The Israeli army is increasingly spread New demo facial recognition software to monitor the Palestinians and “tighten apartheid” in the West Bank, According to a new Amnesty International report released on Tuesday. Amnesty found it The Israeli authorities use a little-known advanced surveillance tool called “Red Wolf” to monitor and restrict the movements of the Palestinian population through the main checkpoints in the area. Palestinians on the ground described the state wide and growing The network of facial recognition CCTV cameras that surround it is deemed “omnipresent” and inescapable.
Nadam, “I’m being watched all the time.” Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem. said in the report. “Every time I see a camera, I feel anxious. Like you’re always being treated as if you were a target.”
What did the Amnesty International report find?
The 82-page report is titled “Automated apartheid“,” Draws from dozens of accounts on the alleged monitoring of Palestinians live in Hebron and East Jerusalem. Palestinians who pass through checkpoints in those areas are said to have their faces scanned by the Red Wolf programme, often without their knowledge or consent. Those faces are then compared with A large database of Palestinian faces. Residents speaking with Amnesty claim that the military’s use of technology has increased significantly since 2021 when heated clashes Between the Palestinians and the army 44 dead in three days.
The Israeli authorities are on the other end of the system Present with a color-coded system to let them know if they should let someone pass or stop them from being questioned, according to the report.. New individuals who were not previously included in the system are They were automatically enrolled in the ever-growing database of faces, the report says. But not just any faces. Amnesty International claims that Palestinians are the “only ethnic group” in Hebron required to use checkpoints that support facial recognition. Amnesty International claims that the unequal system amounts to “mechanical apartheid”.
Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard said. “This is the latest illustration of why facial recognition technology, when used for surveillance, is not compatible with human rights.”
The report claims that the previously unreported Red Wolf facial recognition system is part of a wider, sprawling network of Israeli military surveillance tools called blue wolf and a database called Wolf Pack. Soldiers can use the Blue Wolf software on their mobile devices, This gives them the flexibility to take a photo of the individual using the device’s camera and add that face to the database. This program is said to be backed by the streets lined with CCTV cameras provided by the Chinese security camera giant Hikvision and US-based TKH Security. Human rights organizations claim that Chinese authorities have used Hikvision cameras to monitor the country’s Muslim minority, Uyghurs.
One checkpoint in the area The report states that it is packed with 24 audiovisual monitoring devices and sensors. Palestinians who speak with researchers say the extensive surveillance and camera system can scare them away from accessing certain areas and possibly increase their risk of arbitrary arrest or detention. In some cases, Palestinians said that the authorities’ abuse of the system prevented them from returning home.
“They (soldiers) can tell you that your name is not in the database, as simple as that, and then you are not allowed to pass (to) your home,” Iyad, a resident of Tel Rumeida, told researchers.
Israel the next Playbook in China
Facial recognition technology across the world is facing an inflection point. a The growing coalition of lawmakers in Europe have supported measures banning the use of technology in public places, Quoting researchers Fears The technology is biased against non-whites and can be used to monitor political opponents. The United States that lacks Meaningful federal data privacy laws, you may have witnessed instead Spike in state and local governments The coup against technology. Even industry giants like Microsoft and Amazon Agreed To stop selling technology to law enforcement.
Israel’s deployment of facial recognition to target certain ethnic groups moves in the opposite direction and closely resembles the kinds of hardline rights-abusing surveillance China implements in the Xinjiang region, where more than a million Uyghurs have been detained.