Google Boots ‘Bomb Gaza' Apps from Google Play

Google removed two Android games that let users bomb Gaza with air strikes, according to reports.

The two games, "BombGaza" and "Gaza Assault: Code Red" both appeared in Google Play last month and let players drop bombs on terrorists in Gaza. In "BombGaza," if the player kills too many civilians, he or she loses, according to Mashable. Both were yanked from the Play Store on Aug. 4 following a torrent of criticism.

Google told Mashable it did not comment on apps and their removal, only that it removes apps that "violate our policies." It's likely that the causes were depictions of gratuitous violence and possibly hate speech.

Despite the two games being removed, other apps, such as "Whack the Hamas" where players neutralize terrorists with hidden faces and reportedly inspired by Israeli attack forces, are still available, according to the Telegraph.
 
“Any war games that are clearly designed to support the continuation of a conflict like this in such a very delicate environment are really dangerous," Chris Doyle, the director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, told the Telegraph. "We’ve seen huge amounts of hate language and bigotry over the past few weeks. It’s the last sort of things that’s needed: anything that somehow sanitizes violence."
 
The game can also be used as "propaganda" for young people, he said.
 
Doyle's points are valid ones. By making Hamas, an armed Palestine resistance group, faceless caricatures to be destroyed, it has made the group seem deserving of violence. By turning the destruction of Palestinans and Gaza a game, it also demeans the conflict and their humanity.
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