[00:01.140 --> 00:02.280]  My name is Aman.
[00:04.080 --> 00:08.360]  And this talk is based on a project that began three years ago.
[00:09.360 --> 00:21.040]  What I'm going to share is based on fieldwork and interviews with more than 80 people, including activists, journalists, lawyers, human rights professionals and other people.
[00:23.990 --> 00:28.450]  So the first thing I want to clarify is what do I mean by counter surveillance?
[00:29.330 --> 00:38.790]  It's the idea that instead of the powerful surveilling the weak, such as states and corporations surveilling people, what if people surveilled states and corporations instead?
[00:39.170 --> 00:47.290]  So the goal is to monitor the powerful so that we can better understand them, expose their wrongdoings and seek justice.
[00:47.810 --> 00:58.330]  Some people, including at this conference, have also used the term to mean how surveillance can be circumvented or resisted, but that is not my focus today.
[00:59.150 --> 01:07.210]  Also, the activists that I'm going to be speaking about, they don't themselves use this term, but I think this term is a good descriptor of what they're doing.
[01:08.090 --> 01:17.490]  So just as technologies of surveillance can take many, many forms, there are innumerable ways in which people do counter surveillance.
[01:18.290 --> 01:29.070]  So scraping government websites to compile databases or creating archives of leaked government data are some of the ways in which you can think about counter surveillance.
[01:29.890 --> 01:37.190]  I am specifically focusing on the use of cameras by anti-occupation activists in the West Bank.
[01:37.940 --> 01:41.910]  And these activists have been doing this for almost 20 years.
[01:43.890 --> 01:48.330]  And they document violence from Israeli settlers and the IDF.
[01:49.790 --> 02:00.290]  But before I get into the details of this context, I want to take a step back and get into what does it mean even to use cameras to expose injustices.
[02:01.050 --> 02:06.510]  So we all certainly remember what happened in 2020 with the video of George Floyd.
[02:07.190 --> 02:17.070]  And how monumental the role of the video was in leading to massive uprisings in the U.S., but also outside the U.S. quite globally.
[02:17.590 --> 02:22.330]  The person who took the video was there on accident.
[02:22.470 --> 02:28.350]  And what she did is representative of an instinct that is becoming quite common.
[02:28.810 --> 02:39.770]  And this instinct is that the police officers, not the police officers, but police officers in general, might be less violent if they see that they're being filmed.
[02:40.410 --> 02:47.550]  And there's a general feeling that surely, if there are videos like that, then they can be used to hold perpetrators accountable.
[02:48.690 --> 02:55.970]  So cases like George Floyd's video suggest that videos of police brutality matter a lot.
[02:57.050 --> 03:05.250]  And these videos can be a useful tool for activists because they can generate tremendous public outrage and mobilize people.
[03:05.790 --> 03:16.790]  And also authorities do seem to care about getting exposed because if they did not care, then why would various government institutions try to prevent people from filming?
[03:18.350 --> 03:24.830]  Or why would state-sanctioned actors, perpetrators hide their faces by wearing masks?
[03:25.170 --> 03:26.530]  So it does seem to matter.
[03:26.770 --> 03:30.310]  But on the other hand, videos of state violence barely seem to matter.
[03:30.690 --> 03:37.790]  And the most obvious example is the genocide in Gaza, which has been live streamed for almost two years.
[03:38.970 --> 03:45.170]  And Gazans have been filming what's happening around them, hoping that it would stop the deaths and destruction.
[03:45.350 --> 03:46.210]  But that hasn't happened.
[03:47.190 --> 03:56.610]  So if you go back to even if you go back to George Floyd's murder, it's important to remember that there are so many cases of police brutality that are filmed and not much happened.
[03:57.310 --> 03:59.450]  Nobody really seems to care.
[03:59.910 --> 04:02.510]  So overall, videos occasionally matter.
[04:03.380 --> 04:11.130]  On top of all of this, there are also cases where perpetrators are themselves filming what they're doing.
[04:11.890 --> 04:21.030]  So rather than feeling afraid of exposure, they want to celebrate their impunity and also generate fear among the victims.
[04:21.370 --> 04:28.230]  This happens across the world, and it has happened in Gaza, where IDF soldiers have filmed themselves committing crimes.
[04:29.170 --> 04:35.510]  So I wanted to highlight this big picture before I start talking about using cameras for counter-surveillance.
[04:36.290 --> 04:41.450]  Because there is no certainty that visuals of injustice will lead to justice.
[04:42.170 --> 04:45.630]  And the case that I'm going to talk about is no exception.
[04:46.430 --> 04:50.970]  I will explain what doing counter-surveillance with camera means in this context.
[04:51.610 --> 04:59.910]  But I want to be really clear that I'm not claiming that it is revolutionary or that it is going to become revolutionary in the future.
[05:03.380 --> 05:06.100]  So here's the overview of what I'll be talking about.
[05:06.620 --> 05:09.060]  So first, I'll give you the context.
[05:09.420 --> 05:12.160]  I'll explain who is filming what.
[05:12.940 --> 05:22.160]  And in the second and third sections, where I describe what activists are doing in terms of using the cameras and then how they're using the video.
[05:22.780 --> 05:32.600]  The main thing that I'm trying to do is, by explaining that, I want to explain how things are in the West Bank, how institutions work and how power works.
[05:33.460 --> 05:38.780]  Because we can use the success and failure of counter-surveillance to understand the larger picture.
[05:38.940 --> 05:40.440]  That's one useful way of looking at it.
[05:41.080 --> 05:45.120]  And in the last section, I will talk about the significance of this activism.
[05:49.360 --> 05:50.820]  So the context.
[05:50.980 --> 05:52.900]  Who is filming and what are they filming?
[05:53.440 --> 06:00.740]  So this activism takes place in sparsely populated rural and agricultural areas of the West Bank.
[06:01.260 --> 06:09.180]  The Palestinian communities living in these areas are small and they largely rely on farming and shepherding for livelihood.
[06:09.600 --> 06:10.960]  So I'm going to show you some pictures.
[06:11.160 --> 06:17.060]  These pictures were taken by photographer activists or photojournalists.
[06:17.060 --> 06:23.120]  They were not taken by the activists that I'm talking about, who are more, you know, using their smartphone cameras and handheld video cameras.
[06:26.440 --> 06:27.980]  So this is in the summer.
[06:28.200 --> 06:29.280]  The landscape is dry.
[06:29.400 --> 06:32.020]  There are sheep in the background.
[06:34.440 --> 06:35.660]  And this is in the winter.
[06:58.240 --> 07:03.700]  And in the background, the buildings are what is the settlement.
[07:04.180 --> 07:07.240]  And the jeep is an IDF vehicle.
[07:10.280 --> 07:10.960]  Okay.
[07:11.420 --> 07:16.960]  So this activism, I already explained the region, what it looks like.
[07:17.140 --> 07:21.100]  The people filming are Israeli and international activists.
[07:21.380 --> 07:22.520]  They are behind the camera.
[07:22.520 --> 07:25.760]  And I am going to call them solidarity activists.
[07:26.240 --> 07:27.600]  They're in solidarity with Palestinians.
[07:28.020 --> 07:29.520]  And they're mostly jews.
[07:30.280 --> 07:32.360]  Solidarity activists are a very small group.
[07:32.360 --> 07:37.420]  And my estimate is that no more than a couple hundred are regularly active.
[07:38.940 --> 07:46.380]  The Israeli solidarity activists are a miniscule part of the Israeli society, Israeli population.
[07:46.380 --> 07:55.680]  And the mainstream Israeli society considers them to be radical leftists, anarchists, traitors for supporting Palestinians and other things in that vein.
[07:57.100 --> 08:04.100]  Most international solidarity activists that I came across were jews from North America and Europe.
[08:06.100 --> 08:12.940]  So we know that Palestinians are filming all by themselves all the time, whether it's in Gaza or in the West Bank.
[08:13.840 --> 08:26.600]  My focus is on situations where solidarity activists are also involved in the picture, where they are definitely the ones holding cameras, in addition to Palestinians also holding the camera.
[08:28.200 --> 08:36.240]  And this adds an interesting dimension to counter-surveillance, the fact that solidarity activists are involved in the picture.
[08:37.040 --> 08:40.520]  It gives a point of comparison, and that will become clear in a second.
[08:41.500 --> 08:54.680]  So when Israeli security forces and settlers target Palestinians living in these areas, solidarity activists and Palestinians use cameras to deter and document the violence.
[08:54.880 --> 08:56.340]  So deterrence part is really important.
[08:56.540 --> 09:01.420]  They're hoping that by pointing the cameras, they can change the behavior of the people being filmed.
[09:01.860 --> 09:05.400]  People meaning the settlers and Israeli security forces.
[09:06.200 --> 09:09.920]  Afterward, they distribute the videos and images as widely as possible.
[09:10.160 --> 09:12.500]  They give it to journalists, human rights organizations.
[09:12.500 --> 09:13.740]  They go to police stations.
[09:13.740 --> 09:17.160]  They file legal complaints and things like that.
[09:17.280 --> 09:18.480]  They share it on social media.
[09:19.380 --> 09:22.300]  Some activists also catalog and archive the videos.
[09:23.160 --> 09:35.260]  So there are more than 440,000 Israelis living in the West Bank, in what are called settlements, and these Israelis are commonly called settlers.
[09:36.180 --> 09:38.980]  So what does the violence look like?
[09:43.080 --> 09:46.160]  So this is an image of settlers.
[09:46.160 --> 09:47.260]  They're typically armed.
[09:48.600 --> 09:51.920]  So Israeli settlers can destroy Palestinian property.
[09:52.080 --> 09:54.460]  It could be solar panels and water tanks.
[09:54.460 --> 09:59.200]  They can set fire to structures, vehicles, crops, and so on.
[09:59.780 --> 10:05.720]  They can steal and kill livestock, destroy olive trees and water wells.
[10:05.960 --> 10:07.900]  And these settlers are mostly armed.
[10:08.560 --> 10:15.300]  They can purchase guns legally, and they display them openly when they are in Palestinian communities.
[10:16.420 --> 10:20.720]  And often enough, settlers assault Palestinians, sometimes killing them.
[10:21.360 --> 10:25.240]  And settlers can also seriously injure solidarity activists.
[10:25.420 --> 10:26.100]  That also happens.
[10:27.960 --> 10:40.800]  Settler violence is unofficially supported by Israeli authorities, because either settlers are not punished, or the Israeli forces actively join settlers in targeting Palestinians.
[10:42.960 --> 10:56.460]  When it comes to the IDF, soldiers could be demolishing homes, schools, water wells, or confiscating cars and other property belonging to Palestinians.
[10:57.670 --> 11:05.080]  The IDF justifies its demolitions by saying that Palestinians build these structures without a permit.
[11:05.870 --> 11:12.640]  But Israeli authorities also systematically refuse to give permits, building permits, to Palestinians.
[11:13.860 --> 11:26.500]  The Israeli NGO piece now found that in an entire decade, starting from 2009, there were only 2% permits that were approved out of 4,500.
[11:27.580 --> 11:32.000]  The violence from IDF also includes assaulting, arresting, and killing Palestinians.
[11:37.230 --> 11:41.770]  So this is a friend of mine who is standing on top of his demolished home.
[11:49.540 --> 11:56.540]  One more thing that you would see in these pictures is that the activists and Palestinians are not the only ones filming.
[11:57.640 --> 11:58.880]  The soldiers are filming.
[11:59.080 --> 12:00.140]  The Israeli police is filming.
[12:00.320 --> 12:01.160]  The settlers are filming.
[12:01.720 --> 12:02.500]  Everyone's filming.
[12:02.500 --> 12:06.400]  And they're trying to use it however they can and to their own advantage.
[12:07.160 --> 12:10.660]  I'm not getting so much into what they do with the videos in this talk.
[12:10.820 --> 12:12.080]  I'm focusing more on the activists.
[12:24.210 --> 12:24.810]  All right.
[12:24.950 --> 12:33.290]  So the official violence by the IDF and other security forces works hand in hand with the unofficial violence by settlers.
[12:33.770 --> 12:38.270]  So in this image, the person on the right in civilian clothes is a settler.
[12:38.670 --> 12:41.870]  And the others are IDF soldiers.
[12:42.570 --> 13:01.670]  So as the really prominent Israeli NGO Batsallam puts it, the Israeli quote, the Israeli apartheid regime and its representatives actively aid and abet the settlers' violence as part of a strategy to cement takeover of Palestinian land.
[13:01.670 --> 13:02.250]  One quote.
[13:02.690 --> 13:07.250]  So going forward, when I say state violence, I'm also including settler violence in it.
[13:10.640 --> 13:14.680]  And here's an example of what it means to aid and abet settler violence.
[13:14.720 --> 13:17.080]  And I'm not showing this because it's unusual.
[13:17.080 --> 13:18.980]  I'm showing it because it is very typical.
[13:19.600 --> 13:33.620]  So you can see from the title of the story, Palestinian man was shot by a settler and the IDF came and arrested this man's son and put him in a military prison.
[13:34.520 --> 13:37.660]  And the person that was shot lost his leg.
[13:37.980 --> 13:40.920]  And this happens very, very regularly, these kinds of incidents.
[13:46.300 --> 13:50.820]  So the state violence in this region is slow and grinding.
[13:51.200 --> 13:55.160]  And with enough pressure, Palestinians are forced to leave.
[13:58.230 --> 14:04.070]  So here are people from a village called Maharaja packing up their belongings.
[14:04.330 --> 14:05.970]  And this village no longer exists.
[14:06.450 --> 14:08.390]  And it's a recent picture from this year.
[14:12.930 --> 14:15.130]  And this is what used to be one of the villages.
[14:15.530 --> 14:23.430]  So since October 7th, almost 2,500 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced, according to Batsalam's data.
[14:23.430 --> 14:31.510]  And even before October 7th, and I think this part is important to note, settler violence was highest in almost two decades.
[14:33.270 --> 14:38.210]  And this violence is different from what you would see in the coverage of West Bank many times.
[14:39.310 --> 14:47.050]  So it's different from full-fledged IDF invasions in Palestinian cities in the West Bank, like Janine, which look more like this.
[14:48.530 --> 14:50.350]  There, the violence is extremely deadly.
[14:50.350 --> 14:54.130]  It involves Israeli tanks, ground troops, and recently drones.
[14:54.650 --> 14:57.830]  There are also Palestinian militant groups who are armed.
[14:58.490 --> 15:05.730]  The destruction of Palestinian infrastructure and Palestinian casualties in these attacks are heavy.
[15:06.810 --> 15:11.910]  And the area under the attack, under the idea of attack, is essentially like a war zone.
[15:12.230 --> 15:16.250]  So Saudi IT activists are not active in these areas.
[15:16.250 --> 15:21.850]  They're more working in agricultural, slow grind, state violence context.
[15:23.250 --> 15:34.430]  The violence in the region that I'm talking about happens in close quarters, where Palestinians and Saudi IT activists often know and recognize individual settlers and soldiers who terrorize them.
[15:35.110 --> 15:40.950]  Settlers often come from nearby settlements, which in some cases could be right next to the Palestinian village.
[15:45.190 --> 15:55.050]  So how do activists counter surveil and what does that say about the laws on the ground and the map of Israel-Palestine?
[15:55.270 --> 15:57.990]  So consider this situation.
[15:58.490 --> 16:03.550]  A pair of solidarity activists leave from Jerusalem at 5 a.m. to reach a Palestinian community in the West Bank.
[16:06.710 --> 16:16.250]  They have smartphone cameras and are accompanying two Palestinian shepherds who expect to be harassed or attacked by the IDF or settlers during shepherding.
[16:17.590 --> 16:19.070]  Consider another situation.
[16:19.610 --> 16:25.030]  Solidarity activists are doing overnight shifts in a village of 50 Palestinian residents.
[16:26.110 --> 16:34.650]  There is always a pair of solidarity activists in the village because settlers and soldiers are attacking very often and the village is on the verge of leaving.
[16:35.210 --> 16:39.970]  Activists have a bag with a handheld camera, a body camera, and batteries.
[16:40.330 --> 16:47.650]  So the question is that why does the presence of as few as two solidarity activists matter?
[16:48.170 --> 16:52.230]  Why is it worthwhile for Palestinians to invite these solidarity activists?
[16:53.490 --> 16:59.170]  So the answer involves understanding the legal geography of Israel-Palestine.
[16:59.170 --> 17:03.530]  And in simple words, that means understanding what this map means on the ground.
[17:05.470 --> 17:07.850]  So I'm going to pause here for a couple of seconds.
[17:07.850 --> 17:12.530]  And I want you to notice the map on the left has...
[17:13.810 --> 17:16.190]  It shows West Bank and Gaza, of course, and Israel.
[17:16.530 --> 17:22.950]  And within West Bank, you see these patches, these yellow patches surrounded by the sea of blue.
[17:24.490 --> 17:33.050]  So the blue areas are under direct Israeli control and the yellow areas are under indirect Israeli control.
[17:33.250 --> 17:41.270]  Indirect meaning that Israeli authority is still supreme all across the West Bank.
[17:41.410 --> 17:45.950]  But in the yellow patches, there is some Palestinian authority.
[17:46.450 --> 17:48.290]  But I'm not referring to Palestinian authority.
[17:48.290 --> 17:49.410]  The organization just generally.
[17:51.990 --> 17:59.870]  And then on the right, it's the zoomed in version of the West Bank, where you can see all these red dots that are checkpoints.
[17:59.870 --> 18:05.270]  The boundaries with the red line is the separation wall.
[18:06.850 --> 18:10.470]  So the West Bank has different laws for different populations.
[18:10.890 --> 18:16.510]  Palestinians are under Israeli military rule, which means severe restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly.
[18:17.270 --> 18:22.890]  Palestinians are tried in military courts, where the conviction rate is more than 99 percent.
[18:23.750 --> 18:39.790]  There is this thing called administrative detention, where Palestinians can be held without trial and without having committed any offense for years, because they might commit something, commit a crime in the future, according to Israeli authorities.
[18:40.610 --> 18:44.470]  So Palestinians in the West Bank have obviously not chosen to be ruled this way.
[18:44.470 --> 18:48.290]  In simple words, they are under a military dictatorship of Israeli authorities.
[18:49.070 --> 19:02.130]  And there is a separate system, the civilian legal system for anyone who is not Palestinian, like a settler in the West Bank or an Israeli from Tel Aviv who's visiting the West Bank or even an international.
[19:02.530 --> 19:06.930]  The civilian legal system in the West Bank consists of civilian courts and civilian police.
[19:07.450 --> 19:12.810]  This implies that Palestinian in the West Bank and Israeli in the West Bank committing the same crime.
[19:13.310 --> 19:17.630]  The punishment would be very different and would be much more harsh for Palestinians.
[19:18.010 --> 19:24.610]  This is why so many organizations, people have called this a system of apartheid.
[19:26.310 --> 19:33.330]  So on the leftmost, the ICJ refers to International Court of Justice.
[19:33.770 --> 19:43.190]  And then there's a report from Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and Al Haqq is a really prominent Palestinian NGO.
[19:43.430 --> 19:49.430]  And that report is worth reading because it ties apartheid with bigger questions of settler colonialism.
[19:51.470 --> 19:53.470]  So back to counter surveillance.
[19:55.250 --> 20:01.710]  The idea is that Israeli and international activists can film relatively more safely than Palestinians.
[20:02.190 --> 20:06.910]  They can question the IDF more forcefully and face lesser consequences.
[20:07.630 --> 20:15.570]  Settlers are relatively more hesitant to attack solidarity activists because these activists can file criminal cases in civilian courts.
[20:16.270 --> 20:25.550]  When settlers attack Palestinians, it is extremely difficult for Palestinians to access the Israeli civilian system, civilian legal system and file a complaint.
[20:25.830 --> 20:30.370]  So this is not just about the right to film and legal disparities, but about life and death.
[20:30.610 --> 20:37.110]  It is rare that solidarity activists are killed by the idea for settlers, which happens more often with Palestinians.
[20:37.710 --> 20:49.790]  So counter surveillance here is not only about systematically using cameras to film state violence, but also putting the cameras on bodies that are more protected from state violence.
[20:50.490 --> 20:54.470]  So counter surveillance because of this is reflecting apartheid laws.
[20:55.450 --> 21:06.070]  So you can think of this counter surveillance infrastructure as being mobile in the sense that solidarity activists move with cameras rather than cameras being fixed in specific locations.
[21:06.530 --> 21:11.030]  This is very different from governments installing surveillance cameras in public spaces.
[21:11.850 --> 21:19.710]  And although Palestinians and solidarity activists do install cameras in villages, these cameras are easily destroyed by settlers and soldiers.
[21:19.710 --> 21:22.990]  They can be stolen and confiscated or they just like turn it away.
[21:23.890 --> 21:33.450]  This is because states can protect their own cameras, their surveillance cameras, because they are state property and disrupting their function is a crime.
[21:34.730 --> 21:43.250]  Whereas cameras for counter surveillance cannot be protected in this way at all, which is why people also resort to filming in secret, including Palestinians.
[21:43.730 --> 21:57.210]  In a sense, one of the safest places for putting a camera in a Palestinian community might be on the body of an Israeli or international activist, which is a stark example of how extreme the power asymmetry is.
[21:58.230 --> 22:08.810]  And I want to be clear that cameras are only relatively safe with solidarity activists who can also be arrested and beaten and their cameras can be snatched and stolen and smashed in front of them.
[22:09.330 --> 22:11.670]  And international activists can also be deported.
[22:11.670 --> 22:19.810]  So in this image, the person holding the camera is an Israeli activist.
[22:20.270 --> 22:30.670]  And what is happening is that the soldiers are saying that this shepherd cannot go to his own private land for grazing and so on.
[22:35.530 --> 22:38.570]  There is some argument about what land.
[22:38.890 --> 22:44.290]  So IDF soldiers basically arbitrarily prevent Palestinians from accessing their own land.
[22:44.490 --> 22:55.350]  So this Palestinian activist is showing documents which should convince the IDF that this land belongs to Palestinians and he should be able to access it.
[22:55.350 --> 22:57.750]  And in the background are two solidarity activists.
[23:01.560 --> 23:07.100]  And this is a Palestinian man getting arrested and the activist is filming.
[23:11.860 --> 23:19.140]  So the next question could be that what is the geographical scope of this mobile counter surveillance infrastructure?
[23:19.500 --> 23:21.720]  Like where would it work within Israel Palestine?
[23:22.120 --> 23:36.880]  So the geographical limits are defined by the areas that solidarity activists can access, which is essentially the same as the areas that Israeli civilians or settlers can access, because this whole thing is a civilian activity.
[23:37.480 --> 23:39.860]  So let's start with Gaza.
[23:40.520 --> 23:48.780]  So during the 2000s, solidarity activists were active in Gaza as well, because at that time it was relatively more accessible.
[23:49.180 --> 23:58.680]  A famous example is the American activist Rachel Corey, who was killed in 2003 by an Israeli bulldozer as she was trying to prevent a demolition.
[23:59.360 --> 24:03.020]  She was 23 years old at the time of her death.
[24:03.840 --> 24:07.940]  So during this period, there were Israeli settlements inside of Gaza.
[24:08.500 --> 24:15.740]  With time, Gaza became increasingly enclosed and the settlements were removed because protecting them became a security issue.
[24:16.340 --> 24:25.340]  Once the border of Gaza was sealed, saw that ID activists were unable to access it, and the kind of counter-surveillance that I'm speaking about ended.
[24:26.000 --> 24:30.840]  In contrast, West Bank is not sealed like Gaza.
[24:31.360 --> 24:38.280]  The situation there is that the state of Israel has confined Palestinians in small areas.
[24:38.660 --> 24:44.560]  These areas are made increasingly smaller by creating checkpoints and walls and seizing Palestinian land.
[24:45.060 --> 24:51.180]  The land that is gained from this process can be used for making settlements, roads where only Palestinian...
[24:51.180 --> 24:56.740]  roads where Palestinians cannot travel, whereas Israelis can, and other kinds of infrastructure.
[24:57.900 --> 25:03.800]  Israelis can therefore move very freely throughout most of the West Bank, while Palestinians cannot.
[25:04.580 --> 25:08.600]  So my point is that counter-surveillance depends heavily on mobility.
[25:09.580 --> 25:18.280]  Solidarity activists can travel easily from Jerusalem to a Palestinian village in the West Bank because they can use the infrastructure that has been created for Israelis.
[25:19.340 --> 25:24.220]  This infrastructure is designed to exclude Palestinians and to limit their mobility.
[25:24.680 --> 25:33.860]  And restrictions on mobility are another reason why Palestinians cannot do counter-surveillance in a way that solidarity activists can, even though Palestinians are filming all the time.
[25:37.100 --> 25:51.420]  So this is a zoomed-in view of the southern part of the West Bank, and all the... so the legend on the top left is basically marking all the closures on the map.
[25:51.600 --> 26:00.580]  So there are checkpoints, there are partial checkpoints, there are earth mounds, which are basically dug up, which is dug up land that cannot be crossed using a vehicle.
[26:00.580 --> 26:03.420]  There are roadblocks, there are trenches, and so on.
[26:04.060 --> 26:09.520]  And all these closures definitely...
[26:09.520 --> 26:12.340]  like they're meant to prevent Palestinians from moving freely.
[26:12.620 --> 26:17.160]  And they facilitate movement for Israelis.
[26:21.040 --> 26:28.880]  So before I get into how activists use the visuals, just a few more important things about this activism.
[26:28.880 --> 26:33.720]  The network of solidarity activists is very well organized, and it's very decentralized.
[26:34.220 --> 26:46.300]  So there are training sessions for newcomers where they focus on things like how to film, and the right to film, and how solidarity activists are in a different legal position than Palestinians, basically everything that I've been explaining.
[26:47.500 --> 26:57.700]  And the importance of being culturally sensitive when solidarity activists are in Palestinian communities, who have invited these activists, and many other things.
[26:58.380 --> 27:09.480]  The logistics of running shifts across multiple villages can be quite complicated, because activists need to be moved from one village to the other, and they need to be transported back home.
[27:09.620 --> 27:11.120]  And there are only so many cars.
[27:11.380 --> 27:14.380]  And then there are spreadsheets to plan all of this.
[27:16.980 --> 27:26.380]  Another thing to note is that this activism is heavily dependent on trust and friendships between Palestinian communities and solidarity activists.
[27:26.880 --> 27:36.020]  Palestinian communities trust the core solidarity activists, and these core solidarity activists recruit more activists.
[27:36.580 --> 27:39.480]  This is how an activist from the U.S.
[27:39.980 --> 27:46.080]  ends up in a Palestinian village and is sleeping in that Palestinian village without even knowing anybody in that village from before.
[27:48.260 --> 27:57.860]  Also, this activism makes it possible for solidarity activists to spend a lot of time in Palestinian communities, which creates even more friendships and trust.
[27:58.180 --> 28:04.980]  So this whole thing, this whole setup, is very different from showing up at a demonstration in a public space.
[28:05.140 --> 28:06.120]  It's very relational.
[28:09.730 --> 28:15.870]  So really big quantities of visuals are captured every single day.
[28:15.870 --> 28:22.850]  But a lot of it is discarded because activists start filming preemptively in case something might happen.
[28:23.230 --> 28:25.210]  So it's not useful footage.
[28:26.410 --> 28:32.170]  And a few activists take it upon themselves to collect what is useful and create little activist archives.
[28:33.070 --> 28:37.290]  Obviously, one of the main things they do with the visuals is share them on social media.
[28:37.610 --> 28:42.590]  And there are expected challenges like account bans and not enough audience engagement.
[28:42.590 --> 28:53.790]  But I think the way this is still effective is because these social media accounts and public group chats act as a small news ecosystem.
[28:54.810 --> 29:05.910]  Where journalists and human rights organizations and diplomats and all kinds of people get on the ground updates, even if the engagement on individual posts is not that high.
[29:07.330 --> 29:12.230]  Then, obviously, activists try to give their visuals to journalists to get news coverage.
[29:13.250 --> 29:19.130]  And journalists typically use visuals that show egregious violence, like shooting.
[29:19.530 --> 29:32.450]  But most of the visuals that these activists are capturing only show harassment, assault, destruction of property, demolitions, and those kind of things, which is not a news story for most outlets.
[29:32.450 --> 29:35.930]  And one more issue is that settler violence is so constant.
[29:35.930 --> 29:47.390]  It is so regular and just happening on a daily basis that it means that professional journalists feel that there is no news hook or a new angle to report on the story.
[29:47.530 --> 29:48.630]  It's already been reported on.
[29:49.350 --> 29:58.590]  Another challenge is that professional journalists prefer to witness events themselves that they're writing about, because then they can write with more authority.
[29:59.290 --> 30:06.290]  For example, if a journalist sees a video of settlers beating Palestinians, then they would write something like, according to eyewitness video.
[30:06.450 --> 30:09.370]  But if they saw it themselves, then maybe the language would be different.
[30:09.870 --> 30:11.850]  It could be more direct and more certain.
[30:12.670 --> 30:17.050]  But journalists are obviously not in these places for long enough to witness much themselves.
[30:17.670 --> 30:27.470]  So Israeli authorities, like many other governments, game this whole thing where they can issue a statement contradicting the video or saying that we are investigating.
[30:28.370 --> 30:34.350]  And journalists end up including it in their statements because they're trying to be balanced and they did not witness the incident themselves.
[30:35.010 --> 30:40.410]  So these are some of the hurdles that activists face in getting their visuals in the news reports.
[30:40.410 --> 30:47.330]  But the success is that journalists end up relying on activists in other ways.
[30:47.890 --> 30:53.390]  So I already mentioned that many journalists follow activists on social media, which helps them stay updated.
[30:53.610 --> 31:03.230]  But more than that, they end up relying on activists to even travel to these remote villages, find Palestinians to interview, find translators and so on.
[31:03.230 --> 31:06.010]  And sometimes activists themselves are translating.
[31:07.170 --> 31:19.310]  So because there are always small groups of solidarity activists leaving from Jerusalem and going to the West Bank or leaving from Tel Aviv and going to the West Bank, journalists can just hop on without arranging their own transportation.
[31:19.770 --> 31:23.070]  And they can rely on activists' judgment on where it's safe to go.
[31:24.190 --> 31:28.750]  And activists, in fact, even organize tours for journalists to visit these villages.
[31:28.750 --> 31:37.790]  So basically, journalists end up relying much more on the counter-surveillance network itself, as opposed to the visuals, which are useful sometimes.
[31:39.390 --> 31:50.930]  When it comes to using the visuals in legal channels, like legal accountability, it's usually not effective.
[31:50.930 --> 31:53.970]  So let's focus first on settlers.
[31:53.970 --> 31:58.350]  Let's say that there's a clear video showing that settlers are attacking a Palestinian.
[31:58.790 --> 32:05.970]  Since settlers are Israeli civilians, a formal complaint against them has to be filed in an Israeli police...
[32:05.970 --> 32:07.990]  Sorry, in an Israeli police station.
[32:08.970 --> 32:13.590]  Now, Israeli police stations are located inside the settlements.
[32:14.810 --> 32:23.350]  So a Palestinian who has been attacked, who has the video, cannot just walk inside the settlement and go to the police station and file a complaint.
[32:23.930 --> 32:28.690]  First of all, it might take hours to get to the police station because there are so many checkpoints in the West Bank.
[32:29.230 --> 32:34.710]  And then settlements are surrounded by walls, and there are armed guards at the gates.
[32:35.050 --> 32:42.890]  This entire architecture is to prevent Palestinians from entering the settlement to begin with, because they're all seen as a threat.
[32:43.470 --> 32:54.450]  So when the Palestinian arrives with the video at the gate of the settlement, the security guard at the settlement's gate might say that the Palestinian doesn't have the permission to enter the settlement.
[32:55.230 --> 32:55.910]  That's it.
[32:56.110 --> 33:01.470]  That could be the end of the story, because it's too burdensome for this person to come again.
[33:01.750 --> 33:12.390]  Or the police could tell the guard to tell the Palestinian to come another day, because there is no Arabic-speaking police officer at the police station, and the story could end there.
[33:13.970 --> 33:17.990]  Or at the police station, there could be hours long wait and all kinds of humiliation.
[33:18.650 --> 33:26.070]  So maybe a police officer eventually listens to the Palestinian's testimony, but they can simply refuse to look at the video.
[33:26.630 --> 33:28.350]  It doesn't matter how good the video is.
[33:28.550 --> 33:36.370]  Or if they look at the video, maybe it doesn't matter anyway, because Palestinian is now under arrest and has to pay a fine to be released.
[33:36.370 --> 33:38.950]  And I know this sounds absurd, but it happens all the time.
[33:39.070 --> 33:41.350]  And it is kind of similar to a Palestinian.
[33:41.570 --> 33:45.510]  The story that I shared where a Palestinian is shot and then ends up getting arrested.
[33:51.360 --> 33:58.140]  So if a Palestinian doesn't get arrested and is able to give a testimony, the likelihood of the police doing anything is really low.
[33:58.740 --> 34:02.100]  So Palestinians go to the Israeli police as a last resort.
[34:02.100 --> 34:04.560]  And doing this might lead to retaliation.
[34:05.320 --> 34:14.080]  Israeli authorities could cancel their work permit, which allows them to go to Israel and have a job because wages that are higher.
[34:16.700 --> 34:19.680]  So, you know, there are apps created by...
[34:20.920 --> 34:24.240]  I was supposed to show you this before.
[34:25.600 --> 34:30.840]  But what activists do with the visuals basically speak to the legal institutions is what I've been talking about.
[34:31.660 --> 34:45.340]  So there are these apps created by organizations like Open Archive and Eyewitness to Atrocities that are made with activists in mind who use cameras for documentation.
[34:45.340 --> 34:53.480]  And they are supposed to keep all the metadata so that it can be used in legal proceedings and prove that the video is authentic and things like that.
[34:55.520 --> 35:04.100]  But in this context, barely any activist is using such apps because the Israeli system is not questioning the authenticity of the video.
[35:04.600 --> 35:08.740]  They basically discard most of the evidence against state violence anyway.
[35:08.920 --> 35:09.800]  So it doesn't matter.
[35:09.940 --> 35:12.380]  That's not the debate yet, but nobody knows.
[35:12.460 --> 35:14.100]  Maybe later on, things could change.
[35:16.760 --> 35:31.420]  So the big view of what's happening in the legal system can be understood by looking at some reports by the Israeli NGO, Yesh Den, which collected data for the last 20 years on all these legal cases.
[35:32.040 --> 35:46.800]  And what they found is that in 94% of the cases, the case files of settler violence was closed without an indictment, which basically means that the case didn't even get to the trial stage.
[35:46.920 --> 35:49.300]  The police basically decided that we're not doing anything about this.
[35:50.020 --> 35:56.580]  And since 2005, there were only 3% conviction out of all the cases that were opened.
[35:57.940 --> 36:04.780]  So these numbers, also the 3% is only for cases where Palestinians actually managed to file a complaint.
[36:04.900 --> 36:09.220]  There are so many other cases where they never managed to file a complaint and convince the police officer.
[36:11.960 --> 36:17.940]  Yesh Den, the NGO was actually actively helping Palestinians in the process of filing a complaint.
[36:18.140 --> 36:21.120]  So the actual conviction rate is worse than 3%.
[36:21.120 --> 36:25.460]  And holding IDF soldiers accountable is even harder.
[36:26.520 --> 36:33.860]  Israeli institutions use an IDF soldier's claims as facts, even if there are witnesses and videos that contradict the claim.
[36:34.320 --> 36:41.540]  So there's another report by the same NGO where they found that the conviction rate for soldiers was 1.5%.
[36:41.540 --> 36:45.020]  And the punishments were very lenient, according to the NGO.
[36:45.620 --> 36:50.640]  So the videos generally don't really help in holding perpetrators of state violence accountable.
[36:51.080 --> 37:05.800]  But many activists pointed out that they're useful for something else, which is that they can show that the accusations against Palestinian or solidarity activists were false and they can reduce the punishment.
[37:06.820 --> 37:11.980]  So activists call this the defensive function of using cameras.
[37:13.120 --> 37:26.500]  So there is this example that I can show you where this person, this Palestinian man, Hafez Hireni, was working in his field when he was attacked by settlers who broke his arms.
[37:26.500 --> 37:28.480]  And he was defending himself.
[37:28.700 --> 37:31.280]  And in that process, the settler was also injured.
[37:31.840 --> 37:39.620]  So in the Israeli news media, immediately after this incident, Hafez was portrayed as a terrorist who attacked settlers.
[37:39.620 --> 37:42.080]  And this whole thing was an act of terrorism.
[37:42.700 --> 37:46.100]  And Hafez was said to be convicted in military court.
[37:46.100 --> 37:50.020]  And the punishment will probably be like being in prison for the rest of his life or something like that.
[37:50.800 --> 37:54.260]  It turned out that a solidarity activist had filmed the entire incident.
[37:55.880 --> 38:04.640]  And that video ended up playing a really useful role in preventing Hafez from getting potentially a life sentence.
[38:04.900 --> 38:08.880]  He was still in prison for around 10 days, but that's much less.
[38:13.140 --> 38:17.520]  So now I want to talk about the significance of this activism.
[38:18.160 --> 38:25.200]  And I think it comes down to what do we mean by something like this mattering?
[38:26.160 --> 38:32.440]  So in the beginning of the talk, I mentioned that visual state violence sometimes matter a lot, and sometimes not at all.
[38:32.740 --> 38:34.220]  And it's true here as well.
[38:34.640 --> 38:43.140]  Too many Palestinian villages have been ethnically cleansed, even though activists, solidarity activists were there and they were holding cameras and they were intervening.
[38:44.120 --> 38:47.440]  And Palestinians were trying their best to hold on to the land.
[38:48.040 --> 38:55.100]  But there are also many, many cases where the peak in violence somehow subsided and the bullets survived.
[38:57.200 --> 39:06.160]  And I also mentioned that there are numerous cases where Palestinians were able to avoid legal persecution because a video showed that they were falsely accused.
[39:06.660 --> 39:08.460]  And that is a very significant victory.
[39:11.360 --> 39:17.780]  Also, whatever news coverage or public awareness these visuals do generate is a victory.
[39:18.780 --> 39:27.720]  So the fact that this footage ended up in award-winning documentaries, so No Other Land, if you haven't seen it, you should watch it.
[39:28.580 --> 39:34.880]  It's an incredible film, and it also describes some of the activism that I'm talking about here.
[39:35.320 --> 39:42.600]  So the fact that these kind of films are watched by probably millions of people across the globe is definitely worth celebrating.
[39:43.280 --> 39:44.580]  Yet it's not enough.
[39:45.760 --> 39:52.300]  Counter-surveillance basically helps Palestinians in these areas resist dispossession, but it doesn't really guarantee anything.
[39:52.920 --> 39:55.040]  But then you could say that about all activism.
[39:55.620 --> 39:57.500]  Positive outcomes are never guaranteed.
[39:57.800 --> 40:03.560]  And the whole point is to act against injustice, because if nobody acts, then nothing will change.
[40:05.000 --> 40:10.520]  The other thing is that success and failure are not permanent, and they shift with time.
[40:10.980 --> 40:21.540]  So Palestinians and solidarity activists say that even if visuals matter only so much right now, maybe they would matter more in the future.
[40:22.160 --> 40:29.940]  They hope that someday these visuals and testimonies will be used for accountability and justice, and they will be used to write history.
[40:30.620 --> 40:34.940]  And to remember the lives and culture of Palestinians living in these areas and their struggle.
[40:35.720 --> 40:43.800]  And this feeling that they have stems from the fact that Palestinians are resisting erasure at a very fundamental level.
[40:44.240 --> 40:52.820]  So you might have heard the phrase, a land without people for a people without land, which implies that there were no Palestinians when the State of Israel was founded.
[40:55.200 --> 41:02.000]  Similarly, one of the former prime ministers of Israel famously said that there was no such thing as Palestinians.
[41:02.580 --> 41:07.940]  So these are some examples of the very existence of Palestinian people is questioned.
[41:08.300 --> 41:17.060]  And this is why it took so much work for the ethnic cleansing in 1948, the Nakba to be recognized internationally and to be understood.
[41:17.540 --> 41:21.000]  So counter-surveillance in this context is also about writing history.
[41:25.180 --> 41:31.980]  I feel that one of the biggest achievements of this activism is how it affects the participants.
[41:34.500 --> 41:46.460]  So using cameras and trying to intervene in violence from settlers and soldiers, and seeing Palestinians lives and their struggle, and trying to do something with videos and failing a lot.
[41:46.760 --> 41:59.560]  All of these things teach solidarity activists how power works in Israel, Palestine, and how institutions work, and how settler violence is part of state policy, and many other things.
[42:00.230 --> 42:06.980]  So participating in this activism is very much a radicalizing experience for outsiders.
[42:08.000 --> 42:21.260]  And it's not just that they're filming things, they're also becoming spokespersons, and they have stories to share, and they bring Palestinian voices and perspectives into spaces that Palestinians don't have access to.
[42:21.260 --> 42:29.460]  This is a remarkable achievement because Palestinians are fighting to be seen and to be heard and believed.
[42:29.820 --> 42:38.160]  So it really helps when others speak in solidarity with them, and it doesn't matter whether they speak with or without images.
[42:38.920 --> 42:48.020]  And it matters a lot when Israeli jews and jews from elsewhere act in solidarity with Palestinians, because of how anti-Semitism has been weaponized in this entire context.
[42:49.280 --> 42:55.760]  And then, of course, there is a long history of jewish opposition to the state of Israel, so that also feeds into this activism.
[42:57.420 --> 43:14.220]  So counter-surveillance becomes a way for outsiders to be with Palestinians physically in these communities, and to spend hours and days and months with them cumulatively, and to act in solidarity with Palestinians, and to see the situation for what it is, even if their cameras can capture only some of it.
[43:17.680 --> 43:23.740]  So this may be the biggest victory of this activism, even though it's definitely not enough.
[43:26.480 --> 43:29.420]  So here are some of the resources.
[43:29.800 --> 43:31.540]  You can obviously take a picture.
[43:33.820 --> 43:42.140]  And I have listed the Instagram handles of some of the activist accounts that I think you all should follow in order to understand.
[43:42.420 --> 43:49.160]  So this is, you know, I'm focusing specifically on what's happening in these regions and settler state violence.
[43:49.320 --> 43:54.080]  So these accounts will give you information about that, but also more.
[43:55.100 --> 44:03.960]  And then in the others list, the conquer and divide is a scrolling story format.
[44:04.120 --> 44:06.100]  And it's really, really well done.
[44:06.280 --> 44:17.220]  Forensic architecture and Batsalam made it together, and it would explain a lot about what the map means, what the patches mean, what the walls mean.
[44:18.700 --> 44:23.240]  And Batsalam has a running list of incidents of settler violence.
[44:23.920 --> 44:27.000]  I did not show any videos because there is so much out there.
[44:27.600 --> 44:30.780]  If you follow these accounts, you can see them on a regular basis.
[44:31.820 --> 44:38.480]  And if you want a more comprehensive kind of database-like account, then you can look at Batsalam's website.
[44:42.860 --> 44:46.500]  And I wrote this piece recently.
[44:48.300 --> 44:50.500]  And I wanted to end with this.
[44:50.840 --> 44:58.900]  A friend of mine, his name was Aouda Hatalin, and he was an activist.
[44:59.000 --> 45:05.220]  And he lived in the West Bank in this area called Musafaryata, where basically no other land is also based.
[45:05.680 --> 45:10.460]  And he was killed by a settler on July 28th.
[45:10.720 --> 45:12.560]  So almost three weeks ago.
[45:13.440 --> 45:14.600]  And then...
[45:17.760 --> 45:32.620]  So he was shot by the settler, and then his body was taken by the IDF, and they would refuse to give it, unless the family agreed to not bury him in the village, and to have a funeral, which would be limited to 15 people.
[45:33.120 --> 45:46.960]  And there were protests in many demonstrations, more like small scale demonstrations in 10 or so cities around the world, because Aouda was a really prominent organizer and a political educator.
[45:47.240 --> 45:52.880]  And he spoke with and explained so many things to so many international activists, Israeli activists.
[45:54.100 --> 46:00.080]  And one thing that he would always say to me and many other people was that he wants his story to be shared.
[46:00.160 --> 46:06.620]  And he wants us to talk about what's happening in areas like Musafaryata.
[46:06.880 --> 46:12.140]  So the IDF wouldn't give the body back, and they returned it after 10 days.
[46:12.460 --> 46:15.580]  And the funeral happened in his village, Omal Kher.
[46:15.680 --> 46:19.660]  He was buried in the same village, but they still restricted people from coming.
[46:20.460 --> 46:28.800]  And the settler who killed him was released immediately.
[46:28.960 --> 46:34.200]  And he returned to the village after a week on a bulldozer.
[46:35.500 --> 46:41.040]  So that kind of like, you know, speaks to the level of impunity that settlers have.
[46:42.380 --> 46:53.680]  And following his murder, there were IDF raids every single day for many, many nights, and up to 15 Palestinians were arrested.
[46:54.640 --> 46:56.980]  And all of this is not unusual.
[46:57.300 --> 46:58.840]  It's really, really typical.
[46:59.220 --> 47:05.960]  And there's nothing exceptional about this case, which is quite heartbreaking.
[47:06.220 --> 47:11.180]  So I'll end there, and I am happy to answer any questions that you may have.
[47:24.850 --> 47:27.890]  So we have a question from the online chat.
[47:28.110 --> 47:33.390]  How can others help the activist filming efforts, such as donating money in ways that won't lead to confiscation?
[47:34.370 --> 47:35.030]  I'm sorry.
[47:35.590 --> 47:36.390]  Could you repeat?
[47:37.570 --> 47:38.390]  Was there a question?
[47:38.510 --> 47:45.250]  How can others help the activist filming effort, such as donating money in ways that won't lead to confiscation?
[47:45.850 --> 47:46.070]  Sure.
[47:47.070 --> 47:52.570]  So if you follow these accounts, because you know, there are different donation drives that come and go.
[47:53.050 --> 47:58.850]  So if you follow these accounts, you would find information about ongoing drives.
[47:59.690 --> 48:02.290]  And that's my answer.
[48:02.750 --> 48:07.070]  Otherwise, read more, talk about it.
[48:07.970 --> 48:09.890]  You could go and do this activism.
[48:10.690 --> 48:13.750]  If you follow these accounts, you get more information on how to join.
[48:14.530 --> 48:14.890]  And yeah.
[48:17.760 --> 48:18.260]  Hi.
[48:18.840 --> 48:20.720]  So thanks a ton for the talk.
[48:20.820 --> 48:22.580]  I know this is a difficult area to work in, obviously.
[48:22.940 --> 48:24.420]  And I was curious.
[48:24.760 --> 48:28.520]  You mentioned a lot of stuff on like archiving and using this history, right?
[48:28.940 --> 48:40.900]  And I was curious if Palestinian videos are often used or it's mainly done by like the counter surveillance people who are like the Israeli people, for example, who go in and take the videos.
[48:40.900 --> 48:42.740]  Are those main ones being shared or like?
[48:43.140 --> 48:51.000]  Because like it sounds to me like the Palestinians themselves are probably taking lots of useful video, but it's harder for them to theoretically distribute it to the world, etc.
[48:51.620 --> 48:53.020]  Yeah, that's a great question.
[48:53.260 --> 48:59.860]  So I think that's why it's very interesting to look at solidarity activists because it gives the point of comparison.
[49:00.120 --> 49:03.500]  So like you said, obviously, Palestinians are filming all the time.
[49:03.620 --> 49:09.500]  They're also trying to archive, but they are facing much higher level of challenges.
[49:09.820 --> 49:15.120]  So a Palestinian NGO, first of all, doesn't have the same kind of resources that an Israeli NGO has.
[49:15.580 --> 49:20.940]  Like B'Tselem was able to distribute video cameras in the West Bank and protect itself and get funding and all of that.
[49:21.120 --> 49:35.600]  Whereas a Palestinian NGO, Al Haqq got raided by IDF and has been, I think, designated a terrorist organization, which all of like European countries condemned because it's a really well-reputed organization that works with international courts and whatnot.
[49:35.940 --> 49:57.300]  So when there are funds getting seized and raids on Palestinian institutions, it becomes really hard for them to create an infrastructure like that, which is why so much of the documentation work that is more formal and more resource intensive is done by organizations like B'Tselem.
[49:58.060 --> 50:00.860]  But there are so many efforts, so many efforts.
[50:00.960 --> 50:09.820]  I mean, there are efforts to archive stuff on social media all the time, as there have been in the case of the Syrian civil war and Ukraine.
[50:10.260 --> 50:11.680]  So those kinds of efforts obviously exist.
[50:12.960 --> 50:24.620]  The fact that I'm focusing more on solidarity activists and jewish activists doesn't mean that there's a whole big world out there that I didn't really talk about.
[50:25.380 --> 50:26.080]  Thank you.
[50:30.550 --> 50:32.210]  Thank you so much for this.
[50:32.310 --> 50:36.670]  I think this is one of the most important things anyone has presented this weekend.
[50:38.450 --> 50:51.670]  You mentioned the importance of trust between Palestinians living in their local communities and the activists who are coming in to help protect them.
[50:52.070 --> 50:55.490]  What about trust among the activists themselves?
[50:55.830 --> 50:57.510]  How do they bring in new people?
[50:57.770 --> 51:03.090]  Are they facing infiltration from Israeli security forces or surveillance?
[51:03.350 --> 51:12.450]  Of course, we're here at this computer security hacking conference where I think we're all very familiar with all the electronic surveillance capabilities of Israeli companies and government.
[51:13.110 --> 51:13.210]  Yeah.
[51:14.510 --> 51:18.430]  So trust within the activists themselves.
[51:18.670 --> 51:23.570]  So basically, this activism is really out in the open kind of activism.
[51:25.050 --> 51:31.510]  They want people to know what they're doing because they think that they're not doing anything wrong.
[51:32.910 --> 51:35.190]  And they want their videos to be shared.
[51:35.430 --> 51:36.490]  They want people to join them.
[51:36.610 --> 51:37.850]  So it's a very open structure.
[51:39.010 --> 51:43.570]  So infiltration doesn't make that much sense, although it does happen.
[51:43.730 --> 51:55.690]  It happens in the sense of trying to get someone to say something in order to malign them, in order to arrest them, or to kind of dox them on social media.
[51:56.050 --> 52:03.770]  Like Israeli right-wing groups try to film solidarity activists so that they can be doxed on social media.
[52:03.910 --> 52:07.150]  They try to film international activists so that they can be deported.
[52:08.390 --> 52:14.510]  But hacking, usually, like I haven't come across cases of hacking because these kind of things suffice.
[52:14.730 --> 52:20.830]  And there are other things like they can declare what are called closed military zones.
[52:20.830 --> 52:27.950]  So if solidarity activists are in a village and the IDF wants them out, they can just say that this is a closed military zone.
[52:28.090 --> 52:29.450]  If you don't leave, we will arrest you.
[52:29.590 --> 52:31.570]  And that's a legal mechanism to get people out.
[52:33.270 --> 52:41.410]  As far as the trust within activists and how they recruit, there are forms that you can fill out and whatnot.
[52:41.610 --> 52:49.970]  But it ends up being that someone knows someone vaguely and they bring them in and, you know, so on.
[52:50.190 --> 52:50.250]  Yeah.
[52:52.550 --> 52:54.390]  I'm sorry, it's all the time we have for questions.
[52:54.550 --> 52:56.630]  You can actually ask the speaker outside.
[52:57.650 --> 52:58.090]  Okay.
[52:58.090 --> 52:58.990]  So thank you.
[52:59.130 --> 52:59.350]  Thank you.
[52:59.930 --> 53:00.290]  Thank you.