From the Gazan Laboratory to the World's Borders
A Conversation with Jeff Halper
Halper, Jeff; Miller, Todd
http://www.theborderchronicle.com/p/from-the-gazan-laboratory-to-the
Date Written: 2023-10-26
Year Published: 2023
Resource Type: Article
Cx Number: CX25003
The acclaimed Israeli author and anthropologist explains how Israel has become an enforcer for fortress Global North, selling systems of control first developed in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.
Abstract:
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Excerpt:
The big powers aren’t built for repressing populations. The Pentagon builds F-35s, nuclear submarines, thermodynamic missile systems, not the kinds of weapons you need for population control. The Pentagon is geared toward conventional warfare, not population control. And that’s Israel’s niche, because it has perfected all this on the Palestinians over the last century.
So it has the technologies of repression — we see it now in Gaza. And it has the strategies of population control that most other Western developed countries don't have. And the experience of boots on the group for a century. So that's one level, where Israel becomes the enforcer of global capitalism. In a very real way. Not alone, of course, but it becomes the leading force in population control.
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There's borders throughout the world. Europe has the most concentrated number of borders. Israel has been very involved with that. It's not only the type of fencing that Israel has developed, certain types of barbed wire and other kinds of sensors. They have what’s called the Rafael system, which is the automatic surveying and firing system. You don't need soldiers. You can just fire. Or you could have soldiers back home in Texas, in Athens, wherever you are, patrolling the border with these towers, with sensors, surveillance equipment, and machine guns. There are all kinds of border systems. It's true that what we call the "walls" or "fences" are really systems. Israel is involved in that very much in Europe. But also Israel is involved in India, which is building a wall with Kashmir and with Pakistan.
In other words, wherever there is a border against immigrants or against infiltrators of any kind, Israel is the place to go to. This is one of its specialties. That is certainly a part of population control. Israel has about 600 checkpoints in the West Bank. And it's developed everything from biometrics and biotechnology that can read eyes and do facial recognition. This is all in War against the People. They have all these surveillance systems that they sell to cities — Safe City systems, they're called. Israel specializes in magnetic cards and chips on people, so they can monitor them.
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