What comes first to mind when historical discourses around ‘colonialism’ are organised? The word is not just a matter of the past; it is still relevant in present times. The longest ongoing genocide in Palestine is one such instance that must not remain unnoticed. Precisely, aligning with technological advancements, the Israel government has resorted to digital colonialism where its association with high-tech corporations inflict genocidal attacks on Palestinians.
The entire colonial process of dispossessing Palestinians of their resources and rights is incomplete without persistent support from American giant corporations. Microsoft, Amazon, Google and OpenAI who aid Israel in maintaining intelligence data as part of settler colonialism in Palestine, the land that has been enduring oppression, suppression, and repression for decades, while people around the globe have turned their eyes away.
One example is Amazon, one of the most powerful corporations whose capitalist approach can also be seen through labour- exploitative practices, which its workers have to face. In order to gain profit, Amazon workers are being exploited. In Manesar, Haryana, through labour inspection, it was found that its workers are supposed to commit not to take breaks to ensure maximum production. Besides, it poses a serious challenge to environmental stability through its packaging processes. But the point to be noted is a research piece entitled Introduction: Amazon Capitalism, which mentions Amazon as one of the most powerful corporations that endangers ‘privacy’ and ‘civil liberty’.
Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI contribute to the same, and enable the killings of hundreds of thousands of humans in the colonised area. In present times, surveillance is managed as a tool to oppress people. On the one hand, these high-tech corporations hold on to technological advancements to maximise profit. On the other hand, they aid colonial forces in putting the colonised under surveillance. In fact, these corporations work as a link between Ultra-Nationalism and Colonialism.
Tech corporations have a long-standing contribution to settler colonialism
Tech corporations’ contributions to colonialism can be traced back to the opening years of the 20th century; South Africa fell victim to it. 1948 marked the institutionalisation of the Apartheid system or racist segregation with the National Party winning the election, and codifying racist practices as government policy. Ironically, the National Party was based on Afrikaner Nationalism, which was ingrained in people’s minds to promote white Afrikaner interests, and create a racist segregationist system in South Africa.
In order to ensure the Apartheid system to work in a swift manner, American computers were installed in South Africa. It was IBM, an American tech corporation, that dominated as a supplier of computers under the Apartheid regime. These imported computers were used to impose an all-seeing surveillance system through ‘race classification’, recording details about the African population. According to a research piece entitled Surveillance in South Africa: From Skin Branding to Digital Colonialism, the United States remained inclined towards increasing its participation in Southern Africa.
In fact, surveillance in South Africa garnered the attention of imperialists, colonisers and capitalists. Furthermore, there is a complete evolution into digital colonialism, passing from paper passses to surveil slave movements, through marking the skin of workers with registered symbols in paper databases, and the introduction of fingerprints in certain areas, to incorporating computers to maintain Apartheid.
In present times, American companies still do not stagger a bit to dominate the technological infrastructure in South Africa. Giant tech corporations, Facebook and Google have taken the reins of the online industry, while Uber dominates its taxi arena; such domination poses a challenge to local infrastructure.
Giant tech corporations, Facebook and Google have taken the reins of the online industry, while Uber dominates its taxi arena; such domination poses a challenge to local infrastructure.
In Palestine, the infiltration of tech corporations to surveil Palestinians and curtail their rights is also an ongoing process. Digital colonialism endangers workers, journalists and activists, who are compelled to undergo high-level surveillance. Who Profits Research Centre is an independent research platform that tends to highlight the direct participation of Israeli and international giant corporations in the colonisation of Palestine. The research exposes that multinational corporations benefit from Israel’s political interests in suppressing Palestinians’ rights, exploiting resources and labour, and expanding settlements.
In short, technological advancements have genocidal consequences in Gaza and the West Bank. AI automated tools are trained with data extracted from Palestinians to subjugate them. The United Nations experts highlighted Israel using artificial intelligence in conducting ‘domicide’ in Gaza. The experts further state that domicide is a crime against humanity. Journalists deem Palestine ‘the site of the first AI-powered genocide‘.
Both Israeli and American tech corporations have their firm role in killing Palestinians. Israel’s AI-generated tools : The Gospel, Lavender and Where’s Daddy target buildings and track people’s locations to strike them. In 2024, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights made a statement, ‘Most of Gaza’s dead are women and children.‘
It is worthwhile to note that Israel and American tech corporations are genocidal in nature, but receive significant attention and praise from mainstream journalists.
In fact, there is a list of international companies that make profits from genocide in Gaza. To begin with, there is Amazon. The Israeli military uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) in inflicting genocidal attacks in Gaza. It is known as the world’s largest provider of web services. There has been a developed cloud infrastructure for different branches of the Israeli government, owing to the contribution of Amazon along with Google cloud in order to collect data on people that has culminated in their killings on a large scale in Gaza.
Then comes Cisco, the largest networking system that is responsible for hardware services and telecommunications that contribute to the killings of Palestinians in mass genocide in Gaza. Like Amazon, Google and Microsoft cloud services prompted Israel to increase their attacks on Palestinian land.
Like Amazon, Google and Microsoft cloud services prompted Israel to increase their attacks on Palestinian land.
Their technological advancements contribute to exploitation, and have been complicit in genocide on the colonised land for a long time. These advancements have gone beyond experimentation, and prompt Israel to access millions of people’s live tracking to bomb them.
Ultra-nationalism, settler colonialism and tech corporations strengthen the apartheid system by Israel in Palestine
The word ‘Apartheid’ is as relevant in Palestine as in South Africa; we must not to fall victim to AI-generated information that maintains its confinement to South Africa. Around the world, we have users of these tech companies who do not have awareness of its complicity in the killings of the marginalised.
In fact, it is important to understand that these giant tech corporations have an alliance with ultra-nationalism, which was the foundation on which the Israeli government came to power. To be precise, ultra-nationalism, settler colonialism and tech corporations maintain and strengthen the apartheid system of discrimination, exploitation, suppression, and oppression in Palestine.
The turning of settler colonies into settler nation-states cannot be carried out with just extreme nationalism. Settler colonists have a well-defined objective to replace indigenous populations with settlers, and to meet this goal, it is considered important to incorporate any means necessary, including tech corporations.
In Palestine, the indigenous are put under heavy surveillance as an integral part of the apartheid system, and is maintained on a large scale. Tech companies encroach into their private domain to make them fall into a ‘death trap’. Therefore, it must be remembered that the ongoing genocide us not facilitated as much by Big Tech as it is by the ideology of Zionism.
About the author(s)
As a student of history at the University of Delhi, Nashra Rehman is always elated to share
her understanding of Gender History and an interlink between past and present. She is highly
passionate to inculcate in awakening minds pertaining to “How and Why women are
marginalised” through her publications.
