Israel’s Digital Occupation of Gaza

Volume 2|Issue 7| Winter 2014 |Theme of the Issue

Abstract

In disengaging from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Israel did not end the occupation; instead, it technologized it through purportedly “frictionless” high-technology mechanisms. Under the Oslo Agreement, and in line with neoliberal policies, the Palestinian Authority turned the telecommunications sector over to a privately owned company called Palestine Telecommunications Company. This means that control over the digital space remains in private hands dependent on coordination with Israel. Combined with Israel’s set limitations on landline telephones, cellular phones, and internet infrastructure, the result is a “digital occupation” of Gaza characterized by increasing privatization, surveillance, and control. While deepening Palestinian economic reliance on Israel and making Palestinian high-tech firms into dependent agents, this digital occupation also enhances Israel’s territorial containment of the Gaza Strip.

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Associate Professor in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication and Middle East and Islamic Studies at New York University.

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