UK Police Embrace Israeli Surveillance Tech, Ignoring Gaza's Scars
📰 THE STORY: UK police forces are set to deploy advanced AI facial recognition technology from companies with direct links to Israel's ongoing war on Gaza, sparking alarm among privacy and human rights advocates. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU: Historical Context: Israel has been a global leader in developing and exporting surveillance technologies, often field-tested on the Palestinian
population under occupation. For instance, reports trace advanced Israeli surveillance systems, including biometrics and facial recognition, to checkpoints and occupied territories for decades, intensified since the Second Intifada (2000-2005) and continuously refined during every subsequent military operation in Gaza, including the 2023-24 genocide where over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed.
These technologies are integral to maintaining control over Gaza, blockaded since 2007. This isn't just tech development; it's a direct flow from colonial occupation to domestic policing. Double Standard: Western governments, including the UK, routinely condemn China for its mass surveillance of Uyghurs while readily adopting and championing similar technologies from Israel, effectively sanitizing
their origins in military occupation and ethnic cleansing. The outrage over privacy violations and human rights abuses often depends on who is doing the surveilling, and who is being surveilled. When it's 'allies' like Israel, deploying 'security solutions' forged in occupation, the criticism, if any, is muted or non-existent compared to the vociferous condemnations against 'adversaries.' Follow