Google Street View Comes to Israel After Negotiations
After months of consultations with Israeli security officials, Google has launched its popular Street View service in the country’s three largest cities.
The new Street View provides images of ordinary life, contested areas and religious sites in the Holy Land. Due to security issues, areas around several sensitive sites, such as the military headquarters in Tel Aviv and the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem, are blurred out.
Google Street View is available in more than 30 countries. It was held up in Israel by concerns that images of its streets could be used by terrorists. The Islamic Jihad militant group in Gaza, for instance, has boasted that it used Google Earth, which gives birds-eye views and some street-level pictures of sites around the world, to aim rockets at Israel.
Last August, after a panel of government ministers met for six months to draft security guidelines, Israel announced it had reached an agreement with Google.
The service was quietly launched late last week and officially unveiled Sunday. The images are obtained by specialized cameras mounted on vehicles.
Israel is the first Middle Eastern nation to display its cities and streets online. Iraq’s National Museum is also available on Street View.