Israel/OPT: Dutch investor pushes for human rights safeguards to end use of surveillance technology against Palestinians

Amnesty International welcomes the request by a major investor in the Dutch manufacturer of cameras deployed in occupied East Jerusalem to implement human rights safeguards.

ASN Impact Investors has said TKH Group must adopt human rights due diligence policies within a year or face termination of its investment.

This sets a good precedent for holding investors accountable for the actions of the beneficiaries of their investments.

The decision comes just over a year after Amnesty International published its report Automated Apartheid: How Facial Recognition Fragments, Segregates and Controls Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, which documents how Israel’s vast network of facial recognition cameras violates the human rights of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and entrenches Israel’s system of apartheid.

“Investors provide the conditions and resources for entities like TKH Security to develop and sell AI-powered surveillance technologies. Their vigilance is important, particularly when the risk of human rights abuses is heightened,” said Matt Mahmoudi, Acting Director of Amnesty International’s Silicon Valley Initiative and a researcher on AI and human rights.

“This measure is particularly urgent in the wake of Israel’s increasing crackdown on freedom of movement, association and peaceful assembly, which has relied on surveillance since October 7. The provision of hardware or software that could be used to further apartheid, a crime against humanity, and other human rights violations by Israel against Palestinians must not be tolerated under any circumstances.”

In response to the findings of Amnesty International’s report on automated apartheid, the investor told Amnesty: “ASN Impact Investors has decided to actively engage with TKH Group to develop appropriate due diligence policies to prevent such transactions from occurring in the future. This means that TKH Group has one year to satisfy ASN Impact Investors’ demands or the investment will be terminated. This is the heaviest tool in ASN Impact Investors’ toolbox.”

The decision is also reflected in ASN Impact Investors’ annual report for 2023 and in the semi-annual investment report for the second half of 2023.

Amnesty International’s report on automated apartheid identified the use of cameras manufactured by the TKH Group in occupied East Jerusalem, believed to be part of the Mabat 2000 networked facial recognition system. The system, introduced in 2000 and significantly upgraded since 2017 to incorporate facial recognition capabilities, has given the Israeli authorities unprecedented powers of control and surveillance over the daily lives of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, facilitating arbitrary restrictions on their rights to freedom of movement and the freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly.

Amnesty International has documented the presence of one to two CCTV cameras every five metres in the Old City of Jerusalem and Sheikh Jarrah. The ubiquitous surveillance embodied by these cameras has created a climate of fear, anxiety and repression among Palestinians, further entrenching Israel’s system of apartheid.

In East Jerusalem in particular, the use of facial recognition technology (FRT) has intensified alongside Israel’s attempts to forcibly displace Palestinians from strategic areas, thereby discouraging Palestinians from organizing in public. Facial recognition technologies are used by Israeli authorities to monitor and restrict the movement of Palestinians living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and to force Palestinians to leave areas of strategic interest to Israeli authorities and illegal settlers. These mass and discriminatory surveillance systems violate the rights to privacy, equality and non-discrimination, and freedom of movement.

In April 2021, Amnesty International identified several TKH CCTV products located on infrastructure operated by the Israeli police in occupied East Jerusalem. To date, TKH has not responded to Amnesty International’s questions about the nature of the TKH Security products used by Israeli security forces, including any indirect relationships it may have, its human rights due diligence procedures, and whether it has made or intends to make a public commitment not to develop or sell facial recognition products.

Given this continuing lack of clarity and commitment to increased human rights due diligence, the ASN’s decision is important to ensure corporate accountability.

Commercial investors have a responsibility to take proactive and ongoing steps to identify and address potential or actual human rights impacts of artificial intelligence. This includes conducting enhanced human rights due diligence to identify, prevent, mitigate, and report on how they manage their human rights impacts. Investors and surveillance providers should not engage in the development or sale of FRT, and immediately cease its export to Israeli authorities for use against Palestinians.

Amnesty International also calls for a global ban on the development, sale, export and use of smoke-tracking technology for surveillance purposes.

Background

Amnesty International published the report Automated Apartheid in May 2023. The report highlights Israel’s use of a coordinated surveillance network, including Red Wolf and Mabat 2000, to track Palestinians and automate severe restrictions on their freedom of movement, helping it maintain its system of apartheid.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups launched an attack in southern Israel, in which at least 1,140 people were killed, including 36 children, and some 245 were taken hostage or captured. In response, Israel launched a devastating military offensive that killed at least 37,000 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, and caused unprecedented destruction and forced displacement. Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, some 20 Palestinian communities have been displaced by state-sponsored settler violence.