Blue Wolf and Smart City: Software used by the Israeli occupation to violate Palestinians’ Rights
For more than a year, Israeli occupation soldiers have been provided with special phones equipped with the “Blue Wolf” application and assigned to photograph Palestinians and personal identification cards, in order to create a digital database on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, without obtaining the consent of those they photograph.
“Blue Wolf”, collects information through a face scanner or the magnetic bar code on the personal identity card, and transfer the information to the digital system of the occupation authorities, and if the person is prohibited from moving and approaching settlements, or has security violations, the system gets updated with data through this application, in addition to the cancellation and control of permits even without informing the permit holder.
According to the accounts of the occupation soldiers collected by the “Breaking the Silence” movement, the soldiers of the occupation army, during their service in the West Bank, began competing with each other about a year ago to photograph and document Palestinian citizens, including young men, men, women, girls, the elderly and children, and the soldiers receive a reward for this work.
The testimonies of the occupation soldiers who participated in filming Palestinians via cell phones showed that the process of filming and documenting is done without any justification or any reason, where the “blue wolf” application is brought close to the Palestinian’s face to scan his face, and then photograph his personal ID card to store all the information in a digital archive.
The idea of the “Blue Wolf” came from the “Smart City” project, which is implemented in Hebron through surveillance cameras deployed in all residential neighbourhoods that monitor and track Palestinians around the clock, document their movements even inside their homes, and collect information about them using the digital system of surveillance cameras.
Last February, the occupation army officially announced the establishment of the new absorption division of the Information and Communications Technology Division in the Central Command.
With the “Blue Wolf” application, even before reaching the soldiers and without your knowledge, just by scanning your photo, your personal data and details appear on the soldier’s phone, which makes you exposed to risks that would amount to assassination and liquidation, as you are exposed to a field trial by the soldier just for your activity and political orientations, your party and factional affiliation.
We warn in our organisation of the repercussions and dangers of using the “blue wolf” application and expanding its scope and use, and we point out that many of the soldiers are right-wing, and many of them live in the settlements, which means that the soldiers’ treatment to Palestinians will be based on political and ideological motives. Not for security considerations, as the occupation claims.
