George PotterApr 3, 2024

Jesus Christ, this is utterly horrific:

During the early weeks of the war they were permitted to kill 15 or 20 civilians during airstrikes on low-ranking militants. Attacks on such targets were typically carried out using unguided munitions known as “dumb bombs”, the sources said, destroying entire homes and killing all their occupants.

“You don’t want to waste expensive bombs on unimportant people" said one intelligence officer.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/03/israel-gaza-ai-database-hamas-airstrikes

#gaza #palestine #israel #genocide

‘The machine did it coldly’: Israel used AI to identify 37,000 Hamas targets

Israeli intelligence sources reveal use of ‘Lavender’ system in Gaza war and claim permission given to kill civilians in pursuit of low-ranking militants

The Guardian
Show threadGeorge Potter

The "low-ranking militants" in question were designated as such by an AI algorithm, and then rubber-stamped by humans. Apparently #Israel identified 37,000 people in #Gaza that way, who they then proceeded to go after with bombs which destroyed entire buildings, just as long as they didn't kill more than 20 civilians per target.

So that (inaccurate) algorithm was used to make decisions which regarded killing up to 740,000 people in Gaza as perfectly acceptable.

This is #Genocide, end of.

Apr 3, 2024 at 5:57pmWeb
Show threadGeorge PotterApr 3, 2024

Also, if they're using algorithms to identify people "associated" with #Hamas and classsify them as "low-level militants" then that sure does fucking explain why #Israel is so busy murdering journalists in #Gaza and their families.

Ever interviewed a Hamas civil servant or quoted them in an article? Ever said anything critical of the #IDF? That's probably enough to get a journalist put on the deathlist.

Show threadGeorge PotterApr 3, 2024

Also, if you've read this far then please go back and read the entire article. It actually gets worse.

Stuff like a deliberate decision to target buildings, not individuals, and to prefer to target civilian buildings over military ones. Stuff like a decision to use the AI to churn out people as targets just because the top brass wanted more people to bomb.

It's a long article and every word of it is absolutely sickening, but we musn't close our eyes to this.

Show threadGeorge PotterApr 3, 2024

Somehow this has managed to horrify me even more than the article I read this morning about #Israel soldiers using sniper drones to deliberately target and murder children in #Gaza.

Probably because the targeted murder of children by snipers is caused by the military turning a blind eye to it and therefore permitting it through inaction, whereas the thread above is a case of deliberate, both-eyes-open, active decision-making at the highest level.

Show threadLazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈Apr 3, 2024
@georgepotter every excuse they churn out is buried by their previous actions and brags
Show threadGeorge PotterApr 3, 2024
@Lazarou yup. And this is just the stuff they're brazen enough to admit. It doesn't begin to include all the horrific murders and massacres that are being done just for sick thrills and hatred only to be routinely denied and covered up by the Israeli authorities.
Show threadLazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈Apr 3, 2024
@georgepotter some day I'd like a big expose of what happens to women and queers in Israeli detention because I'm guessing their respect for western values on that is paper thin.
For example.
Show threadGeorge PotterApr 3, 2024

@Lazarou from what I've read in Haaretz and similar, we already know the answer to that:

Sexual molestation, humiliation, torture, abuse and ubiquitous threats of rape (albeit rarely carried out).

Horrific, yet utterly unsurprising.

Show threadLazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈Apr 3, 2024
@georgepotter I wonder how long it will be before they shut Haaretz down?😬
Show threadGeorge PotterApr 3, 2024
@Lazarou the cynic in me questions why they'd even bother. It's not like decades of investigative journalism and Israeli human rights organisations have changed anything, so why bother to shut down the toothless internal opposition when keeping it around enables the state to continue to pretend to be a pluralist democracy?
Show threadLazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈Apr 3, 2024
@georgepotter probably the same with those protests then 😬
Show threadGeorge PotterApr 3, 2024
@Lazarou yup. After all, a system which allows frustration to be voiced, and offers the illusion of someday being able to change something, is far more secure than one which doesn't permit those things.
Show threadJorkin MahJongusApr 3, 2024
@georgepotter I don't think enough people appreciate that what's happening in Palestine is the future of all police states. Israeli fascists are trying out the technology for other fascists to use elsewhere. If we keep letting them get away with it, sooner or later it will be used on you and me.
Show threadGeorge PotterApr 3, 2024

@cozymel absolutely. And Israel is, by far, the most terrifying example because it has written the playbook for how to integrate all of this facist oppression and murder into a superficially democratic system with a constitution and human rights and the rule of law.

You don't need a military dictatorship like Myanmar or strongman dictator like Putin for this to happen, Israel (and, to a lesser extent, the USA) shows that it's coming eventually to every democracy unless we stop it.