Does Britain conceal the full
extent of its support for Israel?
Sayeeda Warsi, a
Conservative politician, recently urged
the prosecution of British citizens who fight for the Israeli military.
Warsi should be commended for
raising an important issue – just as she did when resigning
as a government minister over Britain’s refusal to condemn the 2014 bombing of
Gaza.
Yet Britain provides more
direct assistance to Israel than allowing Londoners and Mancunians join a
foreign army.
One example of that assistance
has avoided scrutiny: Britain’s embassy in Tel Aviv has hired
senior players in Israel’s weapons industry.
Since 2011, the embassy has hosted
an initiative called the UK Israel Tech Hub.
The initiative is chaired by
Haim Shani, a civil servant-turned-entrepreneur. In 2012, Shani was appointed a director
of Israel
Aerospace Industries, a leading manufacturer of drones used in attacking
Gaza.
The biographical note for Shani on the UK Israel
Tech Hub website omits any reference to his post with the weapons firm.
It does, however, state that
he is a former head of NICE Systems. No
explanation is offered of how NICE, an Israeli corporation, has made
surveillance equipment for police services and spying agencies around the
world.
Shani is credited with overseeing a
seven-fold increase in NICE’s revenues. Following his departure from the firm,
its “cyber and intelligence” division was sold
to Elbit, another
supplier of drones to the Israeli military.
Parroting propaganda
I contacted the British
embassy in Tel Aviv, asking why it is hosting an initiative led by a man with
such strong connections to Israel’s war industry.
The embassy did not answer
that question. Rather, a spokesperson replied that “Haim Shani is a
well-respected Israeli businessman.”
The spokesperson claimed, too,
that the UK Israel Tech Hub has “improved life” in Britain by facilitating
cooperation with Israeli firms involved in health care and the environment.
Those comments indicate that
the British embassy is parroting Israeli propaganda. Israel constantly boasts
of innovations in water technology and medical treatment – as if such
innovation cancels out Israel’s bombing of sewage
treatment plants and hospitals.
Other members of Shani’s team
also have strong connections to the Israeli war industry.
Naomi Krieger Carmy, director
of the UK Israel Tech Hub, is described
on the initiative’s website as an “8200 alumnus” – without any elaboration.
Unit 8200 is part of
the intelligence corps in the Israeli military focused on technological
research. Maor Chester, “digital solutions manager” at the hub, also states on her LinkedIn
profile that she served in “an elite intelligence unit (8200)” of the Israeli
military.
Amoral outlook
Every so often, the business
press publishes articles celebrating how Unit 8200 has contributed to Israel’s
“start-up nation” ethos.
Yet there is a far murkier
side to its activities than helping to shape the Internet’s activities. Yair
Cohen, a former head of the unit, has admitted
that it has been involved in spying operations during all of Israel’s major
offensives.
Those include activities by Mossad, the Israeli
secret service.
In 2014, three dozen Unit 8200
veterans and reservists revealed
that the unit deploys its capabilities to collect intimate personal information
on Palestinian civilians living under occupation that is “used for political
persecution and to create divisions within Palestinian society by recruiting
collaborators and driving parts of Palestinian society against itself.”
They charged that the unit’s
activity against Palestinians “fuels more violence, further distancing us from
the end of the conflict.”
The UK Israel Tech Hub was
officially launched by George Osborne,
then Britain’s finance minister, in 2011.
During a visit to the Middle
East, Osborne rhapsodized
about Israel’s “amazing economic achievement.”
The achievement is a byproduct
of profound injustice.
Israel’s occupation of the
West Bank and Gaza has enabled its weapons-makers to test out their products.
Palestinians have been used as specimens in sadistic experiments.
The British embassy is coy
about how it is encouraging such experiments. Yet it does hint that Israel’s
much-celebrated technology sector is inextricably linked to an army that denies
Palestinian rights.
“Cyber security” has been
identified as a priority for cooperation. “Israel is a global leader in the
cyber field, with a robust ecosystem drawing on capacity developed in the
military arena,” the embassy has noted.
Last year, the embassy arranged
for businesspeople based in Britain to visit Israel’s “cyber security”
industry. Lockheed
Martin, a US military giant with investments around the world, was among
the firms to take part.
Matthew Hancock,
a British government minister who joined that trip, has said that he wished to
study how the partnership between private firms and public authorities that was
deemed essential to the success of Israel’s technology sector could be emulated
in Britain.
His comments reveal the amoral
outlook of the British ruling elite. That elite is impressed by how Israel has
turned a military occupation into a business opportunity.
The admiration runs so deep
that Britain has handed over part of its embassy to the profiteers of
occupation.
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