Israeli Troops Who Relied On Waze Blundered Into Deadly Palestinian Firefight (washingtonpost.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Israeli forces mounted a rescue mission in a Palestinian neighborhood after gun battles erupted when two soldiers mistakenly entered the area because of an error on a satellite navigation app, Israeli authorities said Tuesday.The clashes late Monday in the Qalandiya refugee camp outside Jerusalem left at least one Palestinian dead and 10 injured, one seriously. According to initial Israeli reports, the two soldiers said they had been using Waze, a highly touted Israeli-invented navigation app bought more than two years ago by Google. The smartphone app, which has a settings option to 'avoid dangerous areas,' relies on crowdsourcing to give users the fastest traffic routes.

Comments

Why is this here?

[WillAffleckUW]

Sod it all, I want tech or geek news.

umm

[darkitecture]

If you're relying on a commercial and/or free app or program for life-or-death situations, I think you're doing it wrong. If said option is the only option, then you have to take it at face value and accept some self-responsibility. I'm not going to trust my life to crowdsourcing for surgery or medication, so why would I trust my life to crowdsourcing for navigating near a war zone?

Re:umm

[tsotha]

Nah, they're not safe for Palestinians either. It's just that nobody cares when Palestinians kill each other.

There's your problem right. there.

[hey!]

If you're using crowdsourcing to figure out the safe way to go, someone's got to be the first one to report a hazard.

Waze doesn't seem to have "avoid dangerous areas"

[SuperKendall]

I just looked through my Waze settings and I don't see "avoid dangerous areas", does that just show as an option for some third world places like Palestine or NYC?

The closest thing I found was "avoid dirt roads"

It seems Waze is sadly lacking the option to mark a hazard for "active firefight".

What error?

[wonkey_monkey]

two soldiers mistakenly entered the area because of an error on a satellite navigation app

And what was this supposed "error"?

According to the article (or at least, the most informative quotes in the article), the "dangerous places" setting was switched off and the driver wasn't actually on the Waze-suggested route.

give it a few more years of Isreali resetlement

[Anonymous Coward]

policy and the map will be correct!

This is slanted reporting, against Israel

[steveha]

The headline makes it sound like there was this firefight just sort of hanging out, like firefights do, and a couple of troops just blundered into it.

Let's rewrite the headline in active voice: "Palistinians Attempt to Kill Two Noncombatant Israeli Soldiers Who Accidentally Entered Refugee Camp"

From the article:

In the camp, they were "stormed by a mob of people with rocks and molotov cocktails," Lerner said. The troops' vehicle was blocked from turning around and caught fire. The soldiers fled in separate directions.

I don't think Israel is perfect, nor Israeli soldiers, but I am rather tired of how passive voice is so often used when describing things done to Israelis.

http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=118&x_article=3132

I wouldn't say that the two Israeli soldiers "blundered into a firefight". They blundered into a refugee camp, and there a group of Palestinians tried to kill them. Since their vehicle was blocked and then destroyed, they fled on foot. The firefight came later, when more Israeli soldiers came to rescue the two who blundered.

Note that the Slashdot story headline is worse than the one from the Washington Post, which is: "Israeli troops relying on Waze app blunder into Palestinian area; clashes follow"

I note also that the summary has a detailed accounting of the harm done to Palestinians: "at least one Palestinian dead and 10 injured, one seriously." Yet curiously it leaves out the small details that the Palestinians attacked first, destroyed a military vehicle, and injured 10 Israeli soldiers.

Again for comparison, the Washington Post article says:

The clashes in the Qalandiya refugee camp outside Jerusalem left at least one Palestinian dead and 10 injured, one seriously. At least 10 Israeli soldiers also were wounded during the hour-long operation.

Perhaps the omissions are simple mistakes, but it's kind of strange how the omissions were all about harm done to Israeli soldiers.

I'll finish with one more quote from the Washington Post story:

Tension between Israelis and Palestinians has been running high over the past five months, with almost daily stabbing, shooting and vehicular attacks by Palestinians against Israelis. The violence has left at least 29 Israeli citizens and three foreign nationals dead.

So the two soldiers who "blundered" are guilty of getting a bit lost. I've gotten a bit lost; I'm just lucky that I don't live in a place where a mob of people will attack me if I go to the wrong neighborhood.

Re:This is slanted reporting, against Israel

[KGIII]

Alright, I'll play. Which country is being occupied by Israel? There's a group of people who have observer status at the UN. There are some countries that recognize them as a State but I'd suggest looking at that list of countries before giving it any validity. Next, let's define illegal, shall we? You go first and give it a definition and show me which laws are in place, in this particular area, that make this illegal?

Re:It wasn't a dangerous area

[harrkev]

Invaders? You do know how Israel came to possess those areas, right? They took that land after all of their friendly neighbors tried to wipe them off of the map. Israel's caution has been proven to be right time and time again as Palestinians constantly try to kill Jews. If Mexico tried to destroy America, who could blame us if we took part of it to make sure that no weapons could get close?

Here are a couple of examples of how Israel's friendly neighbors only want peace and the extermination of every Jew:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Now, can you show me any Jewish holidays dedicated to killing all Muslims, or Israeli TV shows that try to indoctrinate toddlers to kill people?

The Israelis live in the ONLY Jewish country. If only there were some other Muslim countries in that part of the world that the Palestinians could move to...

Feeding the troll

[sconeu]

Sure... when you suicidal bastards acknowledge the right of Israel to exist, and stop lobbing rockets into Israel.

Re:Feeding the troll

[hyades1]

Israel has a right to exist. A right to occupy territories and plant settlements in them outside its borders...no.

Try coming uninvited into my home and see where that gets you, jackass.