A New York developer has created a dating app to connect Israelis and Palestinians together.
Named after the Italian town Verona, where Romeo & Juliet is set, the app launched in beta on the 29th March, after beginning as a joke in a conversation between two friends.
Refinery29 caught up with 31-year-old developer Matthew Nolan, who said:
“I was talking with my friend who is Palestinian, who had a new girlfriend who is Israeli. We were joking around about JDate. I was like, ‘Maybe we should do a J-P Date, Jewish-Palestinian Date.’”
After users sign up, they choose whether they are Israeli or Palestinian, and are shown matches from the opposite group.
Designed to create social and romantic connections, users then swipe if they like someone’s profile, and are matched if the feeling is mutual.
Nolan said the app, which is only on Android, has 1,000 users, the majority of whom come from the New York area, but they have seen some downloads from Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and the West Bank.