[News] From Pegasus to Blue Wolf: How Israel’s ‘Security’ Experiment in Palestine Became Global

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Wed Nov 17 22:27:30 EST 2021


palestinechronicle.com
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/from-pegasus-to-blue-wolf-how-israels-security-experiment-in-palestine-became-global/>
From
Pegasus to Blue Wolf: How Israel’s ‘Security’ Experiment in Palestine
Became Global
November 17, 2021
------------------------------
An Israeli military checkpoint in the West Bank. (Photo: File)

*By Ramzy Baroud <https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/ramzy-baroud>*

The revelation, a few years ago, that the US National Security Agency (NSA)
has been conducting mass surveillance
<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-nsa-spying-idUSKBN25T3CK> on
millions of Americans has reignited the conversation on governments’
misconduct and their violation of human rights and privacy laws.

Until recently, however, Israel has been spared due criticism, not only for
its unlawful spying methods on the Palestinians but also for being the
originator of many of the technologies which are now being heavily
criticized by human rights groups worldwide.

Even at the height of various controversies
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance>
involving government surveillance in 2013, Israel remained on the margins,
despite the fact that Tel Aviv, more than any other government in the
world, uses racial profiling, mass surveillance and numerous spying
techniques to sustain its military occupation of Palestine.

In Gaza, two million Palestinians are living under an Israeli blockade
<https://www.oxfam.org/en/timeline-humanitarian-impact-gaza-blockade>. They
are surrounded by walls, electric fences, underground barriers, navy ships
and multitudes of snipers. From above, the *tannaana*, the Arabic slang
word Palestinians have for unmanned drone
<https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/9/13/israeli-firm-introduces-armed-combat-drone-to-patrol-borders>,
watches and records everything. At times, these armed drones are used to
blow up anything deemed suspicious from an Israeli ‘security’ perspective.
Moreover, every Palestinian wishing to leave or return to Gaza—with only a
few who are allowed such privilege—is subjected to the most stringent
‘security’ measures, involving various government intelligences and endless
military checks. This applies as much to a Palestinian toddler as it does
to a terminally-ill woman.

In the West Bank, Israel’s security ‘experiment’ takes on many other
manifestations. While the Israeli objective is to entrap people in Gaza,
its aim is to control the everyday life of Palestinians in the West Bank
and East Jerusalem. Aside from the 1,660 kilometer-long
<https://stopthewall.org/the-wall/> Apartheid Wall in the West Bank, there
are many other walls, fences, trenches and various types of barriers that
are aimed at fragmenting Palestinian communities in the West Bank. These
isolated communities are only connected through an elaborate system of
Israeli military checkpoints
<https://www.btselem.org/freedom_of_movement/checkpoints_and_forbidden_roads>,
many of which are permanent and many more are erected or dismantled
depending on the ‘security’ objectives on any given day.

Much of the surveillance occurs daily at these Israeli checkpoints. While
Israel uses the convenient term ‘security’ to justify its practices against
Palestinians, actual security has very little to do with what takes place
at these checkpoints. Many Palestinians have died
<https://www.irishtimes.com/news/palestinian-dies-at-israeli-checkpoint-1.404576>,
many mothers have given birth
<https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/fr/node/228642#:~:text=A%20report%20by%20the%20Palestinian,the%20deaths%20of%20some%20women.>
or lost their newborns while waiting for Israeli security clearance. It is
a daily torment, and Palestinians are subjected to it because they are the
unwitting participants of a very profitable Israeli experiment.

Luckily, the news of Israel’s undemocratic practices is becoming
increasingly known. On November 8, The Washington Post revealed
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israel-palestinians-surveillance-facial-recognition/2021/11/05/3787bf42-26b2-11ec-8739-5cb6aba30a30_story.html>
an Israeli mass surveillance operation, which uses ‘Blue Wolf’ technology
to create a massive database of all Palestinians.

This additional measure gives soldiers the chance to, using their own
cameras, take pictures of as many Palestinians as possible and match “them
to a database of images so extensive that one former soldier described it
as the army’s secret ‘Facebook for Palestinians.’”

We know very little about this new ‘Facebook for Palestinians’, aside from
what has been revealed in the news. However, we know that Israeli soldiers
compete
<https://www.aljazeera.net/news/scienceandtechnology/2021/11/12/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B0%D8%A6%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B2%D8%B1%D9%82-%D8%AA%D8%B7%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%82-%D8%A5%D9%84%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%86%D9%8A-%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%B9%D9%82%D8%A8>
to take as many photos of Palestinian faces as possible, as those with the
highest number of photos could potentially receive certain rewards, the
nature of which remains unclear.

While the ‘Blue Wolf’ story is receiving some attention in international
media, it offers nothing new for Palestinians. To be a Palestinian living
under occupation is to carry multiple permits and magnetic cards, to pass
various clearances, to have your photo taken regularly, to have your
movement monitored, to be ready to answer any question about your friends,
your family, co-workers and acquaintances. When that is impractical,
because, say, you live under siege in Gaza, then the work is entrusted to
unmanned drones scanning sky, earth and sea.

The reason that ‘Blue Wolf’ is receiving some traction in the media is that
Israel has been recently implicated in one of the world’s greatest
espionage operations.

Pegasus is a type of malware that spies
<https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/pegasus-spyware-singapore-leak-hack-israel-nso-2185236>
on iPhones and Android devices, to extract photos, messages, emails and
record calls. Tens of thousands of people around the world, many of whom
are prominent activists, journalists, officials, business leaders and
alike, have fallen victim to this operation. Unsurprisingly, Pegasus is
produced by the Israeli technology firm, the NSO Group, whose products are
heavily involved in the monitoring of and spying on Palestinians, as
confirmed by the Dublin-based Front Line Defenders, and as reported
<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/08/world/middleeast/nso-israel-palestinians-spyware.html>
in the New York Times on November 8.

Sadly, the Israeli unlawful and undemocratic practices became a subject of
international condemnation when the victims were high-ranking
personalities, the likes of French President
<https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57907258> Emmanuel Macron and
others. When Palestinians were on the other end of Israeli spying,
surveillance and racial profiling, the story seemed unworthy of reporting.

Worse, for many years, Israel has promoted its sinister ‘security
technology’ to the rest of the world as ‘field-proven’, meaning that they
have been used against occupied Palestinians. Not only did such a
declaration raise a few eyebrows, the tried and tested brand allowed Israel
to become the world’s eighth-largest
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/report-israeli-arms-exports-up-77-percent-saudi-arabia-is-world-s-biggest-importer-1.8657539>
arms exporter. Israeli security exports are now utilized in many parts of
the world. They can be found at North American and European airports
<https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2016/0325/The-Israeli-model-What-airport-safety-looks-like-and-what-it-costs-travelers>,
at the Mexico-US border
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israeli-firm-imprisons-gaza-aims-build-trumps-wall-mexico>,
in the hands of various world’s intelligences, at European Union
territorial waters
<https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2018/12/21/combat-proven-israels-thriving-war-business-in-europe>—largely
to intercept war refugees and asylum seekers.

Covering up Israel’s unlawful and inhuman practices against the
Palestinians has proven a liability on the very people who justified
Israeli actions in the name of security, including Washington. On November
3, the Joe Biden Administration decided
<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/03/business/nso-group-spyware-blacklist.htm>
to blacklist the Israeli NSO Group for acting “contrary to the national
security or foreign policy interests of the United States.” This is a
proper measure, of course, but it fails to address the ongoing Israeli
violations against the Palestinian people.

The truth is, for as long as Israel maintains its military occupation of
Palestine, and as long as the Israeli military continues to see
Palestinians as subjects in a mass ‘security experiment’, the Middle
East—in fact, the entire world—will continue to pay the price.

– *Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle.
He is the author of five books. His latest is “**These Chains Will Be
Broken*
<https://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Will-Broken-Palestinian/dp/1949762092>*:
Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity
Press). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center
for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) and also at the Afro-Middle East Center
(AMEC). His website is* *www.ramzybaroud.net* <http://www.ramzybaroud.net/>
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