Google is blocking The Wall - an app that warns you about Israeli apps

Zainab Nisa

Jun 23, 2026 • 3 min read

The Wall, a popular browser plugin from T4P’s incubator which alerts you when using a website tied to Israel, recently built a new app for Android. This Android app scans your phone to warn you about apps tied to Israel.

Despite approving the first version, Google has blocked further publication of the app, using a rationale that defies their own policy. This is not unexpected from Google, given their own ties to Israel and direct participation in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The technical details

To tell you which apps you want to remove from your phone, The Wall first needs to know which apps are installed on your device. This means The Wall needs to be able to scan your phone for other apps. In technical terms, this functionality is known as QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES. And before a developer can use this, Google must give its approval.

This is different for features such as opening your email client or phone app. Think of an app where you click on a phone number to call customer service. You can therefore release an app that includes the feature to open your phone app without Google’s permission.

According to Google’s own policy only apps that need QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES for their core functionality will get Google’s permission to scan all apps. Which is obviously the case for The Wall.

The first time Google rejected a new release of The Wall, they stated that they “had found that QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES was being used in violation of their policy because it was not necessary for the app’s core functionality”. Google wrote that the new update would be accepted once QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES had been removed from the app’s code and that there was an option to appeal their decision.

The Wall’s team, of course, immediately appealed the decision. They explained what was already obvious: without QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES their app is useless. Google’s final decision was as follows: the update will not be accepted, and the app is not permitted to scan other apps on the device.

Google's complicity

One might say that this is simply Google being Google. There are other known cases where their policies are vague or where it is unclear how those policies are applied. But it is also well known that Google itself has billion-dollar ties to Israel. So it is not surprising that they are blocking an app that alerts users about other apps with ties to Israel.

In 2021, Google and Amazon signed Project Nimbus, a cloud contract with the Israeli government and military, initially worth $1.2 billion. Google employees protested and some of them were fired. We've documented a lot of Google's ties to the Israeli military here.

In June 2025, the U.N. released a report in which they stated that Google was profiting from the genocide by providing cloud and AI technologies to the Israeli government and military. Their co-founder Sergey Brin responded by calling the United Nations “transparently antisemitic”. In doing so, he transparently engaged in Israeli propaganda himself.

That culture also appears to exist internally at Google. Inside the company, a funded employee resource group called Jewglers has systematically used its access to HR and company leadership to silence pro-Palestinian workers, flag anti-Zionist speech as antisemitism, and consolidate pro-Israel influence within the company's diversity structures.

Just a few weeks ago, a coalition of legal organizations formally informed Google about its liability for providing services that supported Israel's crimes. In the letter to their executive management, they point out the various ways in which Google could be held liable: enabling facial recognition of victims, providing infrastructure for drones and weapons, and participating in Israel's propaganda campaign to justify their crimes.

Google's relationship with Israel runs deep, and the company has shown it will protect that relationship even at the cost of its own employees. So it’s no surprise that they’re opposed to an app like The Wall.

What happens next?

Together with tech worker advocacy groups, we’re trying to put pressure on Google to get The Wall’s new release approved. Help us by visiting our thread in Google's own support forum right here and clicking "I have the same question." The more people do this, the harder it is for Google to ignore. And don’t forget to share this blog post with your network to make more people aware.

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