Canary author Charlie Jaay investigates Israel’s potential use of US private security in Gaza
Back in 2022, Israeli-American businessman, Mordechai Kahana (Moti), founder and CEO of the US based private security and logistics firm, Global Distribution Company (GDC), told the Jerusalem Post:
Zionism runs through my veins, yet I came to New York to make money.
He may now have a chance to make money in Israel, as he has put forward a proposal for GDC to oversee the delivery of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.
Kahana: ‘I don’t see there’s a problem from the Israeli side, of food going in’
The private security contract in Gaza is worth $200m for the first six months, which Kahana told the Canary will be bankrolled by “the USA and partners”. Although the Israeli military and Ministry of Defence have shown interest, approval has not yet come from the Israeli government, the war cabinet, or the senate, but talks are ongoing.
According to Kahana, Israel bears no responsibility for the lack of supplies getting into Gaza. Instead, he believes the problem is due solely to the actions of Hamas and other so-called “terrorists”, whom he blames for stealing and selling aid for hundreds of millions of dollars. He says this is funding the “criminals”, building “terrorist capabilities”, and preventing Israel’s ‘strategy’ from working.
He told the Canary that:
I’m not just saying it because I am an Israeli… American-Israeli. I don’t see there’s a problem from the Israeli side, of food going in. I’m sure of it. I’m sure. 100 percent, the Israelis do not stop the supply. For the last four times in the Northern part of Gaza, the Israelis have gone in and cleaned an area, they then get out, send supplies to the area, half the supplies get stolen, and the terrorists recruit new guys. It’s back and forth like this all the time.
When asked for his information source, Kahana sent a link to Mida, an Israeli online publication , which claims humanitarian aid has not only been stolen and sold by Hamas for more than $700m, but also brought into the Gaza Strip “on an enormous scale”, by Israel.
Surveillance and control under the guise of humanitarian assistance
The reality is very different. Israel’s actions mean there is now no functioning government in Gaza, and a surge in lawlessness and looting is occurring. A truly desperate situation is being created for the population, where the Israeli occupation forces are not only using starvation as a weapon of war, but turning a blind eye, or even protecting looters, and also targeting local police if they try to take action, or escort aid convoys, so most now refuse to work as they fear for their safety.
But Kahana’s proposal, although dressed up in the guise of humanitarian assistance, has very little to do with the distribution of aid – but everything to do with surveillance and control. He said that:
When the Israelis finish cleaning an area, we’re going to close a neighbourhood. People can go in and out, but we will monitor to make sure only the good guys go back- only people from that neighbourhood who are not Hamas, not Islamic Jihad, not terrorists or criminals. Bad actors won’t be able to go into these gated communities and steal from civilians or kill civilians. They will have to explain things to the Israelis. These will not be ghettos! I am building gated communities. Everyone will be safe and everyone living in the community will feel comfortable.
Matthew Hoh spent almost twelve years in the United States military, mainly with the Marine Corps, but also the Department of Defence, and the State Department. He served in Iraq during America’s occupation and, in 2009, resigned in protest from his post in Afghanistan with the State Department.
His decision, he says, was based not on how the US was pursuing the war, but “why and to what end”. He is now associate director of the Eisenhower Media Network, and shares his thoughts, experiences and insights of war and its human cost, through his talks and writing, which strongly emphasise the need to promote peace, accountability, and change.
He explained that:
The justification in these types of operations is always that you are protecting from terrorists, extremists, criminals, but you’re basically segregating the population. Your creating controlled areas and, if you can control the population, you’re in charge of what they receive, you’re in control of where they go, you’re in control of who’s in that population group.
Aid, AI, and ‘gated communities’ via private security in Gaza
Kahana said he has identified 14 areas throughout Gaza for his gated communities, and if his proposal is given the go ahead, he will start with one in Northeastern Gaza.
Designed to segregate, these gated communities would be surrounded by security walls and under armed guard. To enter and exit the area, residents would be subjected to biometric screening. Anyone who refuses, or who has been labelled, in Kahana’s words, the “bad guy” by Israel and its AI systems will not receive aid and will, no doubt, pay a heavy price. In this way, the ultimate aim of the project is for the population of Gaza to be totally dependent on its oppressor.
Oblivious to the fact that Palestinian communities – villages and towns – now lay in ruins, and huge numbers of people have died due to Israel’s relentless and indiscriminate bombing campaign, Kahana said:
These communities will be where people used to live. This will be their own community; it will be like going back home. There will be food, schools, daycare. People can go back to their own villages but, if they are bad actors or terrorists, they will have to explain things, not to me but to the Israelis.
We need to let the Palestinians run their own lives and give them the best tools to protect themselves. Right now, there’s criminals stealing their supplies and selling them in the market. Terrorists as well. We need to show the Palestinians the day after, with no bad actors, so they can start building their lives over the years. The idea is to let them run it by themselves, at the end of the day.
Although trivialised by Kahana, who told us the use of biometric data in his gated communities would be no different to that used when he recently boarded a Royal Caribbean cruise-ship to the Bahamas, misuse of data can have serious negative impacts on all aspects of someone’s life and, for those who are already vulnerable and discriminated against, the negative consequences of using biometrics – whether facial recognition, iris scan or fingerprints, will be amplified.
There are restrictions and protections put in place if biometric data is collected by NGOs delivering humanitarian aid, but Kahana confirmed the lack of oversight and accountability when it comes to private companies, such as GDC, when he told the Canary:
the biometric data would be shared with governments- definitely the Israelis, the US, the British, and anyone who helps us. I’m not using the data to sell it to Facebook or Instagram. I’m not a data collection company. I will just make sure the communities are safe.
Apartheid by any other name
Amnesty International has previously documented how Israel’s use of biometric surveillance systems, such as facial recognition, are being used to reinforce apartheid and the oppression of Palestinians.
Dr Matt Mahmoudi, head of Amnesty’s Silicon Valley Initiative, says the organisation is alarmed by the reports that biometric surveillance is being considered for deployment in Gaza, towards the establishment of these gated communities. Dr Mahmoudi said that:
These biometric surveillance systems compound arbitrary restrictions on freedom of movement and perpetuate a coercive environment and are intended to force Palestinians out of areas of strategic interest to Israeli authorities.
Amnesty has grave concerns that any use of remote biometric surveillance, in the face of the risk of genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, risks compounding the existing restrictions on freedom of movement and the delivery of humanitarian aid and contributing to the dehumanisation of Palestinians in Gaza.
Against the backdrop of the ICJ’s advisory opinion from July 2024, which established that Israel’s continued occupation of the Palestinian Territory, including Gaza, is against international law, any effort to use biometric surveillance technology to exert further control in Gaza, would risk further prolonging Israeli occupation and the mounting violations of international law.
These biometric systems are integrated together, and used with artificial intelligence, to obtain as much information as possible about the population. Recent investigations have revealed that Israel also uses artificial intelligence in Gaza, to generate the target areas for bombing, and develop extensive target lists – with more targets generated in one day than human personnel can produce in an entire year. When biometric data is coupled with the advanced technology available today, the results are startling. Hoh argued that:
We’re a generation past what the US did in Iraq with population control, but the technology is several generations ahead of what we had say 15-20 years ago. It’s not just about controlling the population. It’s also about tracking them, understanding who they are, always knowing where they’re at, and knowing who they associate with.
When you can identify, track and control people it means you can also target and kill them, their family members, associates, neighbours and friends. People in these types of projects are always explaining the benefits of their actions.
Of course, they are going to dress up the language and make it sound like the language of a sales brochure. This is what anyone does in war, in corruption. But you should expect nothing more than lies in these circumstances.
It’s about identifying, tracking, controlling, and killing
Kahana explained that various teams will be involved with securing and delivering the humanitarian aid, the first being the logistics team which, he said, will take the supply into Gaza, making sure no-one steals it, and will be armed with only “sticks, paintballs and water guns”. He emphasised that:
aid will only go to civilians, not bad actors, not to criminals, not to terrorist organisations, only to civilians.
And so, GDC will need 24/7 coordination with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). He said:
Then, behind the logistics team there will be a special forces team, incase there is an issue, or people come with guns. Then these guys in the back, the quick reaction team will come and protect us, and the supply.
These private security contractors will, of course, be heavily armed and, according to Kahana, are “trained and equipped for lethal and non-lethal methods of crowd control”, having “fought terrorism all their lives”.
He said his company is made up of “war junkies” and told the Canary that there are 14,000 security personnel working with GDC, operating in 100 different countries. When it comes to Gaza, the private military contractors are six companies from around the world, which are made up of ex-combatants and, veterans of elite units. One of these companies is British, but Kahana said he cannot reveal names unless he wins the contract. GDC’s direct team of employees includes high ranking former US and Israeli officers, from the military and intelligence services.
Absolved of accountability
For Israel and GDC, there would be definite advantages gained by using these private security contractors in Gaza. Lack of regulation and oversight means contractors can operate with impunity. They cannot be held to account for the actions of their employees, because they are working on behalf of the US government, and the US government cannot be held responsible for the actions of a contractor because they are not the US government’s employees.
Hoh said that:
It’s a brilliant way of getting work done without any responsibility or transparency, carrying out wars without the accountability, while also allowing people to make a lot of money from them. It’s privatisation of the military, it’s profit making off of wars and militarism.
If GDC and its private military contractors were to operate in Gaza, the IDF would be absolved of any accountability, and allowed to operate with the smallest footprint possible, while GDC and its contractors would continue with their work, under its guidance and blessing.
Hoh explained that:
You’re controlling them, you’re able to track and target them, you’ve made life so miserable for the Palestinians. You’re trying to accomplish your ethnic cleansing goals by squeezing and squeezing within these concentration camps, and hoping they eventually give up and go wherever. And, by ‘setting the Palestinians up for success’, and ‘giving them the conditions to thrive’, it is now the fault of the people that have been destroyed, and further subjugated, that they cannot pick themselves back up.
Private security in Gaza: abetting the occupation
According to David Petraeus, ex-CIA Director, United States Army General during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a partner with the global financial investment firm KKR, there were 12 or 13 gated communities in Iraq’s city of Fallujah alone. He told the Times of Israel:
You wall it off… You use biometric ID cards because you’re trying to separate the enemy, the extremists, from the people. That’s the fundamental idea.
Kahana told the Canary:
I know Petraeus, I spoke to him and will follow exactly what he did. He had the idea of ‘gated communities’ in Baghdad, and was very successful.
Hoh said he is not surprised Kahana mentioned Petraeus, as this group is very small, and they all know each other:
Military intelligence, humanitarian assistance, development, reconstruction work and finance- these circles overlap and are ever expanding. It’s the most modern manifestation of the Military Industrial Complex. In the US, the contractors that receive all these contracts and make all the money, do the work of the government in these wars and occupations. That money’s then put back into the political system.
They will ultimately fail
Kahana told the Canary:
It’s not occupation. I’m not the Israeli military, I’m a company. I’m saying the opposite, that we should let the Palestinians run their own lives.
However, if GDC and its private security sub-contractors operate in Gaza, they would have the approval of the Israeli government and would be working hand in glove with the occupation.
There are already established systems in place to run efficient and effective aid operations, in line with international humanitarian law. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is the largest humanitarian agency in Gaza, and is still the best placed to continue delivering aid.
The organisation is known to the Palestinians, which is a critical aspect when it comes to delivering services to a population that’s overwhelmed by 13 months of constant bombing, fear and overall lack of trust in the international community.
But Israel’s Parliament, last month, labelled the agency a ‘terror group’ and voted to prevent the agency from operating throughout the occupied territory. This violates Israel’s obligations under international law, and shows it has absolutely no interest in the welfare of Palestinians.
These gated communities are unnecessary, and only seek to maintain Israel’s dominance and control over the population, while doing nothing to address the Palestinian’s legitimate grievances about the occupation. They will ultimately fail.
Featured image via the Canary
