Registry

Does Waze support Israel?

Support documentedupdated 2026-07-30

Yes — Waze has documented support for Israel on record. Every claim below links to its source.

Filed under: Tech companies · Companies that support Israel

Background

Waze is a brand page, and the distinction it turns on is between the brand and its owner. Waze was created in Israel in 2006 by Ehud Shabtai as the FreeMap Israel project, incorporated with Uri Levine and Amir Shinar, mapped Israel first through its own users, and was run from Ra'anana with the overwhelming majority of its staff in Israel. Since June 2013 it has been owned by Google, which paid a reported $1.15 billion — then the biggest price ever paid for an Israeli consumer app — and kept the development team in Israel. Everything Waze has done since is the act of a Google subsidiary, and it should not be read as evidence about Google as a whole in either direction: Google's contract to supply cloud services to the Israeli government under Project Nimbus, its Tel Aviv cloud region, its Israeli R&D centres and its October 2023 donations to Israeli emergency and trauma organisations are documented on the Google page, not here, and conversely nothing Waze ships is decided by Waze alone. Two wartime product decisions are documented on this page: in October 2023 the live traffic layer was switched off across Israel, reportedly at the Israeli military's request, so that public traffic data could not reveal troop or civilian movements; and in March 2026 a public bomb-shelter button was added for drivers in Israel. Both are product changes for the safety of people inside Israel rather than money, and no donation, sponsorship or political contribution by Waze itself was found in this pass.

Wikipedia — Waze The Times of Israel — Google and Waze suspend live traffic updates due to Israel-Hamas war All Israel News — Israeli-based Waze navigation app launches public bomb shelter locator

Timeline of documented support

200620092012201520182021202420272006 — Operations in Israel: Israeli technology sector (founders, Ra'anana development team, engineering employment)Operations in Israel20062013-06 — Acquisition: Waze shareholders and founders (sellers); Google (buyer) — Ra'anana, IsraelAcquisition2013-062023-10 — Operations in Israel: Israeli military and civilian security (live traffic visibility withdrawn across Israel)Operations in Israel2023-102026-03 — Operations in Israel: Drivers in Israel seeking public bomb shelters during rocket alertsOperations in Israel2026-03

Documented support

TypeDateAmountRecipientSources
Operations in Israel2006—Israeli technology sector (founders, Ra'anana development team, engineering employment)
Waze began in Israel in 2006 as the open-source mapping project FreeMap Israel, built by Ehud Shabtai; it was turned into a company with Uri Levine and Amir Shinar and renamed Waze, and its first road map was assembled by Israeli drivers editing their own country's roads. The development team worked from Ra'anana — 70 of the company's roughly 80 employees were based there in December 2011, against ten in Palo Alto — and after the sale to Google the team continued to operate in Israel. Attribution note: this is the brand's own origin and operational footprint in Israel, not a donation to any Israeli body, and it belongs to Waze itself rather than to its American parent.
Acquisition2013-06$1,150,000,000Waze shareholders and founders (sellers); Google (buyer) — Ra'anana, Israel
Google bought Waze in June 2013 for a reported $1.15 billion, at the time the largest sum ever paid for an Israeli consumer app company, and kept the team and its development work in Israel rather than relocating them to California. Attribution note: the money went to Waze's Israeli founders and investors, and the transaction is recorded on Google's page as an act of Google; it is repeated here because it is the event that turned Waze into a Google subsidiary. Everything Waze has done since 2013 is the act of a wholly owned Google brand, and Google's own separate Israeli record — the Project Nimbus cloud contract with the Israeli government, the Tel Aviv cloud region, its Israeli R&D centres and its October 2023 donations — is documented on the Google page and is not attributed to Waze here.
Operations in Israel2023-10-24—Israeli military and civilian security (live traffic visibility withdrawn across Israel)
In late October 2023, as Israel prepared ground operations in Gaza, Waze and Google Maps temporarily switched off the ability to see live traffic conditions and area busyness in Israel. Google's statement was: "As we have done previously in conflict situations and in response to the evolving situation in the region, we have temporarily disabled the ability to see live traffic conditions and busyness information out of consideration for the safety of local communities." Reporting at the time, citing Bloomberg, said the step was taken at the request of the Israeli military, and its practical effect was to stop the apps' public traffic layer from revealing the movement of military convoys or concentrations of civilians; routing and arrival-time estimates continued to work. Google had done the same in Ukraine after the Russian invasion in 2022. Attribution note: this was a decision by Google applied to both of its navigation products, not an independent act by the Waze brand, and it is a change to a product feature rather than a payment or donation.
Operations in Israel2026-03-18—Drivers in Israel seeking public bomb shelters during rocket alerts
Waze added a dedicated in-app button that lists the public bomb shelters nearest to a driver in Israel and routes to them, replacing the previous workaround of typing "shelter" into the search bar. The feature shows only shelters that are open to the public, deliberately excluding private shelters and those inside businesses even when they are closer, and Israeli motoring and news outlets reported it in the days around March 18-19, 2026. Attribution note: this is a civilian safety feature for users inside Israel, shipped by a Google-owned brand; no payment, donation or contract with any Israeli authority is involved, and Waze published no statement framing it as support for Israel.

Frequently asked questions

Did Waze donate money to Israel or Israeli causes?

We have no records of cash donations, but Waze has documented support of other kinds (Operations in Israel, Acquisition). See the records on this page.

Where does this information come from?

Every record on this page links to its source — news reports, official company statements, tax filings, or government records. 7 distinct sources are cited for Waze. Our methodology page explains the full verification process.

Sources & citations

Record last updated: 2026-07-30

Companies with documented support