Surveillance towers at the fence built by the United States along the border with Mexico. Spy software with which activists are attacked in the United Arab Emirates. Tear gas -firing drones used by the Indian government against demonstrating opponents.
It is all Israeli technology, tested in occupied Palestine. That is what the Australian-German investigative journalist Antony Loewenstein shows in a recent television documentary by Al Jazeera, for which he traveled to various countries to map the consequences of the export of weapons and surveillance technology by Israel. He previously worked as a journalist in East Jerusalem. His book appeared two years ago The Palestine Laboratory.
“In essence, Israel exports its occupation technology worldwide, and that has consequences for all of us,” says Loewenstein through a video connection from Sydney.
The EU also likes to lean on Israeli technology to monitor ‘Fort Europe’, Loewenstein shows in the documentary. Among other things, the border technology in refugee camps on the borders of Greece comes from Israel. And EU agency Frontex lets drones of Elbit, the largest Israeli arms producer, fly over the Mediterranean to detect refugees.
Loewenstein’s book appeared a few months before Hamas’s attack on Israel, on October 7, 2023. The destructive war that Israel then followed in Gaza has made the theme of his book even more urgent. For example, Loewenstein already wrote about the use of AI by the Israeli army and about Shadow BanningBlocking Palestinians and Pro-Palestinian messages on social media.
The Israeli defense industry has been making record wins since the start of the war. The Netherlands is also buying more and more Israeli weapons, reported NRC In November last year, including from Elbit. In the past year and a half, this Israeli producer has benefited strongly from the attacks on Gaza, through the use of ammunition, drones and rockets, among others.
You are critical of the reporting about Israel’s weapon and surveillance industry. Can you give an example of where that goes wrong?
“A few years ago, good articles were published in international media about the Israeli espionage software Pegasus and people who had been hacked with it in different countries. Pegasus was portrayed as an Israeli villain company that does business with dictators worldwide.
“But what was usually ignored is that NSO Group, the Israeli company behind Pegasus, is not an independent company. These types of companies are openly used by the Israeli state as a diplomatic weapon. What this meant this is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or the information service to countries like PaGusus in Rwand in Rwanda in Rwanda in Rwanda in Rwanda in Rwanda in Rwanda in Rwanda in Rwanda in Rwanda in Rwanda, and in Rwanda in Rwanda, Diplomatic support in the United Nations or other international forums.
“The information collected through its technology gives the company an incredible amount of power over a certain country and intelligence service, and the opportunity to blackmail people with this information, or to win pro-Israeli voices in the UN. Various countries have adjusted their set-up in the UN, including Mexico in the years 2010.”
In your book you mention Israel’s idea as a ‘start-upnation’, with a thriving high-tech sector, a ‘ideological myth’ that hides that the same sector is in line with the occupation.
“The way in which many international media report on the ‘start-upnation’ Israel is very similar to the way in which many American media write about Silicon Valley. A kind of worship of Big Tech has dominated-although Elon Musk has cleaned something of that shine since the Trump election.
“What is often ignored is that the Israeli defense sector is an important part of the high-tech industry. Those who work in this sector often spend their experience and training in the Israeli army, which spends a lot of time-especially in the intelligence unit 8200-with the finding of Palestinian’s monitoring. Specialized WIZ, a company founded by Veterans from unit 8200, which was recently sold to Google for $ 32 billion. ”
Israeli companies proudly say that they sell technology that has been successfully used in Gaza
The occupation and control of the Palestinians is becoming increasingly impersonal due to the use of technology. Can you describe this process?
“One of the things that Israel has been developing for a long time is the idea of a ‘frictionless occupation’, in which digital technology is less and less personal interaction between an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian. The Palestinian activist for digital rights Mona Shtaya speaks of a ‘panopticum’ of surveillance [zoals in een koepelgevangenis]. It consists of a series of surveillance cameras, biometric tools, the face recognition program ‘Rode Wolf’, or the smartphone program ‘Blauwe Wolf’, which makes facial photos of Palestinians.
“In theory, there is less and less need to actually see someone physically, because a database of Palestinians is being built up. Shtaya says in my documentary that this makes Palestinians feel that they should show their ‘best behavior’. They cannot publicly show that they are angry or frustrated because they can be seen as a threat, and there is a so -called justification.”
The occupation also becomes more privatized, you write in the book.
“It is clear that the Israeli state spends crazy amounts of money every year to maintain the occupation. But there are also many people and companies who earn money from it, both within Israel and worldwide. That privatization is an unmistakable shift in the occupation.
“Many of the so -called guards at border transitions or settlements are not soldiers, but private security guards with weapons. But few are aware that the interaction between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers is partly privatized; many Palestinians that I have met in the course of life, but the destruction of my book, so that it is, so it is, so it is a destruction, so that it is a pallesty, so it is a palestine, so it has been destructive, so that it is a palestine, so that it is destructive, so that it is destructive, so that it is destructive, so that it is destructive, so that it is destructive, so that it is. to hell. ”
For Israel, 7 October, with the outbreak of Hamas, meant a strategic and technological failure due to the heavily protected ‘high-tech’ limit gate around Gaza. So far the ‘success’ of Israëls high -tech and surveillance?
“Israel had installed an enormous amount of border and surveillance technology around Gaza, including an underground wall with sensors, under the guise of keeping the southern part of Israel in particular. There was also a control system for anyone who went on or off. Israel did not really make the fatal error on so-called Technological.
“There is still much unknown about what exactly happened on October 7. But we do know that warning signals about what Hamas intended was ignored. And about a year before October 7, Israel eliminated the supervision of Hamas Walkietalkies, because they thought that not many interesting things were said.”
The journalistic platform +972 Magazine wrote last year that Israel AI is committed to determining targets in Gaza. Sometimes hundreds of civilian casualties are accepted as ancillary damage for killing one Hamas commander.
“Israel uses AI to put all kinds of data in a system, which then spits information about people, houses and buildings in Gaza. For that, Israel leans on the enormous amount of information about Palestinians, which it already had through safety screening and surveillance.
“But who is, according to Israel, a terrorist, and what is the justification for those who are being killed? And what does human supervision consist of, which according to these publications is minimal? A huge number of citizens are being killed in Gaza, it is not as if they do not know that that happens.”
There is a certain discomfort in the focus on AI in these publications, because it suggests a rationality or logic behind the attacks on Gaza.
“In one of those articles from +972 Magazine there was a quote from an Israeli source that described the atmosphere in the army as ‘reinforcing’. That summit the whole story together. You can have ai, or any instrument, but ultimately the goal was always to destroy Gaza after 7 October. Ai is not used by Israel’s of Genocide. Minimize warfare.
The Israeli defense industry has been making record wins since the start of the war
In your documentary, a journalist from the Mekomit platform, a sister organization of +972, says that their articles about AI would never have passed the Israeli military censor if the Israeli defense sector had no interest in this.
“Israeli and American weapons companies such as Elbit or Lockheed Martin have been selling products with the argument that you can kill more efficiently and more effectively for decades. In earlier wars that Israel had, it was still about advanced drones or combat aircraft. Now it would have become much less damage to AI-supported, supported, supported, supported by AI-supported, supported, supported by the support of AI-supported, supported, supported, supported by the support of AI-supported, supported, supported, supported by AI-supported, supported, supported, supported, supported, supported, supported, supported by the support of AI-supported, supported, supported, supported by AI-supported Terrorists can locate and make it a target.
Is the testing of weapons and technology on Palestinians explicitly used as a trademark by Israel?
“It is far from subtle. In recent months, for example, there were large weapons fairs in the United Arab Emirates. Israeli companies were also present there that sell weapons, drones, spyware or surveillance technology. These companies proudly say that they sell technology that has been successfully used in Gaza. I am convinced that there are many countries that are very very interested in ISRAANTS that are very very interested in ISRAIES that are very very interested and are very interested in ISRAANTS and are very interested and are very interested and are very interested and are very interested and are very interested and are very interested and are very interested and are very interested and are very interested and are very interested and are very interested and are very interested and are very interested and are very interested and are very interested and are very interested and are very interested and are very interested and are very interested and are very interested and that there are very very interested and very interests that are very interested and that there are very interests that are very interested and are very interested and that there are very very interested. We do not yet have the sales figures from 2024, but I expect that the Israeli defense export of $ 13.1 billion will be surpassed in 2023. ”
Israel exports weapons to both democracies and autocracies, but you also write that Israel is exercising a special attraction on “ethno-nationalist states” and India.
“Israel and India today not only have defensions relationships, but there is also an ideological affinity of racism. In the west we still find it very uncomfortable, especially after the Holocaust, to talk about Jewish supremation. I say this when someone who is Jewish and family has been blindness for Israeligeness of a mother’swilly Ethno-nationalists is also developing, as part of the global rise of ultrar rights: extreme right-wing, often anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi or historical parties who are now working closely with Israël. ”
Correction (3 May 2025): The Wiz company was mentioned WIX in an earlier version of this article. WIZ specializes in cyber security, not in web design. This has been improved.