The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, as Seen Through Tinder

Does love conquer all? That’s the question being asked by a group of 20-somethings in the West Bank amid renewed fighting between Israel and Hamas. Using the popular dating apps Tinder and Grindr, they are examining how the conflict is playing out on these online dating services. The results, which reflect the conflict’s deep divisions, ...

Yana Paskova/Getty Images
Yana Paskova/Getty Images
Yana Paskova/Getty Images

Does love conquer all? That's the question being asked by a group of 20-somethings in the West Bank amid renewed fighting between Israel and Hamas. Using the popular dating apps Tinder and Grindr, they are examining how the conflict is playing out on these online dating services.

Does love conquer all? That’s the question being asked by a group of 20-somethings in the West Bank amid renewed fighting between Israel and Hamas. Using the popular dating apps Tinder and Grindr, they are examining how the conflict is playing out on these online dating services.

The results, which reflect the conflict’s deep divisions, and also the mundane reality of dating applications, are documented on the blog Palestinder. Because Israelis use Tinder and Grinder a lot more than Palestinians, the blog provides an unvarnished look at unsavory Israeli opinions of Palestinians more than a view across the divide. Then again, one probably shouldn’t expect more from an experiment of this kind.

So it is that we meet a pair of star-crossed lovers:

And an obstinate Israeli:

And this unfortunate person, who equates education with treason

The conflict, in case you’d forgotten, can get really ugly, really quickly

I, for one, am still holding out hope for our star-crossed lovers. 

Twitter: @EliasGroll

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