DARK WOLVES
Palestine, a Global Sureveillance Lab Curated by Niv Fux
Recent investigations by journalists and human rights organisations have exposed the mass surveillance of Palestinians by the Israeli army. These systems include Red Wolf, an advanced facial recognition technique, and Blue Wolf, a smartphone app used by soldiers on the ground to photograph Palestinians. The data collected by these technologies is fed into a vast database, often without the knowledge or consent of Palestinians.
The reciprocal relationship between Israel’s tech industry and military has turned Palestine into a testing ground for surveillance technologies. These recent developments come on top of other, long-existing surveillance mechanisms, such as the extensive network of CCTV cameras in East Jerusalem, social media monitoring and tactical censorship. Together with experts from multiple fields, we will explore the implications of intrusive surveillance and the resulting loss of digital agency. The situation in Palestine will allow us to explore how oppressive regimes deploy aggressive surveillance technologies, and how European societies could be subjected to similar technologies if no proper legislation or regulation is implemented.
Speakers Rasha Abdul Rahim, Ori Givati and Nadim Nashif, will explore the implications of intrusive surveillance and the artistic, research-based and political interventions can we use to expose and resist surveillance tactics. Rasha Abdul Rahim is Director of Amnesty Tech at Amnesty International, where she heads up the AI and Big Data Team covering issues of privacy, data protection and surveillance, as well as the impact of new technologies on human rights. Nadim Nashif is the founder and executive director of 7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, a Palestinian digital rights organisation. Ori Givati is the Advocacy Director at Breaking the Silence, an Israeli activist group collecting testimonies from veteran Israeli soldiers who served in the Occupied Palestinian Territories – a recent Amnesty report drew on these testimonies to substantiate Israel’s elaborate use of facial recognition systems against Palestinians.
What else is on Friday?
Check the timetable to visit more programmes with your Festival Pass (5-days) or Day Pass (1-day). With the passes you can also visit the festival exhibition Our Terms, Our Conditions at the IMPAKT [Centre for Media Culture] and Fotodok/Casco.
Friday day pass 5-day festival pass
For more information on the festival tickets please see here