Digital Occupation — The Integration of Global Technology Corporations into Israel’s Surveillance and Military Infrastructure

Date: 2025

Subject: Corporate enablement and operational deployment of digital surveillance systems within the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).

Compiled from: Human rights documentation, investigative journalism, open-source corporate filings, and technical field reports.

Executive Overview

Israel’s control architecture in the OPT has evolved from territorial occupation to a data-centric regime of algorithmic governance. Evidence indicates that major Western technology corporations supply the digital infrastructure sustaining this system. At the operational level, Israel has deployed AI-enabled biometric networks, notably the Red Wolf programme, to regulate and restrict Palestinian movement.

The synergy between private-sector innovation and military implementation constitutes a hybrid ecosystem of surveillance, in which hardware, software, and cloud services from multinational firms underpin a system of continuous monitoring and predictive control.

1. Corporate Infrastructure Support

• Dell Technologies

• Secured a USD 150 million contract (2023) to supply servers and maintenance to the Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMOD), financed through U.S. military aid. 
• Operates EMC Israel within the National Cyber Park (Negev), adjacent to a defense technology campus associated with displacement of Bedouin Palestinian communities.
• R&D divisions in Herzliya and Tel Aviv produce cybersecurity tools integrated by Elbit Systems and related contractors.

• Hewlett Packard (HP)

• Provides Itanium servers for Israel’s Aviv biometric registry, enforcing ID-based movement control.
• Maintains the Basel checkpoint system, a biometric database operating at crossings throughout the West Bank.
• Remains exclusive computer supplier to the Israeli Defense Forces; contracts renewed to 2019.

• Intel Corporation

• Investing USD 25 billion in a chip-fabrication facility at Kiryat Gat, built on the depopulated village of Iraq al-Manshiyya.
• Supplies processors used in AI-targeting and reconnaissance platforms.
• Continues to rank among Israel’s largest foreign investors despite boycott pressures.

• Google & Amazon

• Jointly manage Project Nimbus, a USD 1.2 billion cloud-and-AI contract with the Israeli government.
• Platforms support AI targeting systems (Lavender, Gospel) reportedly utilised in Gaza operations.
• Internal employee protests highlight moral and reputational risk exposure.

• Microsoft

• Provides Azure cloud and AI tools for Israeli defense analytics.
• Documentation post-October 2023 shows expanded collaboration.

• IBM

• Designed the Eitan biometric management system, handling Palestinian permit and movement data.

• Cisco Systems

• Supplies secure networking and cyber-defense infrastructure for Israeli military installations.

2. Operational Deployment: The “Red Wolf” System

• Purpose: Automated facial-recognition network deployed at checkpoints in Hebron, scanning Palestinian faces without consent.

• Function: Compares biometric data exclusively from Palestinian databases. Unregistered individuals are automatically enrolled; incomplete or flagged profiles trigger denial of passage.

• Integration: Linked to two companion systems:

• Wolf Pack — Central database holding personal, familial, and security information on Palestinians.
• Blue Wolf — Mobile interface enabling soldiers to access Wolf Pack data in real time.

• Effect: Converts movement permissions into algorithmic outputs; replaces human discretion with machine-generated classification.

3. Complementary Surveillance Networks

• Israel maintains thousands of CCTV units across Hebron and Jerusalem under the Mabat 2000 programme.

• Hardware sourced from Hikvision (PRC) and TKH Security (Netherlands).

• System integrates audiovisual feeds, motion sensors, and facial analytics for continuous population monitoring.

4. Human-Rights and Legal Analysis

• Discriminatory Architecture: Databases contain data solely on Palestinians, formalising digital segregation.

• Psychological Impact: Constant algorithmic observation produces a coercive environment consistent with findings by Amnesty International describing “automated apartheid.”

• Legal Exposure: Potential contraventions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Articles 12 & 17) regarding privacy and freedom of movement.

• Corporate Risk: Companies involved face reputational and compliance hazards under emerging UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and OECD Due Diligence Guidelines.

5. Strategic Assessment

• The fusion of multinational technology infrastructure with Israeli military systems represents a paradigm of digital occupation—a governance model that weaponises data.

• This transformation shifts the occupation from visible military presence to pervasive algorithmic oversight, embedding control in everyday civilian interactions.

• The technologies tested in the OPT may serve as export templates for broader global surveillance markets.

6. Conclusion

The combined evidence demonstrates a vertically integrated structure:

• Corporations supply hardware, cloud capacity, and AI architecture.

• Military authorities deploy these tools through biometric and facial-recognition systems.

• Civilian populations become the data source and target of continuous automated evaluation.

• This represents the maturation of algorithmic control as a form of occupation. The precedent set by Israel’s Red Wolf network, sustained by international corporate inputs, signals the emergence of a new geopolitical instrument—digital domination through technological dependency.