In the past, marginalized groups have been subjected to surveillance at Big Brother’s level when war or conflict occurs. The war in Israel/Palestine could be the beginning of an authoritarian dystopian surveillance state.
In the past, when war or conflict breaks out, disadvantaged populations are subject to Big Brother-level surveillance. The conflict in Israel-Palestine may mark the start of a larger conflict that will produce futuristic authoritarian surveillance states. In the past, when war or conflict breaks out, disadvantaged populations are subject to Big Brother-level surveillance. A global conflict that produces futuristic authoritarian surveillance states may start with the conflict in Israel-Palestine.
In the past, marginalized groups have been subjected to surveillance at Big Brother’s level when war or conflict occurs. The war in Israel/Palestine could be the beginning of an authoritarian dystopian surveillance state.
Just over three weeks after Israel declared war on Hamas, the conflict has moved beyond Gaza and begun to envelop the Middle East. The United Nations Security Council has remained divided and failed to pass resolutions that would protect millions of civilians and call for the immediate release of hundreds of Israeli hostages. The United States continues to resist calls for a ceasefire and vetoed a resolution condemning violence and urging vital humanitarian aid.. . As a science fiction buff and tech policy expert, the events unfolding in Israel-Palestine make me think of George Orwell’s canonical novel,1984. Big Brother is described in the book as a dystopian, omniscient, massive surveillance state. Historically, when war or conflict happens, marginalized populations undergo Big Brother-level surveillance.. . Decades before Hamas’ attack on October 7, the Israel-Palestine conflict that began in 1948 led to millions of Palestinian people living in Gaza under a concerning level of surveillance. Human rights advocates likened their treatment to apartheid and their living conditions to an open-air prison. Nearly half of the Palestinians who lived in the Gaza Strip were unemployed. Their movements were limited by check-points and their biometrics were monitored through facial recognition technology by a nation with surveillance capabilities so extensive it’s known for creating the world’s most powerful spy tool. Orwell’s fiction became fact for Palestinians, and former Israeli Intelligence Corps workers even called themselves “Israeli Big Brother.”. . In America, these conditions are eerily familiar. Surveillance nets do not affect everyone evenly, and just like the Palestinian people have borne the brunt of Israel’s Big Brother-like system, surveillance is often first targeted at the marginalized. University of Texas Professor Simone Browne’s scholarship traced the creation of the first extensive American surveillance system to anti-Black racism and slavery. Those philosophies have continued to contribute to the creation of new technologies used by the American government today to surveil descendants of the enslaved in their homes and during protests for their rights.. . Surveillance nets do not affect everyone evenly, and just like the Palestinian people have borne the brunt of Israel’s Big Brother-like system, surveillance is often first targeted at the marginalized.. . After 9/11, another massive surveillance state was created in the United States. When the War on Terror was declared, America rushed to pass the Patriot Act, which issued unprecedented surveillance powers for the government to seize personal information like phone and bank records. With Islamophobia becoming rampant around the world, in America, Muslim communities were targeted by the new laws. They were stripped of their privacy rights and surveilled relentlessly by the government in their places of worship and while traveling. Twenty years later, the impact of this spying was still felt as Muslim Americans fought in the Supreme Court to regain their rights.. . To be sure, marginalized communities are not the only ones who undergo surveillance after wars or major conflicts. In fact, the laws and technologies of surveillance systems that are first tested on marginalized communities eventually become mainstream. Once perfected, they spread to impact all of society. The cell-site simulator devices now used by local police were first deployed during the War on Terror and Black Lives Matter protests, the data dragnets created by the National Security Agency revealed by Edward Snowden, and the multi-agency intelligence gathering centers developed after the Patriot Act are all prime examples.. . Like Orwell’s 1984 warned, the war in Israel-Palestine may be the beginning of a never-ending global conflict where leaders once again use military cover to establish lavish surveillance states in their own backyards. Former President Donald Trump has already taken the opportunity to use this crisis to call for additional surveillance of people within the United States if he were to win the 2024 election by reinstating his notorious Muslim Ban. More recently, police in London have warned that they will increase the use of social media and facial recognition technologies at protests calling for a ceasefire from Israel.. . And much like Apple’s famous Macintosh commercial inspired by Orwell’s 1984, we need to wake up and halt the march toward global war that creates dystopian authoritarian surveillance states.
