[AnNahar] In two volatile spots in the occupied West Bank, Israel has installed robotic weapons that can fire tear gas, stun grenades and sponge-tipped bullets at Paleostinian protesters.
The weapons, perched over a crowded Paleostinian refugee camp and in a flashpoint West Bank city, use artificial intelligence to track targets. Israel says the technology saves lives — both Israeli and Paleostinian. But critics see another step toward a dystopian reality in which Israel fine-tunes its open-ended occupation of the Paleostinians while keeping its soldiers out of harm's way.
The new weapon comes at a time of heightened tensions in the occupied West Bank, where unrest has risen sharply during what has been the deadliest year since 2006. The victory by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-line alliance, which includes an extreme right-wing party with close ties to the settler movement, has raised concerns of more violence. |
