‘Information is management’: what we realized from a 12 months investigating the Israeli army’s ties to large tech

[ad_1] I n January this 12 months, Harry Davies and Yuval Abraham first reported that Microsoft had deepened its ties to Israel alongside different main tech companies. Since then, the Guardian has revealed an award-winning sequence of investigations – in partnership with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call – that has revealed a symbiotic relationship between Silicon Valley and the Israeli army.

One investigation uncovered an Israeli mass surveillance program scooping up nearly all Palestinian cellphone calls and storing them on Microsoft’s cloud services – setting off an inquiry that in the end prompted the corporate to cut off Israel’s entry to a few of its know-how. One other story revealed that the Israeli army created a ChatGPT-like tool to investigate information collected via the surveillance of Palestinians. Yet one more revealed that Google and Amazon had agreed to extraordinary terms to clinch a profitable contract with Israel.

I requested Davies and Abraham to debate what they realized this 12 months – concerning the position of those applied sciences in Israel’s assault on Gaza, whether or not these enterprise ties are sustainable, and what the revelations inform us about how the wars of the longer term can be fought.

How did Israel’s relationships with these corporations change after October 7?

Yuval Abraham: The Israeli army had been fetishizing synthetic intelligence and massive information for a few years – a development that may be very a lot related to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinians, as a result of the occupation generates numerous information. What modified after October 7 was the scope. The army was seeking to bomb lots of of targets each day in Gaza. Tens of hundreds of individuals have been recruited into reserve obligation. That meant an enormous spike in utilization of technological techniques. That’s the place the massive tech corporations stepped in.

Harry Davies: There was an enormous surge in demand – not only for the storage capacities of the tech corporations, but additionally for the merchandise that they provide to investigate the knowledge used to prosecute a struggle. What’s useful for the army is the way in which during which these providers are in a position to present what’s referred to as “blob storage”, which permits them to retailer and course of infinite quantities of uncooked intelligence info.

What has made Israel such an interesting marketplace for these corporations?

Yuval Abraham: As we reported, the Israeli military has been accumulating Palestinian cellphone calls for a very long time. However once you wish to accumulate the cellphone calls of a whole inhabitants each day, and also you wish to retain these cellphone requires lengthy intervals of time, you want numerous storage room and processing energy.

In the event you keep in mind the [Edward] Snowden revelations, lots of them needed to do with metadata , which doesn’t weigh so much. However the Israeli army additionally wished to retailer mass audio recordsdata, photographs or movies – and for that it felt it wanted the help of corporations like Microsoft. Within the West Financial institution, sources have instructed us this info has been used to search out filth on folks to blackmail them. Within the Gaza Strip, we all know that this large trove of intercepted cellphone calls was additionally utilized in airstrikes that killed civilians.

So information is energy and information is management. And these American cloud suppliers enable the Israeli army to retailer numerous information and to sift via it very successfully. That has direct penalties for folks on the bottom.

If you have something to share about this story, you can contact Harry Davies and Yuval Abraham using one of the following methods.

Secure Messaging in the Guardian app

The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.

If you don’t already have the Guardian app, download it ( iOS / Android ) and go to the menu. Select ‘Secure Messaging’.

To send a message to Harry and Yuval please choose the ‘UK Investigations’ team.

Signal Messenger

You can message Harry using the Signal Messenger app. Use the ‘find by username’ option and type hfd.90

Email (not secure)

If you don’t need a high level of security or confidentiality you can email harry.davies@theguardian.com

SecureDrop and other secure methods

If you can safely use the tor network without being observed or monitored you can send messages and documents to the Guardian via our SecureDrop platform .

Finally, our guide at theguardian.com/tips lists several ways to contact us securely, and discusses the pros and cons of each.

","image":"https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ae475ccca7c94a4565f6b500a485479f08098383/788_0_4000_4000/4000.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=45fd162100b331bf1618e364c5c69452","credit":"Illustration: Guardian Design / Rich Cousins"}"> Fast Information Contact Harry Davies and Yuval Abraham about this story Present When you've got one thing to share about this story, you possibly can contact Harry Davies and Yuval Abraham utilizing one of many following strategies.

Safe Messaging within the Guardian app

The Guardian app has a software to ship recommendations on tales. Messages are finish to finish encrypted and hid inside the routine exercise that each Guardian cell app performs. This prevents an observer from understanding that you're speaking with us in any respect, not to mention what's being mentioned.

In the event you don’t have already got the Guardian app, obtain it ( iOS / Android ) and go to the menu. Choose ‘Safe Messaging’.

To ship a message to Harry and Yuval please select the ‘UK Investigations’ staff.

Sign Messenger

You'll be able to message Harry utilizing the Sign Messenger app. Use the ‘discover by username’ choice and sort hfd.90

E mail (not safe)

In the event you don’t want a excessive stage of safety or confidentiality you possibly can e mail harry.davies@theguardian.com

SecureDrop and different safe strategies

In the event you can safely use the tor community with out being noticed or monitored you possibly can ship messages and paperwork to the Guardian through our SecureDrop platform .

Lastly, our information at theguardian.com/tips lists a number of methods to contact us securely, and discusses the professionals and cons of every.

<path d="M12 2C6.467 2 2 6.467 2 12s4.467 10 10 10 10-4.467 10-10S17.533 2 12 2m1.133 13.933v.49c-.11.088-.266.155-.422.244a13 13 0 0 1-.511.2 2.4 2.4 0 0 1-.533.133 4 4 0 0 1-.511.044c-.356 0-.578-.066-.712-.2a.58.58 0 0 1-.222-.444c0-.178.022-.356.045-.533.022-.178.066-.356.11-.578l.934-4.245-.867-.2v-.466c.134-.045.312-.111.556-.178.222-.067.467-.111.733-.156.267-.044.511-.088.756-.11.244-.023.467-.045.667-.045l.244.155-1.244 5.89zm.423-7.466c-.2.177-.49.266-.823.266q-.465 0-.8-.266a.88.88 0 0 1-.31-.69c0-.31.11-.555.31-.733q.3-.266.8-.266c.356 0 .623.089.823.266s.31.423.31.734c-.022.289-.11.51-.31.689"/> Illustration: Guardian Design / Wealthy Cousins Thanks on your suggestions.

Harry Davies: Yossi Sariel, the previous head of [Israel’s elite spy agency] Unit 8200, wrote a e-book below a pseudonym that we revealed to have been revealed by him. In that e-book, he articulated what on the time was a daring and radical imaginative and prescient – as Yuval described, this fetishization of Silicon Valley know-how. He acknowledged the probabilities that the likes of Google, Amazon and Microsoft may afford the Israeli army. Two years earlier than October 7, he mentioned that militaries and governments wanted to forge relationships with these corporations which can be much like the relationships they've with corporations like Boeing and Lockheed Martin. So he was already occupied with these corporations as instrumental to struggle and surveillance in the way in which {that a} protection contractor supplies parts for fighter jets or manufactures bombs and missiles.

A few of our reporting has checked out how parts of his imaginative and prescient have come true and have been implement, each earlier than October 7 and afterwards, in each the West Financial institution and Gaza.

We all know AI is central to Israel ’s army operations – its military has developed its personal AI capabilities, as you revealed , Yuval, and has additionally purchased AI instruments to be used from Microsoft. Why is AI so central to Israel’s broader struggle goals?

Yuval Abraham: What AI did was enable Israel to realize the efficient outcomes of carpet bombing with out dropping the legitimacy of a data-driven assault with targets and goals. In Gaza, a technique during which the Israeli army used AI was to provide a rating to virtually each individual in Gaza who has a cellphone quantity, figuring out how probably it was that individual was a member of Hamas or Islamic Jihad. This rating was primarily based on a machine-learning algorithm [developed by Israel] known as Lavender . It was educated on a dataset of recognized Hamas members. AI allowed the Israeli army to generate and bomb tens of hundreds of army targets, on a scale that with out AI wouldn't have been humanly doable. Lots of the targets weren't Hamas members, in accordance with sources. And Israel for essentially the most half bombed these folks not whereas they have been engaged in army exercise, however once they stepped inside their households’ houses.

These AI techniques had an error fee that the Israeli army knew about. However to me, the important thing factor about AI just isn't the errors that it makes. It’s the dimensions of destruction that it permits militaries to unleash, and it’s a discourse of legitimacy that it permits – a discourse of targets and collateral harm.

AI additionally appears to me to incentivize mass surveillance, proper? As a result of it permits for the evaluation of ever-growing reams of data.

Harry Davies: Alerts intelligence businesses have lengthy collected extra info than they may humanly course of. That served as a form of restraint on their potential to conduct mass surveillance. I believe we’re now seeing a shift the place AI permits an intelligence company like Unit 8200 to make sense of issues that beforehand it struggled to make sense of.

Microsoft explicitly credited your reporting for altering its insurance policies. Are you seeing some other indicators of shifts inside the tech trade?

Harry Davies: I believe we’re seeing numerous discomfort and dissent inside these corporations at each a junior and to some extent senior stage. Many staff have been disturbed to search out what the services and products that they’re working across the clock to construct and market are literally contributing to. There have been protest groups which have emerged from present and former staff inside these corporations. That’s true throughout Silicon Valley. I believe that performed some position within the resolution that Microsoft made on account of our reporting. They have been dealing with numerous strain internally.

Yuval Abraham: And there’s additionally a authorized query for these corporations: if the ICJ [international court of justice] finally ends up ruling that Israel has dedicated a genocide, then a follow-up query can be: who contributed to that genocide? Which corporations helped keep it and maintain it? For some folks in these corporations who're considering forward, that may be a trigger for concern.

It sounds such as you assume shifts in public help for Israel may really have an effect on these enterprise relationships.

Yuval Abraham: Israel has developed a reliance on these corporations for its Nimbus project , which is a big contract signed between Israel and Google and Amazon again in 2021. It's transferring the info of lots of its authorities ministries, together with troves of data from the Ministry of Protection, onto these corporations’ cloud servers.

These are US corporations. They’re taking a sure gamble right here that the US will keep loyal to Israel and received’t block, restrict or sanction them.

Microsoft solely blocked entry to know-how that was particularly enabling the mass surveillance of Palestinian cellphone calls – there are nonetheless many relationships between Microsoft and the Israeli army. However Microsoft’s motion made many individuals within the Israeli system nervous. It was the primary time we all know of {that a} large tech firm withdrew providers from the Israeli army. It made some folks ask whether or not Israel is making a mistake by giving these overseas corporations a lot leverage. That query is folded inside a bigger query of what the US will do, what's going to occur in 2028 if there’s a extra progressive administration within the White Home, at a time when so many Individuals consider that Israel has dedicated a genocide in Gaza.

What’s your focus going to be in 2026?

Yuval Abraham: I believe we solely uncovered the tip of the iceberg.

Harry Davies: We’re each very acutely aware that, though now we have spent numerous time engaged on this, we nonetheless simply have glimpses contained in the system. We’re persevering with to construct a fuller image of how this know-how was and continues for use in Gaza and within the West Financial institution as nicely.

There’s good cause to proceed paying consideration. Militaries take note of what different militaries are doing. There may be nice curiosity amongst different western militaries in how Israel prosecuted this struggle, in the way it built-in these form of applied sciences.

And there are different militaries whose fight techniques and processes are already deeply built-in with Silicon Valley tech. Take the American army, for instance. Have a look at what’s occurring proper now within the Caribbean. Are these operations in some way freed from the involvement or reliance on techniques and providers offered by these corporations? I think not. We don’t know for certain, however the Pentagon and the US army have very large contracts with all of those corporations to supply cloud providers. Submit-Gaza, now we have to have a look at these relationships and ask: what's the involvement of those corporations and their know-how in army selections, in army operations and in warfare extra broadly?

Yuval Abraham: A lot of our reporting relies on whistleblowers, on people who're in proximity to energy or maintain positions of energy.

Harry Davies: Our confidential sources have remained confidential and we're all the time involved in listening to from new folks. Our door is all the time open.

If you have something to share about this story, you can contact Harry Davies and Yuval Abraham using one of the following methods.

Secure Messaging in the Guardian app

The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.

If you don’t already have the Guardian app, download it ( iOS / Android ) and go to the menu. Select ‘Secure Messaging’.

To send a message to Harry and Yuval please choose the ‘UK Investigations’ team.

Signal Messenger

You can message Harry using the Signal Messenger app. Use the ‘find by username’ option and type hfd.90

Email (not secure)

If you don’t need a high level of security or confidentiality you can email harry.davies@theguardian.com

SecureDrop and other secure methods

If you can safely use the tor network without being observed or monitored you can send messages and documents to the Guardian via our SecureDrop platform .

Finally, our guide at theguardian.com/tips lists several ways to contact us securely, and discusses the pros and cons of each.

","image":"https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ae475ccca7c94a4565f6b500a485479f08098383/788_0_4000_4000/4000.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=45fd162100b331bf1618e364c5c69452","credit":"Illustration: Guardian Design / Rich Cousins"}"> Fast Information Contact Harry Davies and Yuval Abraham about this story Present When you've got one thing to share about this story, you possibly can contact Harry Davies and Yuval Abraham utilizing one of many following strategies.

Safe Messaging within the Guardian app

The Guardian app has a software to ship recommendations on tales. Messages are finish to finish encrypted and hid inside the routine exercise that each Guardian cell app performs. This prevents an observer from understanding that you're speaking with us in any respect, not to mention what's being mentioned.

In the event you don’t have already got the Guardian app, obtain it ( iOS / Android ) and go to the menu. Choose ‘Safe Messaging’.

To ship a message to Harry and Yuval please select the ‘UK Investigations’ staff.

Sign Messenger

You'll be able to message Harry utilizing the Sign Messenger app. Use the ‘discover by username’ choice and sort hfd.90

E mail (not safe)

In the event you don’t want a excessive stage of safety or confidentiality you possibly can e mail harry.davies@theguardian.com

SecureDrop and different safe strategies

In the event you can safely use the tor community with out being noticed or monitored you possibly can ship messages and paperwork to the Guardian through our SecureDrop platform .

Lastly, our information at theguardian.com/tips lists a number of methods to contact us securely, and discusses the professionals and cons of every.

<path d="M12 2C6.467 2 2 6.467 2 12s4.467 10 10 10 10-4.467 10-10S17.533 2 12 2m1.133 13.933v.49c-.11.088-.266.155-.422.244a13 13 0 0 1-.511.2 2.4 2.4 0 0 1-.533.133 4 4 0 0 1-.511.044c-.356 0-.578-.066-.712-.2a.58.58 0 0 1-.222-.444c0-.178.022-.356.045-.533.022-.178.066-.356.11-.578l.934-4.245-.867-.2v-.466c.134-.045.312-.111.556-.178.222-.067.467-.111.733-.156.267-.044.511-.088.756-.11.244-.023.467-.045.667-.045l.244.155-1.244 5.89zm.423-7.466c-.2.177-.49.266-.823.266q-.465 0-.8-.266a.88.88 0 0 1-.31-.69c0-.31.11-.555.31-.733q.3-.266.8-.266c.356 0 .623.089.823.266s.31.423.31.734c-.022.289-.11.51-.31.689"/> Illustration: Guardian Design / Wealthy Cousins Thanks on your suggestions.