Digital Surveillance During The Covid-19 Pandemic: The Case of Israel

Abstract

Different pandemics and diseases hit the world throughout history, and various measures were used to counter the threats posed by these diseases like quarantines or social exclusion. In parallel with this, using technology to combat diseases has become a new normal in the modern era. The last pandemic which impacted the world was the Sars-Cov-2, and its spread led to the adaptation of different monitoring techniques. This study investigates the Israeli use of secret services for monitoring their citizens during the Covid-19 pandemic and intends to lay the primary reasons behind this policy choice. In this vein, Israel's historical, geopolitical, and demographic circumstances will be analyzed to highlight the primary causes for enabling an intelligence apparatus, namely Israel Security Agency (Shabak in Hebrew), to monitor civilians.

Keywords

• Israel
• Digital Surveillance
• Covid-19
• Shabak

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