Within his campagna “Ban the Scan”Amnesty International published May 2 a report titled “Automated Apartheid”in which he denounces that Israeli authorities are using an experimental facial recognition systemknown as “Red wolf,” to track Palestinians and automate severe restrictions on their freedom of movement.
This surveillance is part of a deliberate attempt by the Israeli authorities to create a hostile and coercive climate towards Palestinians: the illegal acquisition of biometric data is used to monitor and control the movements of Palestinians; omnipresent surveillance cameras invade their privacy, repress their activism, erode their social life and make them feel constantly vulnerable; in addition to the ever-present threat of excessive force and arbitrary arrest, they now also face the risk of being tracked by an algorithm or being barred from entering their own neighborhoods because of information kept in the files of discriminatory surveillance.
The report “Automated Apartheid” regard Hebron and East Jerusalem and is based on evidence collected in the field in 2022, interviews with Palestinian inhabitants, analysis of open-source material and testimonies of military personnel on duty and on leave, the latter provided by the Israeli organization Breaking the Silence and used to corroborate Amnesty International’s conclusions about the functioning of Israeli facial recognition systems.
Hebron
Following the 1997 agreement between the Israeli authorities and the Palestine Liberation Organization, the city of Hebron is divided into two zones, known as H1 and H2. Area H1, which makes up 80 percent of the city, is administered by the Palestinian authorities. Area H2, which includes the Old City, is under the full control of the Israeli authorities: they live there approx 33,000 Palestinians along with some 800 Israeli settlers, who reside illegally in at least seven settlements.
Palestinians in the H2 area are subjected to severe restrictions on their movement. They are denied access to certain roads, which are reserved for Israeli settlers, and their daily life is faced with serious impediments, including a series of military checkpoints and other obstacles. Israeli settlers in Hebron use different routes and do not have to go through checkpoints.
‘Automated Apartheid’ report reveals use, at military checkpoints, of an unprecedented facial recognition system known as “Red wolf”. There is strong evidence that the “Red wolf” system is linked to two other Israeli military surveillance systems, “Wolf pack” and “Blue wolf”.
“Wolf pack” it is a large archive containing every available information on Palestinians in the Occupied Territories: where they live, who their family members are, whether they are wanted for questioning by the Israeli authorities. “Blue wolf” is an application that Israeli forces can access through smartphones and tablets, which can immediately display the information stored in the “Wolf pack” archive.
When a Palestinian passes through a checkpoint where the “Red wolf” system is active, his face is scanned without his knowledge and without his consent and compared with the biometric data contained in the archives where only the information on the Palestinians is kept. In this way, the “Red wolf” system determines whether a person can pass the checkpoint and automatically acquires each new face scanned.
If the system informs that against a person exists an entry ban, this will not be passed. The “Red wolf” system can also prohibit passage based on other information regarding individual profiles of Palestinians, for example if a person is wanted for questioning or arrest.
This system gradually increases the number of Palestinian faces archived. An Israeli military commander stationed in Hebron told the Breaking the Silence organization that soldiers are working on training and optimizing the “Red wolf” facial recognition algorithms so that the system can recognize faces without intervention. human.
Through the testimonies of military personnel, Amnesty International he also documented how surveillance of Palestinians has turned into a game. For example, two soldiers stationed in Hebron in 2020 said that the “Blue wolf” application generates a ranking of the number of registered Palestinians and that commanders reward the battalions that have achieved the highest score. In this way, Israeli soldiers are incentivized to keep Palestinians under constant observation.
Occupied East Jerusalem
In occupied East Jerusalem, Israel operates a network of thousands of CCTV cameras throughout the Old Cityknown as Mabat 2000. Since 2017, Israeli authorities have upgraded this system’s capabilities in terms of facial recognition thus gaining unprecedented surveillance powers.
Amnesty International has mapped CCTV cameras in a 10 square kilometer area including the Old City and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, identifying the presence of one or two CCTV cameras every five meters. New surveillance tools have been installed at sites of cultural and political significance, such as the Damascus gate which leads to the Old City, historically a place of meeting and protest for Palestinians.
In the neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwanthe number of CCTV cameras has increased significantly following the 2021 protests against the evictions of Palestinian families to make way for Israeli colors.
Amnesty International has also documented how the continued expansion of surveillance in occupied East Jerusalem, an illegally annexed city, digitally enforces Israeli control and contributes to the advancement of the illegitimate security objectives of the illegal settlements. Not only does the surveillance act as a deterrent to protests against settlement expansion, but Israeli authorities and settlers have also installed additional surveillance infrastructure near the illegal settlements.
Surveillance providers
Amnesty International is unable to say for sure which companies are supplying facial surveillance software to the Israeli authorities. However, the organization’s researchers have identified the sellers of several cameras installed in occupied East Jerusalem.
High-resolution CCTV cameras manufactured by the Chinese company Hikvision they are mounted on military infrastructure in inhabited areas. According to the company’s promotional materials, some of these models can connect to external facial recognition software. Amnesty International has also identified cameras manufactured by TKH Securitya company from the Netherlands, installed in public places and at police facilities.
The organization has written to both companiesabout the risk that their products are used by the Mabat 2000 system for targeted facial recognition of Palestinians and therefore are linked to human rights violations. Amnesty International also requested information on the due diligence procedures applied in the two companies. None of them could explain how they met or are meeting their human rights responsibilities in these high-risk sales.
According to the TKH Security website, in 2017 the Israeli company Mal-Tech Technological Solutions (Mal-Tech) became the official distributor for the Israeli market. But, in its response to Amnesty International, TKH Security said it had “no economic relationship with Mal-Tech in recent years” and currently has no direct economic relationship with the Israeli security forces.
TKH Security did not reply to a further request for clarifications by Amnesty International. Hikvision, for its part, did not respond to any of Amnesty International’s questions.