Israeli authorities use facial recognition against Palestinians to “consolidate apartheid”, according to Amnesty International.
Israeli authorities are using the newly developed Red Wolf facial recognition technology for automatic surveillance of Palestinians to “severely restrict” their freedom of movement, according to Amnesty.
In a new report , the organization has documented how Red Wolf is part of an ever-expanding surveillance system that maintains Israeli authorities’ control over Palestinians, and which “contributes to entrenching Israel’s apartheid system.”
Red Wolf is used at military roadblocks in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, where the system reads Palestinians’ faces and without their consent saves the information in surveillance databases.
Amnesty has also documented an increase in Israel’s use of facial recognition against Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem, particularly in the wake of demonstrations and in the areas around illegal settlements. In both Hebron and occupied East Jerusalem, there is a dense network of surveillance cameras supported by facial recognition technology to keep Palestinians under almost constant surveillance, according to Amnesty.
According to the report, the intention of the Israeli authorities with this surveillance is to create a hostile and restrictive existence for Palestinians, with the aim of minimizing their presence in strategic areas.
– The Israeli authorities use sophisticated surveillance technology to drive segregation and automate apartheid against the Palestinians. In the H2 area of Hebron, we documented how the new facial recognition system Red Wolf reinforces the draconian restrictions on Palestinians’ freedom of movement, by exploiting biometric information illegally collected and used to monitor and control how Palestinians move around the city, says Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s general secretary, in a press release.
She continues:
– Palestinian residents of occupied East Jerusalem and Hebron have told us how the constant presence of surveillance cameras invades their privacy, inhibits engagement, destroys their social relationships and makes them feel constantly exposed. In addition to the constant threat of physical violence and arbitrary arrests, Palestinians now have to contend with the risk of being tracked by an algorithm or not being allowed into their neighborhood based on information stored in discriminatory surveillance databases. This is the latest example of facial recognition technology used for surveillance being incompatible with human rights.
Amnesty demands that Israeli authorities end both mass and targeted surveillance of Palestinians, and remove the imposed arbitrary restrictions that restrict Palestinian freedom of movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. “These are necessary steps to dismantle apartheid,” according to the organization.
By an agreement between the Israeli authorities and the PLO in 1997, Hebron was divided into two parts, H1 and H2. H1 constitutes 80 percent of the city and is administered by the Palestinian Authority. Israel has full control over H2, where the historic city center is located. H2 is home to approximately 33,000 Palestinians, along with around 800 Israeli settlers living in at least seven illegal settler enclaves.
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