[News] The Israeli tech war on Palestine

Sat Dec 23 10:48:25 EST 2023

english.almayadeen.net
<https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/opinion/-israel-s--tech-war-on-palestine>
The Israeli tech war on Palestine
Stavroula Pabst
December 21, 2023
------------------------------

The Israeli war on Palestine is making the most of new AI-powered,
surveillance, and defense technologies.
[image: c61432f8-68db-4fcf-b0f3-43cd812cd68a.jpg]

   - In the West Bank, Palestinians must pass through checkpoints where Red
   Wolf scans their faces and tells IOF soldiers whether they should pass, be
   interrogated, or detained. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul
   Chamas)

The Israelis are pummeling Gaza — with the assistance of the very latest in
AI-powered, surveillance, and defense tech.

For starters, the Israeli government is using an AI-powered system, which
it calls "habsora" ("the Gospel")
<https://www.newarab.com/analysis/gospel-israels-controversial-ai-used-gaza-war>
to rapidly identify targets in Gaza to bomb. In fact, with the assistance
of tools like the Gospel system, the IOF has struck 22,000 targets in the
Gaza Strip
<https://www.idf.il/en/mini-sites/hamas-israel-war-23/real-time-updates/>
as of 15 December, often striking hundreds of targets per day.

In a pre-war interview, former Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Chief of
General Staff Aviv Kochavi described the Gospel system
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/01/the-gospel-how-israel-uses-ai-to-select-bombing-targets>
as "a machine that produces vast amounts of data more effectively than any
human, and translates it into targets for attack." Indeed, the Gospel
system can allegedly identify 100 attack targets
<https://theconversation.com/israels-ai-can-produce-100-bombing-targets-a-day-in-gaza-is-this-the-future-of-war-219302>
per day, much faster than the IOF’s estimated 50-100 targets that an
intelligence team could previously select in about 300 days
<https://www.npr.org/2023/12/14/1218643254/israel-is-using-an-ai-system-to-find-targets-in-gaza-experts-say-its-just-the-st>
.

Meanwhile, other defense-oriented, AI-powered tech groups are assisting
Gaza’s destruction. Prominent US-based drone manufacturer Skydio
<https://www.skydio.com/> has been sending the IOF
<https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/chinese-americanit-doesnt-matter-israel-wants-inexpensive-drones-339a1355>
reconnaissance drones, and defense and aerospace startup Shield AI
<https://shield.ai/> is providing the Israelis
<https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/25/israel-hamas-war-ai-weapons-00128550>
with Nova 2 self-piloting drones, <https://shield.ai/nova-2/> suited for
close range and even indoor combat. The Israelis also reportedly requested
200 Switchblade
<https://defensescoop.com/2023/11/07/us-considers-israeli-request-for-hundreds-of-switchblade-600-attack-drones/>
600 kamikaze drones after October 7.

Israeli forces say that AI-powered tools
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/01/the-gospel-how-israel-uses-ai-to-select-bombing-targets>
like the Gospel can save lives, claiming their purported accuracy ensures
civilians are less likely to be hit. But such assertions cannot be taken at
face value within the context of the Israeli mass destruction of Gaza,
where Israeli leaders and institutions actively call for ethnic cleansing,
and Israeli forces frequently attack civilian-dense hospitals and schools.
As Jonathan Ofir reported for *Mondoweiss*
<https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/israeli-think-tank-lays-out-a-blueprint-for-the-complete-ethnic-cleansing-of-gaza/>
in
October, for example, the Misgav Institute for National Security & Zionist
Strategy, an Israeli think tank, advocated for a "relocation and final
settlement of the entire Gaza population" and to "evacuate the whole Gaza
strip."

David Azoulai, the head of the Israeli "Metulla" Council, even said in a
radio interview
<https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/israel-hamas-war-israeli-leader-david-azoulai-gaza-should-look-like-auschwitz-concentration-camp-poland-2477285-2023-12-18>
that "the entire Gaza Strip should be emptied and leveled flat, just like
in Auschwitz… Let it become a museum, showcasing the capabilities of the
State of Israel and dissuading anyone from living in the Gaza Strip."

Zooming out, the UN estimates
<https://www.newarab.com/analysis/how-israels-war-deliberately-making-gaza-uninhabitable>
that almost 1.5 million Palestinians have been internally displaced since
October 7, with over 60 percent
<https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israel-has-destroyed-over-60-of-houses-in-gaza-strip-gaza-government/3069698>
of the Gaza Strip’s housing units destroyed as of early December. In
fact, almost
20,000 people
<https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/12/18/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news>
have been killed in Gaza at the time of writing. The ongoing carnage
includes a campaign against Gaza-based journalists and writers, which has
led to the deaths of 97 journalists
<https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/97-palestinian-journalists-killed-by-israeli-army-in-gaza-since-oct-7-authorities/3086528>
as of December 19. The Israelis have also targeted activists and
intellectuals, including prominent writer Dr. Refaat Alareer
<https://thegrayzone.com/2023/12/07/tribute-refaat-alareer-teacher-murdered-israel/>,
who was recently killed in an "apparently deliberate
<https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6014/Israeli-Strike-on-Refaat-al-Areer-Apparently-Deliberate>"
Israeli air strike.

And while the bombs drop, the Israelis are upping their surveillance
capacities in Palestine, likely using the controversial Israeli spyware
company NSO Group's Pegasus
<https://www.axios.com/2023/01/27/nso-ceo-spyware-washington-dc>, a spyware
able to infiltrate a person’s device without their knowledge. While NSO
Group claims Pegasus is helping track the status
<https://www.axios.com/2023/11/14/pegasus-nso-hamas-israel-spyware> of
Hamas-held captives, cybersecurity experts and rights activists, skeptical
that Pegasus
<https://www.fastcompany.com/90987722/nso-pegasus-spyware-israel-hamas-skepticism>
is suited for such a task, ponder whether such claims are about
rehabilitating NSO Group’s tarnished reputation (NSO Group is on a US
blacklist.
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/03/nso-group-pegasus-spyware-us-blacklist>)
Citing the alleged use of Pegasus
<https://www.axios.com/2023/11/14/pegasus-nso-hamas-israel-spyware> to spy
on journalists as early as 2020, rather, *Axios *cybersecurity reporter Sam
Sabin explains
<https://www.axios.com/2023/11/14/pegasus-nso-hamas-israel-spyware>there
are seemingly few controls in place to "ensure [Pegasus] technology won't
be used for broad surveillance of the entire Palestinian population."

Meanwhile, the Israeli government has entrenched an extensive surveillance
framework
<https://www.wired.com/story/israel-surveillance-state-out-of-control-west-bank/>
in the West Bank, including facial-recognition cameras, manned checkpoints,
watch towers, and the mass (and often biometric) data collection of
Palestinians’ information via the "Wolf Pack"
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/wolf-pack-israel-accelerated-use-facial-recognition-automated-apartheid>
system, which has a profile
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/wolf-pack-israel-accelerated-use-facial-recognition-automated-apartheid>
of "virtually
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israel-palestinians-surveillance-facial-recognition/2021/11/05/3787bf42-26b2-11ec-8739-5cb6aba30a30_story.html>"
every Palestinian living in the West Bank.

In West Bank’s Hebron (Al-Khalil), Palestinians going about day-to-day life
must pass through checkpoints which scan their faces, where "Red Wolf"
software, according to *Middle East Eye*
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/wolf-pack-israel-accelerated-use-facial-recognition-automated-apartheid>,
"uses a colour-coded system to tell Israeli soldiers whether Palestinians
should pass, be interrogated or detained." (Middle East Eye also reports
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/wolf-pack-israel-accelerated-use-facial-recognition-automated-apartheid>
that Israeli settlers in Hebron do not have to pass through the
checkpoints). "Blue Wolf,"
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israel-palestinians-surveillance-facial-recognition/2021/11/05/3787bf42-26b2-11ec-8739-5cb6aba30a30_story.html>
meanwhile, a pared-down version of Wolf Pack suitable for smartphones,
allows Israeli soldiers to compare the photo they take of a Palestinian
person with a larger database of photos to allow or deny them entry through
a given checkpoint.

Through this multi-faceted framework, the Israelis have effectively
"locked" Palestinians
<https://www.wired.com/story/israel-surveillance-state-out-of-control-west-bank/>
living in the West Bank in their neighborhoods for days at a time since
October 7. Namely, West Bank residents told *Wired* contributor Tom Bennett
<https://www.wired.com/story/israel-surveillance-state-out-of-control-west-bank/>
they’re
able to leave their neighborhood "just three days per week."

Ultimately, state-of-the-art AI, surveillance systems, and other adjacent
weapons technologies are being deployed widely and thus normalized in
wartime, bypassing critical ethics conversations as to how or whether they
should be used. Meanwhile in Palestine, the Israelis have equipped such
tools to destroy infrastructure, surveil, and kill en masse.
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