Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty Images
Imagine walking the streets of your neighborhood when a group of fully-armed soldiers stops you and demands to take photos of your face. Imagine trying to get out of the city for a day, but to leave, you need to cross a computerized checkpoint that scans your face to decide whether or not to let you through—while recording your every move. Imagine you’re a farmer, tending your sheep, when a foreign soldier shows up and takes a picture of your face. Once your picture loads on his phone, he treats you like a terrorist and detains you on the spot.
This is not a sequel to 1984, nor a nightmare episode of Black Mirror. This is the day-to-day life of a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.
Amnesty International recently published “Automated Apartheid,” a report detailing Israel’s extensive use of digital and biometric surveillance technologies in the occupied Palestinian territories. The report uses Hebron and East Jerusalem as case studies through which to elaborate on the different systems Israel uses to surveil Palestinians.