Israel has long marketed itself as the startup nation; a country at the absolute forefront when it comes to digital innovation. This also applies to their surveillance industry, which, in close collaboration with the Israeli military, develops software and hardware capable of everything from hacking phones, recognizing faces, and monitoring the internet. Israel's surveillance industry is also exported on a large scale. Who knows, it might be coming to a country near you soon?

Palestinian human rights advocate and tech expert Mona Shtaya is our guest on this episode where we discuss the surveillance industry in Israel, how the technology is tested on Palestinians and exported to totalitarian states and why the Palestinian cause is connected to the right to privacy and freedom of expression globally.

Host: Maia Kahlke Lorentzen
Guest: Mona Shtaya.

Follow Mona Shtaya on X and Instagram as @monashtayya.
Recommendations from Mona for organizations to follow:
Visualising Palestine and IMEU

Sources and references:

• https://www.codastory.com/authoritarian-tech/israel-spyware-palestine-antony-loewenstein/
• https://jacobin.com/2024/04/israel-surveillance-tech-industry-democracy
• https://www.npr.org/2021/07/20/1018226161/global-spyware-is-a-threat-to-democracy-former-u-n-advocate-says
• https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/01/the-gospel-how-israel-uses-ai-to-select-bombing-targets
• https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/ https://truthout.org/articles/tech-workers-are-demanding-end-to-contract-that-fuels-israeli-apartheid/?amp
• https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/30/technology/google-employee-israel.html
• https://www.972mag.com/drones-idf-west-bank-gaza/
• https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-deep-dive-into-nso-zero-click.html
• https://www.972mag.com/top-israeli-university-marketing-countys-arms-industry-to-the-world/
• https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/features/2017/5/23/the-nakba-did-not-start-or-end-in-1948
• https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1653004
• https://www.technion.ac.il/en/2023/10/battling-anti-israel-hate-with-ai-bots/
• https://electronicintifada.net/content/inside-israels-million-dollar-troll-army/27566
• https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/07/19/israeli-apartheid-threshold-crossed
• https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-system-of-apartheid/
• https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/6701/2023/en/
• https://iaac.technion.ac.il/membercs.html
• https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/01/poland-use-of-pegasus-spyware-to-hack-politicians-highlights-threat-to-civil-society/
• https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/from-blue-wolf-to-red-wolf-an-automated-israeli-occupation
• https://www.dtu.dk/om-dtu/profil/internationale-alliancer/alliancer-og-strategiske-partnerskaber/eurotech-universities
• https://israel.um.dk/en/innovation-centre
• https://privacyinternational.org/sites/default/files/2017-12/global_surveillance_0.pdf