Palestinian app helps drivers avoid checkpoint bottlenecks
A new locally-developed app helps Palestinian drivers in the occupied West Bank negotiate traffic at Israeli military checkpoints and uncover routes to towns mainstream providers often miss. Launched in June and designed by Palestinians, Doroob Navigator crowd-sources road closures and traffic data from users. It aims to supplant apps like Google Maps and Waze, which rarely account for Israeli restrictions and struggle to navigate between Palestinian cities. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and cites security concerns in maintaining checkpoints. But the roadblocks limit Palestinian mobility and damage their economy, according to the World Bank. Some checkpoints are long-established at the entrances to villages and cities, but others pop up when tensions rise.
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