Documentary | Automated Racial segregation: Walking through the smart city of Hebron

 

Racial segregation: Walking through the smart city of Hebron

A silent sentinel watches over every corner of the bustling streets of Hebron, the largest city in the West Bank, where the ancient echoes of history collide with the modern hum of daily life. This sentinel is not a person but a network of surveillance technology known ominously as the “Smart City of Hebron.” Designed by Israeli authorities, this system covers the city with a network of cameras, sensors and even automatic weapons, tracking every movement of its Palestinian residents.

“The Palestinians of Hebron are the most survived people on the planet,” explains journalist and activist Mnar Adley, highlighting the omnipresence of cameras and facial scanning technologies. Adley says the area, also known as al-Khalil by Palestinians, has become a testing ground for Israel's surveillance apparatus, with advanced technologies such as the "Wolf Pack" surveillance system in operation. This system collects large amounts of data on Palestinians, including their personal details and movements, creating an atmosphere of constant surveillance.

Izzat Karake, a member of Youth Against Settlements, echoes this sentiment and points out the discomfort caused by constant surveillance. "Everywhere I go as a Palestinian, I can see cameras," he told MintPress as he pointed out dozens of Israeli military cameras lining the streets. "We are constantly under surveillance."

 

  Hebron Smart City, Adley explains, is more than just a collection of cameras and sensors; It is a symbol of Israel's tireless efforts to control all aspects of Palestinian life. Facial scanning cameras, known as Red Wolf, line every street and their unblinking gaze captures the faces of every passerby without her consent. These images are then entered into Israel's Wolf Pack database, a vast repository of information about Palestinians, which can be accessed through a mobile app, allowing them to track and monitor people with ease.

  Amnesty International has condemned this mass surveillance project, denouncing it as “automated apartheid” in a scathing report. They argue that the system reinforces existing practices of discrimination and segregation, further eroding the rights of Palestinians in Hebron at the hands of Israeli authorities, who the rights group says have “a history of discriminatory and inhumane acts that maintain a system of apartheid.” . “Israeli authorities may use facial recognition software – particularly at checkpoints – to consolidate existing police practices of discrimination, segregation and restriction of freedom of movement, violating the basic rights of Palestinians,” the report concludes. 

 This invasive surveillance technology that targets and monitors Palestinians aggravates an already existing segregated system of apartheid in Hebron, where the city has been divided into two zones, H1 and H2. These two segments of Hebron are separated by a militarized checkpoint that allows the maintenance and expansion of an illegal Israeli settlement right in the middle of the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood overlooking the Palestinian city market.                                                 

This is where Youth Against Settlements was born after a Palestinian building that was initially occupied first by the Israeli army and then by Israeli settlers was reclaimed for Palestinian use through non-violent direct action and a legal campaign. Tel Rumeida, once a bustling Palestinian neighbourhood, is now home to more than 700 illegal Israeli settlers, heavily armed and protected by the army. The main street, formerly known as Shuhada Street, has been renamed “Chicago Street” by Israeli authorities in an attempt to erase Palestinian heritage.

Every year, Izzat and his Youth Against Settlements colleagues hold an annual march called the Open Shuhada Street Campaign that draws international attention to the illegal siege of the city. Israel has not only occupied and fragmented this neighbourhood to make room for Israeli settlers, it is altering this area to Judaize the neighbourhood, which means planning to expand its colonization of the area to ethnically cleanse and displace Palestinians out of here, to that Israeli settlers can take control. This military strategy is used to protect, expand and connect other nearby Jewish settlements in Israel's quest to secure an ethno-Jewish state.

Hebron has seen some of the most violent settler attacks against Palestinians, especially after the Hamas surprise attack and Israel's subsequent attack on Gaza. In many cases, armed settlers are escorted and protected by Israeli soldiers. Barbed wire covers Palestinian homes that are fenced off to protect them from attacks and harassment by Israeli settlers. But the intimidation doesn't end there.

 

A smart AI shooter sits atop a checkpoint on Shuhada Street, aiming directly at the Hebron market, where thousands of Palestinians pass through each day. Israel installed the remote-controlled automatic turret weapon in 2022. According to the Israeli army spokesperson, the AI smart shooter “is used as a dispersal measure” as part of the army's enhanced preparations to confront disruptions. order. However, the introduction of artificial intelligence technology, such as the smart shooter, has only increased tensions in the city. Residents walk through their own neighbourhoods with a sense of unease, knowing that they are always under surveillance.

Just as Gaza has become a laboratory and showroom for Israel's "battle-tested" weapons, the success of facial recognition technology and Hebron's Smart City database via Wolf Pack to track to the Palestinians will be used so that Israel continues to benefit from its illegal army. occupation of Palestine and surveillance of Palestinian civilians.

This “automated apartheid” only further segregates Palestinians and expands the apartheid system and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Israel.

 

 Mnar Adley is an award-winning journalist and editor and founder and director of MintPress News. She is also president and director of the nonprofit media organization Behind the Headlines. Adley also co-hosts the MintCast podcast and is a producer and host of the Behind The Headlines video series. Contact Mnar at mnar@mintpressnews.com or follow her on Twitter at @mnarmuh.