‘Settlements at your fingertips’

Americans for Peace now releases app which provides a "comprehensive settlements database, integrated with high-tech mapping technologies."

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
iPad Apple tech 311 (photo credit: AP)
iPad Apple tech 311
(photo credit: AP)
You can let your fingers do the walking in the West Bank thanks to Peace Now’s new real-time interactive map of the settlements, which is available for your computer, IPhone and IPad.
The new application which was launched Monday in English by Americans for Peace Now places facts and figures about West Bank settlements at anyone’s fingertips.
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The viewer can easily see the where the pre-1967 border is, follow the route of the security barrier or zoom in through satellite images on any spot in the West Bank.
Population and historical information is available in easy-to-read balloons that can be accessed by simply clicking on points of interest.
Peace Now promises to update the site constantly with breaking news events, including the removal of illegal West Bank Jewish structures and outbreaks of violence.
Already on the site one can see a construction picture shot last Thursday in the Har Gilo settlement.
“It is important that people understand what is happening now,” said Peace Now strategic communications director Noam Shelef.
“The goal is to present as much data as we can in a way that people can understand it,” said Shelef who added, “Nothing like this has ever been tried before.”
Americans for Peace Now president Debra DeLee said, “The transparency this tool offers is doubly important at this time, as Israel considers abandoning its freeze on new settlement construction.
Anyone, anywhere, can now log in and see the realities on the ground.
“This new app shows the unfiltered realities that settlements create on the ground of the West Bank. While people are entitled to their opinions on this divisive issue, there is only one set of facts, and our app makes these facts available in unprecedented clarity and detail.
“We hope this app will revolutionize the debate over West Bank settlements, breaking through polemics and spin, and anchoring the discussion in the facts,” she said.