Israel’s apartheid state and occupation are being sponsored by tech giants, with artificial intelligence (AI) and other surveillance technologies used to deepen the longstanding repression of Palestinians. In 2021’s Operation Guardian of the Walls, which saw Israel bombard the Gaza Strip with airstrikes, leaving one thousand Palestinians displaced and 256 dead, “AI was a force multiplier,” according to an Israeli official. In the years since, companies like Amazon have powered what a recent Amnesty International report dubbed “automated apartheid.” Amazon announced just recently that it would invest another $7.2 billion in Israel through 2037 and extend its web services to the country.
The company claims the benefactors of Amazon Web Services (AWS) will be “Israeli entrepreneurs and businesses.” In reality, the primary winner will be the military. AWS will expand “Project Nimbus,” which provides the cloud service ecosystem for Israel, primarily serving the country’s military. (Google also invests in Project Nimbus.)
The project will allow Israeli forces to obtain and retain data on Palestinians and surveil them with facial recognition, clamping down on the right to protest and making Palestinians warier of, say, appearing at a demonstration. Even if they aren’t detained at the protest itself, Palestinians know the numerous watchtowers and checkpoints will capture their faces and they could be arrested later or banned from visiting certain sites. Amnesty International’s report found that protests outside Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate plummeted after the various watchtowers and cameras were erected.
The ties between Israel and Amazon run deep. As of 2019, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) had been supplied by Amazon with 80 percent of its aircrafts. Buoyed by Amazon’s investment, IAI is implementing autonomous “robo-snipers” and drones across Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Between Chinese Surveillance and Israeli Settler Colonialism
There are extensive economic ties between China and Israel. China is Israel’s second-largest trading partner globally and takes the lead in Asia. The Belt and Road initiative has significantly catalyzed China-Israel cooperation. Major Chinese companies like China Railway Engineering Corporation, China Ocean Shipping Company, Huawei, China National Chemical Corporation, and ZTE Corporation are actively investing in Israel, while others such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Lenovo, Geely, and SAIC Motor have set up research and development centers in Israel.
Specifically for Huawei, it acquired two Israeli technology innovation companies, HexaTier and Toganetworks, in 2016 for $42 million and $150 million, respectively. In the electric vehicle industry, in 2022 and 2023, the share of Chinese brands in the Israeli electric car market exceeded 50 percent and 60 percent respectively.
Chinese car sales outlets abound in Israel, represented by companies like BYD, Geely, Hongqi, SAIC Motor, Chery, and Hozon Auto. In the field of infrastructure, in 2021, the Chinese company Pan-Mediterranean Engineering Company (PMEC) constructed the Ashdod Port in southern Israel. China State Construction Engineering Corporation constructed Haifa New Port Terminal, a vital node port of the Belt and Road, and the first time that Chinese enterprises exported “smart port” technology and management to a developed country.
China Railway Engineering Corporation led the construction of the Red Line in Tel Aviv, the first light rail project constructed by a Chinese enterprise in the high-end market of a developed country. The current cooperation between China and Israel involves ports, subways, highways, tunnels and other fields, and the amount of cooperation reaches billions of dollars.
Businesses invest where there’s money to be made. Microsoft will probably try the same with Azure in the next two or three years.
