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childofhandala

Data Privacy and Palestinians

Updated: Apr 11, 2023



One of the positives of living in Dubai is the rich social diversity among one’s friends. My evenings usually would have a combination of Jordanian, Egyptian, American, Ukrainian, Indian, Pakistani, Russian, Maltzan, Moroccan, and Palestinian. While all of us communicated and linked by social media, the Palestinians did not. It was an inconvenience to our brat-like Dubai lifestyle. They did not enjoy digital social addiction.


It was a common tease that they are data privacy paranoid. Maybe their work as data scientists got into them. Or they have a delusional self-importance to think governments are interested in them. They used Telegram when the rest of us haven’t heard of it and only we only used Whatsapp. It turns out, all their people back home, west bank, use telegram for the same reason. Data privacy.

With the rising tensions between the United States and China, the congressional hearing of TikTok CEO has demonstrated a US virtual certainty that the Chinese government is in fact spying using the technology. It has asserted the same when Huawei offered 5G infrastructure. The monumental assertion sounds more like an admission by the U.S. government and its use of the same technologies for spying. This is not new news if you have been following all NSA scandals or if you are familiar with the Privacy vs. Security arguments for the past several years.

Erin Hail reports “While US citizens have some protections against warrantless searches under the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution, the US government has maintained that these rights do not extend to foreigners overseas, giving agencies such as the National Security Agency (NSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) practically free rein to snoop on their communications.

Information may also be turned over to US allies like the United Kingdom and Australia.” https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/3/28/bid-to-ban-tiktok-raises-hypocrisy-charge-amid-global-spying

She continues in her article: “US President Joe Biden’s administration is pushing for both the power to ban TikTok and the renewal of Section 702, which it has described as an “invaluable tool that continues to protect Americans every day”


Where ever the US people draw their line between privacy and security, is up to the Americans. I will not discuss this here. Since the US has access to the data of major online sources like Google, Facebook, and Whatsapp, etc. of all people of the world including Palestinians and it shares the data with its allies, it is imperative that Israel is receiving Palestinian people's data. My Palestinian friends in Dubai might not be paranoid but cautious after all.


So what? you may ask. Remind you that Israel is occupying power over the Palestinians. The entirety of the debate of privacy vs. security is irrelevant here. An occupier uses such data to control their subordinates. The Palestinian data is not used for the security of the Palestinians, but to bolding the occupation control. Such data can be easily used for direct spying, blackmailing, and direct interference with the social stability of society. Mossad is well known for its infiltration methods and assassinations.


Politicians' claim of the right to security does not extend to their occupying troops beyond their borders. Otherwise, Italian massacres in Libya would have been justified by such an absurd excuse. Who of us, in clear conscience, can state today that the European colonizers' genocides of native Americans were acts of self-security?


Hence, is it moral for the United States to deliver internet data of the Palestinian people to its occupier, Israel? Is it legal? but then, American people seem indifferent about providing guns and modern weaponry to empower the Israeli occupation, should we expect them to be moral about spying data delivery?


You may admit yourself into rehab to detox from the internet and, yet, odds are you will fail to disconnect. However, my Palestinian friends give up the pleasures and conveniences of 21st-century connectivity for the fragile hope of their families safety, friends, and loved ones in the west bank. Let that sink in for a minute. Imagine the strong will rooted in deep concern, every day, to resist digital belonging and daily social media engagements.


- Child of Handala

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