A Scottish MEP will launch an effort for Google to show Israel's illegal wall around Palestinian territory on its maps service this week.

The SNP's Alyn Smith will launch the #showthewall petition in partnership with global activism network Avaaz, which has 44 million members.

Smith, who sits on the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, said the absence of the so-called "separation barrier" from Google Maps appeared "deliberate and excessive".

The wall is the largest infrastructure project in Israel's history and construction first began in 2002 following a wave of suicide attacks by Palestinian militants.

The wall will run to around 440 miles when finished, twice the length of the 1949 armistice "green line" between Israel and the West Bank.

Deviating around Israeli settlements and East Jerusalem, it has isolated around 10 per cent of West Bank territory, cutting off thousands of Palestinians from their land and families.

In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled the wall was illegal.

But despite its scale and importance, the wall and its numerous checkpoints are not marked on Google Maps and are virtually absent from Google Street View.

A 1997 US law banning the release of detailed satellite imagery of Israel also means Google Earth's view of the country is at too low a resolution to see the barrier.

But the SNP MEP said Google Maps and Street View were not covered by this law, and they should offer "an honest view of Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories".

Smith first complained about the omission to Matt Brittin, the president of Google Europe, Middle East and Africa, in February.

Failing to show "a two-metre-high electrified barbed-wire fences with vehicle-barrier trenches and a 60-metre-wide exclusion zone on the Palestinian side" was a "clear misrepresentation", he said.

This week's petition comes just days after Israel's relationship with Palestine captured worldwide attention following a flag-waving protest at Celtic Park on Wednesday for the visit of an Israeli football club.

Smith, a long-term supporter of a two-state solution for Israel-Palestine and critic of Israel's illegal settlements, said: "The State of Israel has a right to security within its borders, but the illegal wall is a breach of international law and an affront to any sense of democracy."

Google's London-based PR company said it was unable to provide a response.