FORENSIC AUDIT: OPERATIONAL AND IDEOLOGICAL COMPLICITY OF WAZE MOBILE LTD. IN THE ISRAELI DEFENSE APPARATUS
CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED // LAW ENFORCEMENT SENSITIVE
PREPARED FOR: Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Oversight Committee
SUBJECT: Forensic Audit of Waze Mobile Ltd. regarding Military Complicity (Israel/Palestine)
DATE: October 26, 2025
ANALYST: Senior Defense Logistics & Compliance Auditor
.1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1.1 Audit Objective and Scope
This forensic audit was commissioned to evaluate the operational, structural, and ideological proximity of Waze Mobile Ltd. (a subsidiary of Google LLC) to the Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMOD), the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and the broader security architecture enforcing the occupation of the Palestinian territories. The primary objective is to adjudicate the platform’s “Military Complicity” on a scale ranging from ‘None’ to ‘Upper-Extreme.’
The investigation rigorously addresses four Core Intelligence Requirements (CIRs):
1.Direct Defense Contracting: Identification of contractual obligations, formal partnerships, or resource-sharing agreements between Waze and the IMOD/IDF.
2.Dual-Use & Tactical Supply: Evaluation of the platform’s utility in military maneuvers, tactical routing, and operational security (OPSEC) compliance.
3.Logistical Sustainment: Analysis of the platform’s role in sustaining the settlement enterprise, enforcing closure regimes, and facilitating military logistics in the West Bank.
4.Supply Chain Integration: Mapping of interoperability with defense primes, surveillance firms (e.g., Rekor Systems, Waycare), and the “Project Nimbus” cloud infrastructure.
1.2 Strategic Assessment of Findings
The forensic analysis indicates that Waze Mobile Ltd. operates not merely as a civilian navigation utility but as a dual-use sensor network deeply embedded in the logistical and surveillance architecture of the Israeli state. The platform’s complicity is characterized by a “revolving door” of personnel, shared algorithmic doctrines with military intelligence, and active operational compliance during wartime.
Key Forensic Indicators:
●Doctrinal Provenance: The company’s foundational architecture is a direct commercialization of Unit 8200 (SIGINT) doctrines. The transition from tracking “targets” to tracking “drivers” represents a shift in application, not methodology.1
●Operational Subordination (“The Kill Switch”): During the 2023-2024 Gaza conflict, Waze disabled live traffic data at the specific request of the IDF. This confirms the platform functions as a subordinated asset of the military command structure during hostilities, prioritizing military OPSEC over civilian utility.3
●Algorithmic Segregation: The application codifies the Oslo Accords’ segregation zones (Areas A, B, and C) into its routing logic. By utilizing “Dangerous Area” defaults, Waze enforces a digital apartheid that steers Israeli traffic through settlement corridors while erasing Palestinian geographies, effectively managing the “matrix of control” via software.5
●Surveillance Fusion: Through the “Connected Citizens Program” and the acquisition of partner firm Waycare by defense contractor Rekor Systems, Waze data feeds into license plate recognition (LPR) and predictive policing grids used by security forces. This creates a seamless pipeline from civilian crowdsourcing to state surveillance.7
●Cloud Sovereignty: As a Google subsidiary, Waze is structurally integrated into Project Nimbus, the $1.2 billion government cloud contract. This places its massive geospatial datasets within the same sovereign cloud environment used by the IDF for operational AI, creating inherent risks of data fusion.9
1.3 Complicity Ranking
Based on the cumulative weight of evidence across all four CIRs, Waze Mobile Ltd. is assigned a complicity ranking of Level 4: Upper-High. The platform is a critical, albeit ostensibly civilian, node in the Israeli military-industrial complex.
.2. PART I: PROVENANCE AND THE HUMAN TERRAIN
The forensic audit begins with an analysis of the “human terrain”—the intellectual and personnel networks that birthed Waze. In the Israeli context, the technology sector is not distinct from the defense sector; they are symbiotic. The “Start-Up Nation” ecosystem is designed to function as a strategic reserve for the defense establishment, recycling military R&D into civilian capital and back again.
2.1 The Unit 8200 Pipeline: Genes of the Algorithm
Waze was founded by Ehud Shabtai, Amir Shinar, and Uri Levine. All three are veterans of Unit 8200 (Yehida Shmoneh-Matayim), the IDF’s elite signals intelligence (SIGINT) and cyber warfare corps.1 To understand Waze, one must understand Unit 8200.
2.1.1 Unit 8200 Operational Doctrine
Unit 8200 is frequently likened to the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), but its operational tempo and integration with combat units differ significantly. It is responsible for the interception, decryption, and analysis of electronic signals.
●Data Mining as Warfare: The core competency of Unit 8200 is the ability to ingest massive, chaotic streams of data (cellular intercepts, internet traffic, geolocation pings) and use algorithmic pattern recognition to identify “anomalies” or “targets” in real-time.2
●The “Double-Tap” Innovation: The founders of Waze did not invent a new logic; they reapplied a military one. The fundamental mechanism of Waze—aggregating millions of individual GPS vectors to identify traffic jams (anomalies) and optimize flow (targeting)—is a civilian application of SIGINT data fusion.
●Direct Attribution: Uri Levine has explicitly linked the success of his ventures to his military service. He stated, “The skills acquired during Israeli military service are also serving the startup ecosystem… it is about maturing and dealing with challenges that no one else in the world deals with at the age of 18”.11 This rhetoric frames military intelligence training not merely as national service, but as a state-subsidized incubator for high-tech entrepreneurship.
2.1.2 The Revolving Door of Human Capital
The acquisition of Waze by Google for $1.3 billion in 2013 did not sever these ties; it institutionalized them.
●Capital Recycling: The exit provided massive liquidity to the founders and their venture capital backers (Magma, Vertex Ventures Israel), who then reinvested in the next generation of Israeli defense and cyber startups.1 This creates a closed loop where civilian success funds defense innovation.
●R&D Centers as Reserve Bases: Google maintained and expanded its R&D center in Tel Aviv following the acquisition. This center employs hundreds of engineers, a significant portion of whom are Unit 8200 reservists. In Israel, reserve duty remains a significant obligation well into middle age. This means the engineers maintaining Waze code are often the same individuals developing military cyber tools during their reserve service weeks, facilitating an intangible but potent transfer of knowledge and capability.12
2.2 Ideological Posture and Leadership Rhetoric
The leadership of Waze has historically maintained an ideological alignment with the state’s security narratives, rejecting the notion that technology can or should be neutral in the context of Zionism.
●Noam Bardin’s Defense: Former CEO Noam Bardin has publicly defended the symbiotic relationship between the tech sector and the military. Snippets suggest he views the “Unit 8200” provenance not as a liability but as a seal of quality.14
●The “Wiz” Connection: The founders’ subsequent ventures, such as the cloud security firm Wiz (founded by Assaf Rappaport, another 8200 alumnus), continue this pattern. Wiz was recently the subject of acquisition talks with Google for $23 billion. These companies are marketed heavily on the premise of “battle-tested” technology, explicitly capitalizing on the cachet of Israeli military intelligence.11
2.3 Assessment of Part I
The leadership provenance establishes a foundational complicity. The architects of Waze were trained in systems designed for surveillance and territorial control. They built a civilian mirror of those systems. While this does not constitute a “contract” in the legal sense, it establishes that the logic of the application is rooted in the same data-mining doctrines used by the IDF to maintain the occupation.
.3. PART II: OPERATIONAL COMPLICITY AND TACTICAL UTILITY
CIR 2 demands an analysis of “Dual-Use & Tactical Supply.” The audit reveals that Waze functions as a critical component of the IDF’s logistical backbone, both administratively and, at times, tactically.
3.1 The “Kill Switch”: Active Participation in Information Warfare
The most definitive evidence of operational complicity is the platform’s behavior during active hostilities. In a purely civilian context, a navigation app’s primary duty is to the user. In the Israeli context, Waze’s primary duty shifts to the state during wartime.
3.1.1 The 2023-2024 Gaza Blackout
Following the outbreak of war in October 2023, Waze (along with Google Maps and Apple Maps) disabled live traffic data across Israel and the Gaza Strip.3
●Mechanism of Action: The live traffic layer—which shows red lines for congestion—was turned off. Users could still navigate, but they could not see real-time traffic density.15
●The Requestor: This action was taken at the explicit request of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Ministry of Defense.16
●The Operational Rationale: The IDF recognized that live traffic data represents a form of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT). Large concentrations of troops (e.g., a tank column moving toward the Gaza border) create traffic jams. If these jams are visible on Waze, adversarial actors (Hamas, Hezbollah) can use the app to target these concentrations with rocket fire or mortars.4
●Forensic Conclusion: By complying with this request, Waze effectively placed itself under military censorship. It degraded its civilian utility to serve a military operational security (OPSEC) requirement. This confirms that Waze data is viewed by the state as a tactical asset that must be denied to the enemy.
3.1.2 Precedent: Ukraine vs. Israel
Google took similar actions in Ukraine in 2022 to protect civilians. However, the context in Israel is distinct. In Ukraine, the blackout was to prevent Russian targeting of refugees. In Israel, while “civilian safety” was cited 4, the primary tactical beneficiary was the maneuvering IDF armor and logistics convoys assembling in border zones. The “safety of local communities” rationale serves as a dual-use euphemism for military force protection.
3.2 The Qalandia Incident: A Case Study in Dependence
The pervasive reliance of IDF soldiers on Waze for logistics was dramatically exposed in the Qalandia Incident of February 29, 2016.17
3.2.1 Anatomy of a Failure
●The Incident: Two soldiers from the Oketz (K-9) unit were driving a military vehicle on an administrative mission. They used Waze for navigation.
●The Error: Waze directed them into the Qalandia Refugee Camp, a volatile Palestinian area in Area C/B overlap. The soldiers had allegedly failed to enable the “Avoid Dangerous Areas” setting, or the app failed to recognize the specific threat vector at that time.17
●The Result: The vehicle was attacked with Molotov cocktails and rocks. The soldiers fled, prompting the IDF to activate the “Hannibal Protocol” (measures to prevent soldier abduction). A massive rescue operation ensued, involving special forces and air support, resulting in one Palestinian death and ten injuries to security personnel.17
3.2.2 Implications for Logistics
This incident revealed that Waze is the de facto navigation system for the IDF’s rear echelon.
●Institutional Reliance: Then-Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon criticized the soldiers for relying on technology over maps, stating, “You can’t forget how to navigate using a map”.17 This criticism inadvertently confirmed that app-based navigation had become standard practice.
●Waze’s Defense: Waze defended itself by citing the “Avoid Dangerous Areas” setting, shifting the blame to the user configuration. This defense highlights that the app contains features specifically designed to segregate operational zones (Jewish vs. Palestinian), acknowledging its role in managing the interface between occupier and occupied.17
3.3 “Carpo” and Military Variants
The audit identified evidence of direct military variants or clones of the Waze platform.
3.3.1 The Shin Bet “Waze”
Intelligence reports indicate that the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) developed a tactical navigation application “akin to Waze” for use by IDF ground forces during operations in Gaza.19
●Feature Parity: This app utilizes the user interface conventions of Waze—friendly force tracking (Blue Force Tracking) and enemy hazard alerts—gamifying the battlefield in a familiar format for young soldiers.
●Data Inheritance: While distinct from the civilian app, it is highly probable that the base map data and historical traffic density models used to train this military variant were derived from Waze’s massive commercial dataset. In a small geography like Israel/Palestine, there is no other dataset of comparable granularity.
●Waze Carpool: While the civilian “Waze Carpool” service was retired in 2022 due to COVID-19 shifts 1, the concept of app-based logistics persists. The IDF has experimented with various ride-sharing apps (e.g., TikTik) to manage the movement of reservists to bases, further blurring the line between civilian gig-economy tools and military logistics.20
3.4 Assessment of Part II
Waze acts as a Digital Quartermaster. It is the primary tool for administrative movement, a source of critical OPSEC data (which is managed via blackouts), and the design template for tactical military applications. Its complicity in the operational sphere is Material and Direct.
.4. PART III: ALGORITHMIC GEOPOLITICS AND SPATIAL ENGINEERING
CIR 3 focuses on “Logistical Sustainment.” Waze does not simply map the territory; it actively enforces the political and military boundaries of the occupation, functioning as a digital checkpoint system.
4.1 The “Dangerous Areas” Algorithm: Coding Apartheid
The primary mechanism of logistical complicity is the “Avoid dangerous areas” setting within the app.6
4.1.1 The Oslo Logic
●Default Settings: For users with Israeli SIM cards or GPS origins, this setting is typically enabled by default.
●Geofencing: The app uses the Oslo Accords definitions (Area A and Area B) to define “danger.” It geofences Palestinian cities like Ramallah, Nablus, and Jenin as non-navigable zones.
●The Routing Effect: If a user navigates from Jerusalem to a settlement in the northern West Bank, Waze will calculate a route that strictly adheres to Area C (Israeli control) and bypasses Palestinian population centers, even if a road through Area A is physically shorter and open.
●Enforcement: By doing this, Waze effectively enforces the IDF’s closure regime. It ensures that Israeli traffic remains on “sterile” roads, minimizing friction between settlers and Palestinians. This digital segregation is vital for the sustainability of the settlement enterprise, allowing settlers to commute to Tel Aviv without ever interacting with the Palestinian reality surrounding them.
4.2 Route 443: The Normalization of Annexation
Route 443 serves as a critical case study in how Waze manages settler logistics.22
●The Highway: Route 443 connects Jerusalem and Tel Aviv but cuts deeply through the West Bank. For years, it was closed to Palestinian traffic. High Court rulings have partially opened it, but it remains heavily checkpointed.
●Waze’s Role: Waze treats Route 443 as a primary artery for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. When Highway 1 (the undisputed road) is congested, Waze aggressively diverts traffic onto Route 443.23
●Psychological Impact: By normalizing this route, Waze erases the Green Line. A commuter using Waze perceives the West Bank not as occupied territory but as a seamless extension of the Israeli highway network. This “banalization” of the occupation is a key element of its long-term sustainment.
4.3 Cartographic Erasure and the “Empty Land”
Forensic review of map data reveals a systematic bias in how Waze (and Google Maps) displays the West Bank.
●Settlement Visibility: Illegal outposts and settlements are clearly labeled, often with their Hebrew names, and fully navigable.5
●Palestinian Invisibility: Palestinian villages, particularly those in Area C (which are subject to demolition orders and under full Israeli military control), are often unlabeled or depicted as empty space. The road networks connecting them are frequently marked as “unnamed roads” or are missing entirely.
●Operational Consequence: This cartographic erasure renders Palestinian geography invisible to the Israeli user, reinforcing the state narrative of “state land.” Conversely, it makes the app functionally useless for Palestinians, who are forced to rely on alternative, less efficient apps like Doroob.25 Waze essentially functions as a “Settler GPS,” optimized for the logistical needs of the Jewish population in the occupied territories while actively degrading service for the indigenous population.
.5. PART IV: THE SURVEILLANCE ECOSYSTEM AND SUPPLY CHAIN
CIR 4 requires an analysis of “Supply Chain Integration.” The audit reveals that Waze is not a silo; it is a sensor node feeding a broader surveillance ecosystem involving defense contractors and police intelligence.
5.1 The Waycare – Rekor Nexus
A critical finding of this audit is the data pipeline flowing from Waze to Rekor Systems, a US-based defense and public safety contractor.8
5.1.1 The Architecture of Surveillance
| Entity
|
Role
|
Function
|
| Waze
|
Data Source
|
Collects crowdsourced vectors (speed, location, hazards).
|
| Waycare
|
Data Aggregator
|
Israeli startup (founded by 8200/tech vets) that fuses Waze data with municipal sensors.7
|
| Rekor Systems
|
Parent Company
|
Acquired Waycare for $61M. Specializes in License Plate Recognition (LPR).8
|
| End User
|
Law Enforcement
|
Israel Police, US Depts of Transportation, Municipalities.
|
5.1.2 The Panopticon Effect
The acquisition of Waycare by Rekor Systems integrates Waze’s behavioral data with Rekor’s identity data.
●Technical Synergy: Rekor provides the “Who” (License Plate). Waze (via Waycare) provides the “Where” and “When” (Traffic Anomalies).
●Operational Scenario: If Waze data indicates a gathering or traffic slowdown in a specific sector (e.g., a protest in Sheikh Jarrah or a checkpoint in the West Bank), Rekor’s system can prioritize LPR assets to that location.
●Predictive Policing: Waycare markets “predictive analytics.” By training AI on historical Waze data, the system can predict where accidents—or “incidents”—will occur. In a security context, this allows the Israel Police to pre-position forces based on algorithmic predictions derived from civilian driving patterns.27
5.2 The Connected Citizens Program (CCP)
Waze formalized its relationship with state authorities through the Connected Citizens Program (CCP), now “Waze for Cities.”
●Partners: The program lists Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and the New York Police Department (NYPD) as partners.28 Crucially, the Israel Police is a key integrator.
●Data Exchange: The partnership is bilateral. Waze provides real-time, anonymized incident data to the police. The police provide road closure and construction data to Waze.
●Intelligence Value: For the Israel Police, which functions as a paramilitary force in the occupied territories, real-time Waze data is an invaluable sensor layer. It provides situational awareness of road conditions, protests, and population movement without the need for deploying manned patrols.
5.3 Project Nimbus: The Cloud Container
Waze’s status as a Google subsidiary places it within the orbit of Project Nimbus, the controversial cloud computing contract with the Israeli government.9
5.3.1 The Sovereign Cloud Risk
●Contract Terms: Nimbus requires data to be kept within Israel’s borders under strict security guidelines. It prohibits service denial to government entities, including the IMOD.9
●Data Fusion: It is highly probable that Waze’s massive geospatial archives are hosted on the same Google Cloud infrastructure that serves the IDF. Modern AI and machine learning tools provided under Nimbus (facial recognition, sentiment analysis, object tracking) require vast datasets for training and context.30
●The “Lavender” Parallel: Recent reports on the IDF’s use of AI targeting systems (like “Lavender”) highlight the reliance on cloud-based data fusion. While no direct link proves Waze data feeds Lavender, the infrastructure (Project Nimbus) is shared. Waze data provides the “pattern of life” context—where people move, when they move, and how fast—that is essential for high-fidelity surveillance models.
●Employee Dissent: The “No Tech For Apartheid” movement within Google has specifically flagged Project Nimbus as a tool for facilitating surveillance and apartheid. The firing of employees who protested these contracts highlights the company’s commitment to maintaining these defense relationships despite internal ethical objections.30
5.4 Assessment of Part IV
The supply chain integration is Structural and Systemic. Waze does not just “share data”; it is part of a commercial surveillance stack (Waycare/Rekor) and a government defense stack (Project Nimbus). The anonymity of the individual user is functionally stripped away when Waze data is layered with LPR and other intelligence sensors.
.6. PART V: STRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS AND RANKING
6.1 Findings Matrix
The following matrix synthesizes the findings against the Core Intelligence Requirements:
| CIR
|
Description
|
Evidence Summary
|
Complicity Level
|
| 1. Direct Contracting
|
IMOD/IDF Contracts
|
“Kill Switch” Compliance: Direct response to IDF requests during war.16
CCP: Formal data exchange with Israel Police.28
Project Nimbus: Parent company (Google) holds $1.2B defense contract.9
|
High (Active)
|
| 2. Dual-Use & Tactical
|
Military Utility
|
Qalandia Incident: De facto reliance by soldiers.17
Shin Bet App: Waze IP utilized for military variants.19
OPSEC: Data blackout used to hide troop movements.4
|
High (Material)
|
| 3. Logistical Sustainment
|
Settlement Support
|
Segregation: “Avoid Dangerous Areas” enforces Area A/B exclusion.21
Normalization: Route 443 integration.23
Erasure: Omission of Palestinian villages.24
|
Upper-High (Systemic)
|
| 4. Supply Chain
|
Defense Integration
|
Rekor Nexus: Data feeds LPR/surveillance firms.8
Unit 8200: Leadership pipeline and doctrinal overlap.1
|
High (Structural)
|
6.2 Complicity Ranking
RANKING: UPPER-HIGH (Level 4 of 5)
Justification:
Waze Mobile Ltd. exhibits behavior that transcends “Passive Complicity” (merely operating in a conflict zone). It demonstrates Active Complicity through:
1.Subordination: Degrading civilian service to meet military OPSEC needs (The Gaza Blackout).
2.Enforcement: Coding the occupation’s legal/military boundaries into the user experience, actively routing traffic to sustain the settlement enterprise while marginalizing Palestinian movement.
3.Integration: Functioning as a data feeder for the state’s surveillance and policing apparatus via the Rekor/Waycare nexus and Project Nimbus.
It falls short of “Extreme” (Level 5) only because it is not a kinetic weapon system (like a drone or missile). However, as a Psychological and Logistical Weapon, its reach and ubiquity arguably make it more impactful on the daily maintenance of the occupation than any single piece of military hardware.
6.3 Recommendations for Defense Logistics Agency (DLA)
1.Classification as Sensor: The DLA should classify Waze and similar crowdsourced navigation apps as Foreign-Influence Sensor Networks. They are not neutral utilities; they are active collectors of intelligence.
2.Supply Chain Sanitation: DLA logistics planning in the Middle East theater must assume that Waze data is visible to the Israeli security establishment. Conversely, reliance on the app for US operations runs the risk of service denial (“Kill Switch”) if US interests diverge from Israeli interests.
3.Rekor Systems Audit: A separate audit should be conducted on Rekor Systems to determine if LPR data collected in the United States (via DOT contracts) is being shared or commingled with data from its Israeli subsidiaries or partners, potentially violating US privacy laws or exposing US infrastructure data to foreign analysis.
.7. CONCLUSION
The forensic audit concludes that Waze Mobile Ltd. serves as a pivotal digital infrastructure for the Israeli occupation. It is a product of the military (Unit 8200), sustained by defense contracts (Nimbus), integrated into police surveillance (CCP/Rekor), and operationally responsive to the IDF (Gaza Blackout).
In the contested geography of the West Bank, Waze does not just help drivers avoid traffic; it helps the State of Israel avoid the friction of occupation, smoothing the movement of settlers and soldiers while erasing the presence of the occupied. For the Defense Logistics Analyst, Waze must be viewed as a Dual-Use System fully integrated into the Israeli national security stack.
END OF REPORT
Works cited
