A new report from Amnesty International alleges that the Israeli military has deployed an experimental new surveillance system on the West Bank, and that it is capturing the facial recognition data of Palestinians without their consent.
The report says that the “Red Wolf” system is in place at military checkpoints in Hebron, part of a controversial system of movement restriction that divides neighborhoods in some places and that Amnesty International refers to as “apartheid.” The report also documents a substantial increase in CCTV surveillance cameras in East Jerusalem in response to a series of protests in 2021.
Hebron checkpoint system now using facial recognition software
The West Bank city of Hebron has long been a center of Israel-Palestine conflict, and has been occupied by Israeli forces since 1996 under the terms of the Hebron Agreement. The city is divided into two main sectors, the smaller of which remains under Israeli military control due to the presence of a central quarter in which about 800 Jewish settlers live. Israel has deployed military checkpoints to secure these areas, which have generated controversy as in some cases they disrupt the regular movement of Palestinian residents. Israel maintains that the system is necessary due to sustained terror attacks and frequent stone-throwing in the area.
At best, Palestinian residents face long waits at this checkpoint. Amnesty International reports that those that pass through are now having facial recognition data logged by the Israeli forces, though they are not being informed or giving consent. The Red Wolf surveillance system feeds into a database called “Wolf Pack” exclusively used for tracking Palestinians, something that Israeli soldiers have available to them via a mobile app called “Blue Wolf.” The soldiers can also upload pictures they take on the street to the system via Blue Wolf.
Red Wolf automatically enrolls any unknown party passing through the checkpoint into this facial recognition system, and if there is no prior entry for them they are denied passage. It also checks known parties against existing information in the Wolf Pack system. The system currently requires human intervention to operate, but the report says that soldiers are actively training it to work automatically. A prior Amnesty International report from 2020 documented the “gamification” of these apps, with Israeli commanders keeping “leaderboards” for the troops that capture the most facial recognition information and awarding them prizes.
While the checkpoint area is relatively small in comparison with the total size of Hebron, the surveillance system extends far beyond it and can potentially capture the facial recognition data of residents that do not approach or pass through it. Palestinians also say that the technology is never employed to find Israeli extremists that perpetrate attacks in the area.
Surveillance in East Jerusalem expanded after protests
A separate surveillance network in East Jerusalem, called Mabat 2000, has also had facial recognition capabilities since 2017. After violent May 2021 protests of a court decision that granted disputed land to Israeli settlers, Israel has reportedly not only greatly increased the number of cameras in certain neighborhoods but has also worked to upgrade the biometric capabilities.
According to an Amnesty International mapping project, there is now at least one camera every five meters in the city. This has led some residents to feel as if they are under constant surveillance while outside. The concentration of new cameras is primarily in the Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighborhoods, which saw the largest amount of protest due to the seizure of Palestinian lands and implementation of a restrictive permit system that Silwan residents say was designed to demolish homes to make way for a planned theme park.
There is currently no public record of who is providing the facial recognition software to Israel. Some of the CCTV cameras posted in East Jerusalem have been identified as being manufactured by China-based HikVision, which advertises plug-in biometric surveillance capabilities, and Dutch firm THK Security. THK responded to follow-up by saying that it has not done business with Israel for several years. In 2020, Microsoft ended its business relationship with a Israeli facial recognition firm called AnyVision due to suspicion of similar use at border entry points to Israel.
Israel denies the Amnesty International claim that it is engaged in apartheid, saying that it conducts necessary programs and takes measures for self-defense and that it generally does not discuss its capabilities due to operational security concerns. About one to two dozen Israeli civilians and soldiers are killed in Palestinian terror attacks each year, though up to several hundred Palestinians are also generally killed, often in exchanges of gunfire between the two sides. Militants in Palestine have also regularly launched indiscriminate rocket attacks at Israel for decades, though these cause fewer casualties than interpersonal interactions.
