War on the Palestinian Narrative: One Goal with Ever Innovative Techniques
By: Cathrine Abuamsha
The technology industry and the creation of a massive digital space have allowed room for both individuals and nations to share their successes, innovations, and life stories, as well as their conflicts and wars with a global audience. Social media has been celebrated for overcoming geographical limitations and media stereotypes, providing users with free platforms to express their opinions, realities, and facts about their peoples. However, it was not long before that principle of freedom was barred to certain users, including those who support the Palestinian people’s rights. How is the Palestinian reality digitally obscured? What does the Israeli settler colonial regime have to do with this censorship?
Israel seeks to seize control of a maximum of the Palestinian land with a minimum number of Palestinian people. For this central goal, Israel has displaced Palestinians and established a settler colonial regime on Palestinian land by force. In parallel, Israel has opted for a policy to conceal its incessant and systematic crimes and violations. Through techniques of intimidation, Israel has silenced human rights defenders and advocates of the Palestinian cause. These individuals and organizations are punished for unveiling, highlighting Israeli violations and calling for accountability for the commission of crimes. In this vein, Israel has paid particular attention to eliminating digital documentations of its violations, and censoring posts exposing the real situation in Palestine, primarily targeting posts shared online.
Excessive constraints and abusive removal of digital content
Israel makes strenuous efforts to cover up and prevent the documentation and awareness about its crimes in the digital space. On a daily basis, Israel targets posts sharing Israeli violations. Since it was created in 2015, the Cyber Unit at the Office of the State Attorney of Israel has been one of the most prominent tools of censorship of, and attacks on, the Palestinian narrative/reality on social media. As an official arm to suppress the Palestinian narrative, the Cyber Unit annually sends tens of thousands of requests to social media platforms for content removals targeting Palestinians.[i] Of 20,000 applications submitted in 2019, 90 percent were approved.
[2] While the number of these applications is consistently high, they increase substantially with a view to targeting digital documentation in periods of heightened military attacks and settler violence against Palestinians. For example, over the three-week period between March and April 2022, the number of publications grew exponentially, hitting 800 percent of the usual volume of complaints filed to the Israeli Cyber Unit for content removal.[3] The Cyber Unit maintains regular contact with major platforms, including Meta, Twitter, YouTube, etc. in order to ensure a quick response to urgent cases. Hence, content that reveals the Palestinian human rights situation to the wider digital audience is removed.
Also, as a result of biassed perceptions of several social media platforms, especially Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp), Palestinian content experiences over-moderation, with Arabic content on the Palestinian political context removed and accounts of advocates and activists of the Palestinian cause and rights suspended. 7amleh – The Arab Centre for the Advancement of Social Media has documented attempts to erase the Palestinian narrative on various digital platforms. Since the beginning of 2021, 7amleh has monitored some 2,075 Palestinian digital rights violations, including 1,238 account suspensions and 339 content removals, all affecting images, posts, or videos with content relating to Palestine. According to 7amleh’s documentation, on 178 and 159 occasions respectively, social media platforms featured incitement to violence and smear campaigns targeting the Palestinian narrative.[4] While these campaigns are widespread online, 7amleh specialises in monitoring violations affecting the Palestinian context only. Abuses are mostly committed by users affiliated with the Zionist lobby, Israeli authorities, and Israeli individuals.
Repressive legislation in the making
The Israeli authorities use both overt and covert plans, strategies, and tactics to erase, smear, suppress, prosecute, and put at risk advocates of Palestinian rights.[5] At the end of 2021, the Ministerial Committee for Legislative Affairs of Israel approved by a unanimous vote a Draft Law on the Prevention on Incitement on Social Media Platforms of 5782-2021. Known as the “Facebook Law,” this regulation seeks to govern digital content removal or to restrict access to published content on all electronic platforms. If enforced, the law will allow the Israeli State Attorney to submit a request to an Israeli district court judge to issue an order to publishers or website and app owners to remove content. In the context of targeting publishers, providers of internet search services can be requested to block access to content “suspected” of causing damage to the Israeli “State security”, or to public and personal safety. Such content is considered a crime involving “incitement to violence and terrorism” under the Israeli Criminal Law.[6] Accordingly, permitted and banned discourse is determined by overly broad terms, and as a result leads to the punishment of opponents and critics of Israeli policies online. Palestinians and Palestinian rights defenders will, therefore, exercise digital self-censorship or a “chilling effect”. Due to intimidation, these individuals and organizations will avoid digital interaction and criticism of Israeli crimes, out of fear of prosecution based on their posts.
Censorship, spying on and persecution of activists
In addition to Israel’s surveillance through military checkpoints, drones, and closed-circuit television cameras (CCTVs) throughout the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, Israel has expanded its censorship and espionage to more extensive and elaborate systems, including facial recognition software and spyware on the phones of Palestinian activists, politicians, journalists, etc. Combined, these tools have been central in the war on the Palestinian narrative.
[7] Serving as a prominent division of the Israeli army, Unit 8200 of the Israeli Intelligence Corps is in charge of collecting intelligence. It monitors, intercepts, spies on, and breaches the digital security of Palestinian activists, politicians and human rights defenders.[8] Some Unit 8200 veterans founded the Israeli NSO Group, which invaded activists and politicians’ devices and privacy. In addition to jeopardising their lives, the NSO operators have violated these individuals’ and family’s rights, including their right to privacy. Surveillance tools, created by NSO, such as the Pegasus software, can take control of a cell phone without having physical access to the actual handset. According to a recent United Nations report, Pegasus has become a dangerous technology and urgent steps are needed to address the spread of this and other spyware tools.[9]
Another serious tool of the Israeli war on Palestinian rights advocates is to be found in the smear campaigns launched by Zionist groups and Israeli government institutions against Palestinian and foreign human rights defenders exposing the Palestinian reality and Israeli violations.[10] These are aimed at silencing, smearing, and intimidating the targeted persons to obstruct their activities. Among others, international experts, as well as Palestinian and international human rights activists and defenders, face smear campaigns on an ongoing basis. Often resorting to empty accusations of terrorism and anti-Semitism, these campaigns attempt to cut off support, influence, and funding of targeted groups.[11] In many cases, smearing has even gone so far as to threaten to inflict bodily harm or death.[12]
Not only has Israel persecuted human rights activists and organisations, but it has also conspired with mega tech companies to produce and test surveillance software on Palestinians under the Israeli occupation. In contravention with human rights laws, this discriminatory practice is designed to make profits and ensure military successes. The surveillance technology is then sold to the outside world. For instance, Google signed a contract with the Israeli military to develop advanced artificial intelligence tools as part of the US$ 1.2 billion Project Nimbus.[13] These technologies provide Israel with the capability of facial recognition, machine image classification, tracking, and “sentiment analysis” with the supposed aim of assessing the emotional content of images, speech, and writing.[14] All the more so, Google has persecuted many staff members by threatening further escalation; of relocation or dismissal, if they express their opinions against Project Nimbus. Against the backdrop of lawful refusals to stay silent, these employees have been accused of anti-Semitism.[15]
Impact of digital bias
Amidst the persistent violations of the Israeli settler colonial regime, Palestinians continue to document and publish their suffering in order to shed light on incessant Israeli abuses, persecution, and systematic policies aimed at their forcible displacement. Palestinians seek international solidarity by highlighting facts on the ground, which includes sharing them online. While Israeli attacks are more aggressive, more restrictions are placed on the digital space. Between 9 and 16 May 2021, the Israeli military attack on Jerusalem, including the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, and Gaza Strip, was met with extensive digital documentation, gaining worldwide solidarity and publicization. During this period, however, 7amleh documented 500 digital rights violations, including account suspensions or restrictions, suppression of hashtags, and removal of archived content on social media platforms. “The majority of incidents of persecution occurred on Instagram and Facebook platforms, which together accounted for 85 percent of all digital rights abuses".[16] As a consequence, campaigns were launched, demanding that Facebook put an end to digital persecution. This was ensued and further emphasised by the Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) report on Human Rights Due Diligence of Meta’s Impacts in Israel and Palestine in May 2021. BSR stressed that in relation to the Palestinian political context, excessive over-moderation of Arabic content was observed compared to Hebrew content. Meta’s actions in May 2021 appear to have had an adverse human rights impact on the rights of Palestinian users to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, political participation, and non-discrimination. It further crippled the international community’s understanding and knowledge of current events across Palestine.
[i] “How a Secretive Cyber Unit Censors Palestinians”, Luke Goldstein, The American Prospect, 12 July 2021, available at: https://prospect.org/world/how-secretive-cyber-unit-censors-palestinians/.
[2] Ibid.
[3] “Cyber unit reports 800% increase in online terror incitement amid recent attacks”, Tobias Seigal, Times of Israel, 13 April 2022, available at: https://www.timesofisrael.com/cyber-unit-reports-800-increase-in-online-terror-incitement-amid-recent-attacks/.
[4] Between January 2021 and 28 January 2022, the Palestinian Observatory of Digital Rights Violations (7or) monitored, documented and followed up on the digital rights violations of Palestinians. Available at: https://7or.7amleh.org/.
[5] “Position Paper: Dangerous Designations, Israel’s Authoritarian Dismantling of Palestinian Civil Society, an Attack on Human Rights and the Rule of Law”, Al-Haq, 30 October 2021, available at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/19136.html.
[6] “Legal Analysis of the Draft Law on the Prevention on Incitement on Social Media Platforms”, Abeer Bakr, 7amleh, 21 April 2022, available at: https://7amleh.org/2022/04/21/thlyl-qanwny-lmshrwa-qanwn-mna-althrydh-ala-mwaqa-altwasl-alajtmaay (in Arabic).
[7] “How Israel turned Palestine into a surveillance tech dystopia”, Nadim Nashif, Middle East Eye, 10 December 2021, available at: https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/node/234806.
[8] “Buyer beware: The Israeli company helping governments spy on their own citizens”, Richard Silverstein, Middle East Eye, 22 August 2017, available at: https://www.middleeasteye.net/big-story/buyer-beware-israeli-company-helping-governments-spy-their-own-citizens.
[9] “Spyware and surveillance: Threats to privacy and human rights growing, UN report warns”, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 16 September 2022, available at: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/09/spyware-and-surveillance-threats-privacy-and-human-rights-growing-un-report.
[10] “Hashtag Palestine 2021”, Ahmad Qadi, 7amleh, 10 January 2022, p. 10, available at: https://7amleh.org/2022/01/10/hashtag-palestine-rise-in-violations-of-palestinian-digital-rights-in-2021.
[11] Ibid, Al-Haq.
[12] “Al-Haq is under a smear campaign and some staff are receiving death threats”, Al-Haq, 5 March 2016, available at: https://www.alhaq.org/ar/advocacy/2388.html (in Arabic).
[13] “Project Nimbus: Google employee accuses tech giant of profiteering off Palestinian pain”. Middle East Eye, 2 September 2022, available at: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestine-google-project-nimbus-employee-accuses-profiteering-pain.
[14] “Civil society organisations stand in solidarity with tech sector workers who publicly reject oppression. 7amleh, 11 September 2022, available at: https://7amleh.org/2022/09/11/mnzmat-almjtma-almdny-ttdhamn-ma-alaamlyn-at-fy-qtaa-altknwlwjya-alrafdhyn-at-aladhthad-alna (in Arabic).
[15] “Palestinian Jewish Muslim and Arab Google employees speak out”, available at: https://jewishdiasporatech.org/voices.
[16] “Aggression against digital rights”, 7amleh, 21 March 2021, available at https://7amleh.org/2021/05/21/hmlh-ysdr-tqryra-ywthq-aladwan-ala-alhqwq-alrqmyh-alflstynyh (in Arabic).
“Meta, Let Palestine Speak!”, 7amleh, available at: https://meta.7amleh.org/.