google’s decision.

“This change raises questions about the reasons behind this surprising involvement of what is basically a private Internet company in international politics — and on the controversial side,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP.

“Google is not a political or diplomatic entity, so they can call anything by any name, it has no diplomatic or political significance’’, he added.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ telecommunications adviser Sabri Saydam said Google’s move was “a step in the right direction”.

“We hope Google maps will also show the fact that Palestinian land has been stolen from Israel’s colonization,” he said.