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Israel’s surveillance state

by Ted Rudow III (Tedr77 [at] aol.com)
Palestinians using social media to spread news about arrests and deaths, and Israeli intelligence and law enforcement officers scouring the web for clues about the next stabbing or protest. Facebook has not changed the fundamental contours of the conflict, but it has accelerated it. A demonstration against the Israeli occupation can be organized in a matter of hours, while the monitoring of Palestinians is made easier by the large digital footprint they leave on their laptops and mobile phones.

Israeli officials have blamed social media for inciting a wave of violent attacks by Palestinians that began in October 2015. Since then, Israeli security forces have arrested about 400 Palestinians for social media activity, according to Palestinian rights groups Addameer and Adalah. Most of the arrests have been for postings on Facebook, a popular network among Palestinians. The arrests of Palestinians for Facebook posts open a window into the practices of Israel’s surveillance state and reveal social media’s darker side. What was once seen as a weapon of the weak has turned into the perfect place to ferret out potential resistance

In that year alone, the Israeli attorney general opened 155 investigations into alleged social media incitement, a marked increase from previous years, the vast majority of cases have been directed at Arabs in Israel. Fear is favorite weapon, and it works as well with governments as it does with individual people. It's a day of fear-of terror! Nations and people are terrified of terrorism, and many are quite willing to give up all sorts of freedoms for the sake of security.



Ted Rudow III, MA
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