‘Bomb Gaza’ game pulled from Google app store after outrage

A VIDEO game where players bomb Gaza from Israeli fighter jets has been taken down after being branded ‘vile’. How did it get on the app store in the first place?

‘Disgusting’ Bomb Gaza app pulled after outrage

A MOBILE game called Bomb Gaza has been pulled from Google’s app store after it sparked outrage by letting players take control of Israeli fighter jets and, well, bomb Gaza.

The Android app, which came with the instruction to “drop bombs and avoid killing citizens”, was uploaded on July 29 and swiftly received a tidal wave of criticism on Twitter over the way it depicted the conflict in a trivial, glorifying and “disgusting” manner.

The side-scrolling smartphone game allowed players to earn points by piloting an Israeli jet and dropping a bomb on the cartoony Hamas militants below, while also avoiding missile strikes.

Absolutely shameful. @google allows new game to be uploaded on Android called Bomb Gaza pic.twitter.com/Zenr8VttE7

— Fahad Ansari (@fahadansari) August 4, 2014

Inhumanity has reached a new low, there's a 'Bomb Gaza' game on the play store https://t.co/SP9atnyV8C

— usayd (@usayd) August 4, 2014

Some rather tasteless cretin created a 'Bomb Gaza' game and it's in the Play store https://t.co/aoBE9n9NL5

— Jonathan Keane (@J_K9) August 4, 2014

By the time it was taken down it had been downloaded over 1000 times and, oddly, received a rating of four out of five stars.

But this isn’t the only distasteful app to appear on Google’s Play store that has turned the conflict into a game.

Gaza Assault: Code Red, was also pulled from the store which brought gamers “to the forefront of the Middle-East conflict” by controlling an Israeli drone and protecting citizens as “terrorist cells are launching rockets into your country”. You flew over tower blocks and targeted threats with your “powerful weapons”.

But there still remain a few apps still available to download that only serve to normalise the conflict, especially to the younger demographic that are likely to play them.

Games like Whack the Hamas, where you tap on Hamas soldiers appearing from the ground in a whack-a-mole style “otherwise they will hurt innocent civilians”.

You only have to look at the game’s review comments where you’ll see “love it!” and “Killing is so fun!” to understand how games like this are inflaming certain attitudes and making people think light of a situation that is far from it.

So how do games like these make their way on to Google’s Play Store?

It’s widely known that Google’s app store is less strict than Apple’s, but we reached out to Google for comment and got a response saying: “This app is no longer available on Google Play. We don’t comment on specific apps but we remove apps from Google Play that violate our policies.”

The Google policies are listed in a developer program guide that not only expresses apps cannot contain things like sexually explicit material or infringement of intellectual property but these pertinent policies:

• Violence and Bullying: Depictions of gratuitous violence are not allowed. Apps should not contain materials that threaten, harass or bully other users.

• Hate Speech: We don’t allow content advocating against groups of people based on their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity.

It’s clear Bomb Gaza violated the terms of Google’s app agreement so the questions still remains how it managed to slip through. We asked Google and still await a reply but their declaration on not commenting on specific apps may prove fruitless.

While at times Apple’s app store policies seem far too strict it has managed to keep apps like these out. Calls must be made for a more stringent review process as these games are detrimental to the delicate Middle-East crisis.