Border Surveillance in Times of Conflict and Occupation

March 7, 2025

From Palestine to Kashmir to Xinjiang, technology is used to oppress and occupy. Increasing reliance on automation, including the targeting of civilians is a clear violation of international human rights law and the law of armed conflict.

In Gaza, experts like Afsaneh Rigot have called Israel’s conduct a tech-facilitated genocide, while the UN Special Committee to investigate Israeli practices found in November 2024 that Israel’s warfare methods in Gaza are consistent with genocide, raising serious concerns about the use of AI-enhanced targeting systems. Meanwhile, US President Trump continues to call for the extermination of Gaza. In his pronouncements, AI makes yet another appearance, this time in a promotional video showing what the Gaza strip would look like after a US invasion, while Israel cuts off food supplies to the region.

Strawberries from Gaza, one of the few exports allowed into the Occupied West Bank – a reminder that things still grow under occupation

(eaten by MTM’s Florian Schmitz and Petra Molnar, Spring of 2023)

We also cannot forget about the Occupied West Bank, where the Israeli army is building an AI language model similar to ChatGPT, using millions of intercepted conversations between Palestinians to accelerate surveillance, incrimination, and arrest.

Even in post-conflict situations, the need for rigorous conversations around the governance of technology remain front and center, as writes our 2023 MTM fellow and journalist Wael Qarssifi in his blog highlighting his concerns about data safety in post-Assad Syria (available in both Arabic and English)

Speaking of our fellowships….

In the participatory ethos of the MTM, over the last few months, our current fellows have lead the selection and interview process to choose their next five colleagues. We are finalizing the cohort from a pool of 510 applicants and will be announcing them soon! We are so excited to grow our community and for you to learn about their amazing work.

In the meantime…

Read the Border Chronicle’s Q&A with our 2024 Fellow Judith Cabrera about her work with the Border Line Crisis Center.

And consider supporting The Border Chronicle and their incredible reporting from the borderlands!

Read Smart borders kill: New frontiers of violence and erosion of rights at the world’s borders on Open Global Rights (Available in Spanish and English)

Watch the second part of Antony Loewenstein’s documentary The Palestine Laboratory, examining how Israel exports its tech to Greece, US, India, and all around the world and featuring some of our work.

Follow the work of groups like De|Center, the home of the Design from the Margins methodology. They do deep work with decentered communities to make concrete changes to technology tools that address systemic injustice and advance human rights.

Check out MTM 2023 Fellow Wael Qarssifi’s blog post about his concerns about data safety in post-Assad Syria (available in both English and Arabic).

Photo Credit: Omar Sanadiki/AP Photo, Dec 8, 2024

A giant picture of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad lies on the ground inside the Presidential Palace.

Please follow the MTM on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky, too!

The Migration and Technology Monitor
Incubated at the Refugee Law Lab, York University

*Note about language: Wherever possible, at the Migration and Technology Monitor, we use the term "people-on-the-move" or “people crossing borders” to expand the terminology commonly used when we discuss human migration and how migration management technologies are experienced. This deliberate use of more inclusive terminology does not seek to undermine the fact that refugees face particular vulnerabilities and often experience higher risks and harms as a result of migration management technologies. It simply highlights that at the end of the day there are people at the center of it all. Moreover, all of us may in one way or another be affected by migration management technologies as we cross borders and move across the world. While its greatest impact is on traditionally marginalized communities such as refugees and asylum seekers, the ecosystem of migration management technologies affects us all.