Israel developing ChatGPT-like tool that weaponizes surveillance of Palestinians

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Written by Yuval Abraham | 972mag.com Yuval Abraham | 972mag.com

Published: 09 March 2025 09 March 2025

The Israeli army is building an AI language model using millions of intercepted conversations between Palestinians, which could accelerate the process of incrimination and arrest, a joint investigation reveals.

“AI amplifies power,” an intelligence source who has closely followed the Israeli army’s development of language models in recent years explained. “It allows operations [utilizing] the data of far more people, enabling population control. This is not just about preventing shooting attacks. I can track human rights activists. I can monitor Palestinian construction in Area C [of the West Bank]. I have more tools to know what every person in the West Bank is doing. When you hold so much data, you can direct it toward any purpose you choose.”

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One source described a language model currently in use that scans data and identifies Palestinians using words that indicate “troublemaking.” The source added that the army has used language models to predict who might throw stones at soldiers during operations to “demonstrate presence” — when soldiers raid a town or village in the West Bank and go door to door, storming into every house on a particular street to conduct arrests and intimidate residents. 

Intelligence sources stated that the use of these language models alongside large-scale surveillance in the occupied territories has deepened Israel’s control over the Palestinian population and significantly increased the frequency of arrests. Commanders can access raw intelligence translated into Hebrew — without needing to rely on Unit 8200’s language centers to provide the material, or knowing Arabic themselves — and select “suspects” for arrest from an ever-growing list in every Palestinian locality. “Sometimes it’s just a division commander who wants 100 arrests per month in his area,” one source said.

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“Stop the Ethnic Cleansing”: Watch Oscar Speech of Palestinian & Israeli Directors of “No Other Land”

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Written by Democracy Now! Democracy Now!

Published: 03 March 2025 03 March 2025

The Palestinian-Israeli film No Other Land won for best documentary feature at Sunday’s Academy Awards. The film follows the struggles of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank community of Masafer Yatta to stay on their land amid home demolitions by the Israeli military and violent attacks by Jewish settlers aimed at expelling them. The film was made by a team of Palestinian-Israeli filmmakers, including the Palestinian journalist Basel Adra, who lives in Masafer Yatta, and the Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, both of whom are prominently featured in the film.

Watch their acceptance speeches here on Democracy Now!

A new war crime: Israel cuts off humanitarian supplies to Gaza as it seeks to change ceasefire deal

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Written by Julian Borger | The Guardian Julian Borger | The Guardian

Published: 02 March 2025 02 March 2025

Israel has cut off humanitarian supplies to Gaza in an effort to pressure Hamas into accepting a change in the ceasefire agreement to allow for the release of hostages without an Israeli troop withdrawal.

The office of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Sunday it was imposing a blockade on Gaza because Hamas would not accept a plan which it claimed had been put forward by the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to extend phase one of the ceasefire and continue to release hostages, and postpone phase two, which envisaged an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

 

“With the end of phase one of the hostage deal, and in light of Hamas’s refusal to accept the Witkoff outline for continuing talks – to which Israel agreed – Prime Minister Netanyahu has decided that, as of this morning, all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will cease. Israel will not allow a ceasefire without the release of our hostages,” it said in a statement. “If Hamas continues its refusal, there will be further consequences.”

After the announcement, Netanyahu’s spokesperson, Omer Dostri, wrote in a social media post: “No trucks entered Gaza this morning, nor will they at this stage.”

The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, on Sunday called for Israel to end its suspension of humanitarian aid to Gaza “immediately.”

Read more on The Guardian

Seized, settled, let: how Airbnb and Booking.com help Israelis make money from stolen Palestinian land

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Written by Zeke Hunter-Green, Carmen Aguilar García, Anna Leach, Mark Townsend, Pamela Duncan and Prina Shah | The Guardian Zeke Hunter-Green, Carmen Aguilar García, Anna Leach, Mark Townsend, Pamela Duncan and Prina Shah | The Guardian

Published: 27 February 2025 27 February 2025

As Israel deploys tanks in the West Bank for the first time in 20 years, we reveal how two of the world’s biggest travel companies are helping settlers commercialise stolen land

The villa is stunning. The private swimming pool; the lush, landscaped terrace with firepit; the long dining table with its expansive balcony view; the pingpong table; the piano.

But the jewel in the crown, according to the Airbnb listing, is the experience of watching the sun rise over the nearby mountains from the luxury of the generous master bedroom.

Only a handful of Palestinians are allowed to enter this, and other, Israeli settlements in the West Bank, usually as labourers with special permits.

Exclusive analysis carried out by the Guardian found 760 rooms being advertised in hotels, apartments and other holiday rentals in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, on two of the world’s most popular tourism websites.

Taken together, the listings that appear on either Airbnb or Booking.com could host more than 2,000 people as of August 2024. The villa was just one of them.

Read more on The Guardian