Israel increasingly using facial recognition to track Palestinians – Amnesty
IDF says it carries out ‘necessary security, intelligence operations’; human rights group says basic rights violated; activist laments tech not used to find Jewish attackers
The Israel Defense Forces is increasingly utilizing advanced facial recognition technology to track the movements of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to an Amnesty International report released Tuesday.
In response, the Israel Defense Forces said it carries out “necessary security and intelligence operations.”
The Amnesty report — based on research in the West Bank city of Hebron and East Jerusalem — said the military has utilized a camera system called Red Wolf since 2022, deploying it at checkpoints as part of a program that “relies on databases consisting exclusively of Palestinian individuals’ data.”
In 2021, the Washington Post reported the IDF was building a digital surveillance database of Palestinian residents of Hebron by having soldiers take cellphone photos of them using smartphone technology called Blue Wolf, which captures photos of residents’ faces and matches them to a mass bank of information.
An activist told Amnesty that the use of the technology was increasingly widespread, and was having a clear impact on interactions between Palestinians and Israeli troops.
“Before 2021, the facial recognition technology was only at the checkpoints, but since 2021 it’s in the hands of every soldier in their mobile phones,” the unnamed activist from the Youth Against Settlements group told the organization.
“The soldier scans our faces with the phone camera, and suddenly their behavior towards us changes, because they see all the information,” the activist said.
“We don’t know how soldiers are using this information, and we don’t know what they have access to or what they will use against me. There is no influence we can have on the system,” said the activist from Hebron’s Tel Rumeida neighborhood.
Amnesty International said it could not definitely name the companies involved in the Red Wolf technology, but said that research identified Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd. and TKH Security Solutions as being involved with the CCTV cameras in East Jerusalem that were suspected of bring connected to Israel’s Mabat 2000 security system. Neither company commented on the report.
“The system enables Israeli authorities to identify protesters and keep Palestinians under constant observation, even as they go about their ordinary daily activities,” the report said.
The technology is used to “consolidate existing practices of discriminatory policing, segregation, and curbing freedom of movement, violating Palestinians’ basic rights,” Amnesty charged.
The organization described the extensive use of the technology by Israeli security forces against Palestinians as “automated apartheid.” Israel denies all accusations of apartheid.
Amnesty said that it made a decision not to speak with Israeli officials for the report, claiming it was due to the “sensitive nature of the research, risk of leaks, and risks posed to Amnesty researchers.”
In a statement to The New York Times, the IDF said it carries out “necessary security and intelligence operations, while making significant efforts to minimize harm to the Palestinian population’s routine activity.”
When specifically asked about facial recognition technology, the military said that “naturally, we cannot refer to operational and intelligence capabilities.”
While Israel says its use of technology is necessary to ensure the safety of its citizens, Amnesty said it was “not convinced” that those security justifications, “which Israel cites as the basis for its treatment of Palestinians – including restricting their freedom of movement – justify the severe restrictions that the Israeli authorities have imposed.”
Hebron activist Issa Amro told the Times that many Palestinians were angered that while they felt their every move was under surveillance, the technology seemed not to be used to identify Israeli extremists who carry out attacks against their people.
“Everything is watched. My whole life is watched. I don’t have any privacy,” Amro said. “I feel they are following me everywhere I go.”
In its 2021 report, The Washington Post estimated that several thousand Palestinians had been photographed for the database, with former soldiers describing to the paper how they were incentivized to take as many photos as possible, including of children, based on a reward system.
In addition to Blue Wolf, the Post report said, the IDF installed face-scanning cameras at Hebron checkpoints to help soldiers identify Palestinians before they present their ID cards.
Hebron is considered a West Bank powder keg where around 800 Jewish settlers live under hefty Israeli security, surrounded by around 200,000 Palestinians. The city is home to the site known to Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs and to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque, which is revered by both faiths.
Facial recognition technology has come under greater scrutiny from civil rights activists and regulators worldwide, who say it is biased and infringes on privacy.
The technology, which uses visual images to help computers identify people, is in wide use, from unlocking phones to picking out a suspect’s face at borders or mass gatherings.
Since increased use of the technology could help keep crime and terror in check, a global debate is now raging regarding its pros and cons.
Last month, Iran announced police had installed cameras in public places to identify women violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code.
The technology has been banned in several US cities including San Francisco and Boston. Meanwhile, tech firms, including Google’s Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon, have said they will halt or curb sales of facial recognition technology.
In 2020, Microsoft pulled its investment from Israeli facial recognition company AnyVision even though the US tech giant couldn’t substantiate claims that the startup’s technology was being used unethically. The firm and the backing it had received from Microsoft’s investment arm had attracted public scrutiny, as the Israeli military reportedly installed face scanners at border crossings where Palestinians enter Israel from the West Bank.
Agencies contributed to this report.
