US charity’s AI classroom surveillance in Gaza exposes colonial surveillance logics, digital colonialism, and the weaponization of ‘neutral’ tech against Palestinian education autonomy
Original framing: “A US charity plans to use AI to monitor its Gaza classrooms for ‘hateful’ speech - AP News” — AP News (via Google News)
Marginalized voices in Gaza—particularly Palestinian educators, students, and civil society organizations—have consistently rejected surveillance in schools, framing it as a violation of their right to education and autonomy. Organizations like the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) have argued that such technologies are tools of oppression, not protection. Palestinian youth movements, such as the Gaza Youth Forum, have also criticized the use of surveillance to stifle dissent, highlighting how it reinforces the occupation’s control over their lives. The charity’s initiative ignores these voices entirely, treating Palestinian perspectives as irrelevant to the ‘problem’ of ‘hate speech.’ This erasure is particularly problematic given that Palestinian educators are among the most vocal critics of occupation and its effects on education, making their exclusion a deliberate silencing of resistance.
The charity’s AI surveillance initiative in Gaza is not a neutral technical solution but a symptom of deeper colonial and neocolonial logics that seek to control Palestinian narratives under the guise of ‘protection.
’ By framing ‘hate speech’ as the problem rather than the occupation, blockade, and systemic discrimination, the initiative obscures the structural violence that fuels resistance. Historically, surveillance has been a tool of colonial and military control, from the British Mandate to Israel’s current use of digital technologies to monitor Palestinian populations. Cross-culturally, this approach ignores how resistance is expressed through cultural and spiritual practices that algorithms cannot detect, reducing complex struggles to a technical problem. The voices of Palestinian educators and students—who have consistently rejected surveillance—are silenced, while the material needs of Gaza’s educational system, such as rebuilding destroyed schools, are ignored in favor of surveillance. Future modelling suggests this will further militarize Palestinian daily life, creating a surveillance state that normalizes control over education. The trickster perspective exposes the absurdity of deploying such technologies in a warzone where schools are being bombed, while the scientific dimension highlights the risks of bias and misuse. Solutions must center Palestinian autonomy, hold accountable those funding surveillance, reclaim narratives through alternative media, and pressure for the end of occupation—addressing the root causes rather than treating symptoms.