It’s not just checkpoints and severe traffic restrictions. In the occupied Palestinian territories, the ubiquitous and powerful video surveillance apparatus is the tool most used by Israeli police to detect, identify and prosecute Palestinians protesting violations of international law and the illegal expansion of Israeli settlers.
CCTV cameras are located almost everywhere, from Hebron to East Jerusalem, which has been disputed between Israelis and Palestinians for decades. Right here, video surveillance systems have been installed at the Damascus Gate, which provides access to the Muslim quarter of the Old City in East Jerusalem, and at the Al Aqsa Mosque, where far-right Israeli youth have repeatedly marched along the Temple Mount. Flags displaying the Star of David, the symbol of the Jewish religion, declare Israel’s control over all of Jerusalem.
From Xinjiang to Palestine: The presence of Hikvision company
Jerusalem’s Old City is one of the few areas where Palestinians can meet and demonstrate. At Damascus Gate, Palestinians are “observed and identified at all times” through closed-circuit cameras and facial recognition, according to a report published by Amnesty International on 2 May: Automatic Apartheid (Automatic Apartheid). It’s not a random title. In fact, for months Amnesty International has been pressing for recognition of how Israel’s political and legal arrangements allow it to practice genuine “apartheid” and commit acts that could be described as crimes against humanity. According to the NGO, these cameras limited the daily activities of Palestinians living under occupation. The report blames Chinese company Hikvision and Dutch TKH Security, which are believed by the US and UK to be complicit in China’s crackdown on the Uyghur ethnic minority in Xinjiang.
UN accuses China of crimes against humanity in Xinjiang
The presence of Hikvision cameras in the West Bank was first revealed in Amnesty International’s May report; This report revealed that facial recognition and surveillance camera technology were used to strengthen Israel’s occupation of the West Bank in an act of “digital repression.” However, the use of cameras and facial recognition has been an ongoing practice against the Palestinian people for some time. Inspired by the Chinese technological model, the Israeli military uses a program based on new technologies known as Red Wolf, which includes thousands of photographs and highly invasive surveillance methods. The second relies on scanning people’s faces and then comparing them with biometric data from the massive Wolf Pack archive. The Washington Post published a report about this tool in 2021 and pointed out how the system includes images and all information available in all three million data. Palestinians in the West Bank.
How does the system work?
Amnesty International activists are concerned about the functioning of the system. For example, as Palestinians’ faces are scanned at the Hebron checkpoint, Red Wolf software uses a color-coding system (green, yellow, and red) to guide soldiers in choosing between letting the person pass, stopping him for questioning, or arresting him. . When technology cannot identify someone, soldiers enhance the system by adding the person’s personal information to a rich database. According to the NGO, on average there is a camera every five metres. Amnesty International activists fear the cameras may be linked to Mabat 2000, a facial recognition surveillance network operated by Israeli police that covers the entire city of East Jerusalem. The comprehensive surveillance system “allows Israeli authorities to detect protesters and keep Palestinians under constant surveillance,” the report reads, “even as they go about their normal daily activities.”
Rich relations between Beijing and Tel Aviv
This development will be part of improving trade relations between Tel Aviv and Beijing: Sino-Israeli ties have grown significantly over the past decade, nearly doubling from $9.8 billion in 2011 to $18.2 billion in 2021, while China’s Its investments in reached 10.6 billion dollars. during the same ten-year period. In a short time, China became Israel’s second largest trading partner, after the United States. According to a report by the RAND Corporation, between 2011 and 2018 the Israeli technology sector received the most significant Chinese investments, both in terms of monetary value ($5.7 billion) and the number of companies involved (54 out of 87 companies interested). These investments have been made through both private and state-owned venture capital or technology companies, including some companies considered controversial by Western countries, such as Huawei and ZTE. Something has changed in recent years, as Chinese investments in Israel’s tech sector have cooled due to increasing U.S. pressure over national security concerns and technological intellectual property theft.
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
