7amleh has published a new report titled “Intensification of Surveillance in East Jerusalem and Impact on Palestinian Residents’ Rights: Summer and Fall 2021”, which examines the impact of biometric monitoring and digital surveillance in East Jerusalem.

Ramallah - Haifa, 8/11/2021 --7amleh - The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, has published a new report titled “Intensification of Surveillance in East Jerusalem and Impact on Palestinian Residents’ Rights: Summer and Fall 2021”, which examines the impact of biometric monitoring and digital surveillance in East Jerusalem.

Israel maintains comprehensive legislation to protect the right to privacy, however, Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem continue to be systematically denied such rights. Instead, Israeli authorities implement and carry out security measures without consultation or communication with those communities subject to intensive surveillance. 

The researchers conducted 30 interviews with residents of East Jerusalem between July and October 2021.  Residents interviewed reported that CCTV and digital surveillance increased following the violence in April and May of 2021 . 

Researchers have demonstrated how Israeli surveillance firms profit off of the use of their technologies in the occupied Palestinians territories, with places like East Jerusalem serving as a critical testing ground of innovations in biometric surveillance in particular. As this report highlights, such practices have a detrimental impact on Palestinian Jerusalemites’ civil rights.

The findings of the report demonstrate how intensified and increasingly high-tech surveillance in East Jerusalem, has led to the erosion of civil and political rights for Palestinian residents of the city and  the increase of video and biometric surveillance and digital monitoring has constrained freedom of movement, impeded Palestinian residents' right to privacy, and eroded Palestinians' freedom of expression on and offline. 

Check out the full report: Click here