surveillance

An Israeli soldier photographs a Palestinian man using an AI facial recognition tool during a raid in Wadi Qutyna, Al-Mughayer, occupied West Bank, January 17, 2025. (Avishay Mohar/Activestills)

Israel developing ChatGPT-like tool that weaponizes surveillance of Palestinians

The Israeli army is building an AI language model using millions of intercepted conversations between Palestinians, which could accelerate the process of incrimination and arrest, a joint investigation reveals.

By Yuval Abraham March 6, 2025

ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan sworn in at the seat of the International Criminal Court, 16 June 2021. (ICC-CPI)

Surveillance and interference: Israel’s covert war on the ICC exposed

Top Israeli government and security officials have overseen a nine-year surveillance operation targeting the ICC and Palestinian rights groups to try to thwart a war crimes probe, a joint investigation reveals.

By Yuval Abraham and Meron Rapoport May 28, 2024

Israeli police guard while Palestinians arrive to Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, at the Lion's Gate in Jerusalem's Old City, October 13, 2023. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)

Israel’s ‘thought police’ law ramps up dangers for Palestinian social media users

Rights advocates warn the draconian law will enable unprecedented surveillance, raising Palestinian fears of arrest for their online activity.

By Sophia Goodfriend November 24, 2023

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The signature agreements between Morocco’s National Office for Electricity and Drinking Water and Israel's national water company, Mekorot, at La Mamounia Hotel in Marrakech, November 17, 2022. (Marc Israel Sellem/Jerusalem Post)

With Morocco normalization, Israel revives a dangerous Africa policy

Unable to reconcile its public diplomacy with colonialism at home, Israel has returned to courting key African partners through military-intelligence ties.

By Alex White August 17, 2023

A high school principal arranges her classroom for the reopening of the school in Jerusalem, February 10 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Teachers or terrorists? Far-right MKs want the Shin Bet to police schools

A bill authorizing Israel's security service to hire and fire teachers, a policy long carried out in Arab schools, is so extreme that even the Shin Bet opposes it.

By Gil Gertel July 26, 2023

People examine arms at ISDEF 2022, Tel Aviv, March 21, 2022. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Israel masked its arms deals to repressive regimes for decades. Here’s how

For most of its existence, the state has continued selling weapons and other military wares to rogue governments, even after claiming to have stopped.

By Eitay Mack June 15, 2023

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to media in front of a killer drone during a security tour of the Palmachim Airbase, October 27, 2019. (Marc Israel Sellem/Flash90)

How AI is intensifying Israel’s bombardments of Gaza

With algorithms making warfare easier to sustain, automated weapons have turned Israeli assaults on besieged Palestinians into an annual event.

By Sophia Goodfriend June 6, 2023

A security camera is seen inside the Old City of Jerusalem, October 14, 2022. (Anne Paq/Activestills)

‘The system learns to recognize you’: Amnesty calls out automated apartheid

Following major report, Amnesty adviser Matt Mahmoudi explains how facial recognition technology is bolstering Israel's control over Palestinians.

By Ameera Kawash May 2, 2023

Reza Pahlavi, founder and leader of the self-styled National Council of Iran, an exiled opposition group, with Minister for Intelligence Gila Gamliel at an event in Ramat Gan, April 19, 2023. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Why Pahlavi’s Israel visit betrays both Iranians and Palestinians

Many Iranians have been silent as the opposition leader has essentially backed an apartheid state conducting the same abuses he claims to be fighting.

By Sarah Ariyan Sakha April 27, 2023

Workers from the high-tech sector protest against the Israeli government's proposed changes to the legal system, in Tel Aviv, January 31, 2023. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Israeli high tech’s ‘political awakening’ evades a violent truth

High-tech workers say the new government's plans could harm their sector. But history shows the industry actually thrives off of volatility and violence.

By Sophia Goodfriend February 9, 2023

A drone on the lookout point on the Mount of Olives close to Jerusalem's Old City, July 12, 2022. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Drones terrorized Gaza for years. Now they’ll do the same in the West Bank

Israel's army is promoting drone warfare as a less bloody means of governing the West Bank. Palestinians in Gaza know that won't be the case.

By Sophia Goodfriend October 13, 2022

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks at the Cyber Conference at Tel Aviv University, July 21, 2021. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

At Israel’s Cyber Week, generals and CEOs sell warfare as a techno-utopia

The human cost of surveillance and weaponry is hard to remember when the business of militarism is dressed up like a Silicon Valley work retreat.

By Sophia Goodfriend August 15, 2022

An Israeli military watchtower and cameras over Road 60, occupied West Bank, Jan. 30, 2006. (Activestills)

The watchful eye of Israel’s surveillance empire

Israeli cyber companies are at the forefront of a booming facial recognition market, threatening basic freedoms in Israel-Palestine and beyond.

By Jonathan Hempel May 3, 2022