NICK MEYER
\narabamericannews.com<\/p>\n
LANSING\u00a0<\/b>\u2014\u00a0A little less than a month after Gov. Whitmer visited Israel to attend events and conduct business with technology based companies, Michigan.gov announced that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson was also visiting as part of a bipartisan delegation from the National Association of Secretaries of State this Monday.<\/p>\n
Her trip was sponsored by Project Interchange, an institute of the global Jewish advocacy group American Jewish Committees, and included 10 other secretaries of state. The stated purpose of the trip was to examine cybersecurity policies and practices to better protect election administration, business services and other areas.<\/p>\n
Benson\u2019s delegation planned to visit Tel Aviv, Haifa, Israel\u2019s northern and southern borders and Jerusalem, and also planned to meet with Palestinian civic and business leaders in Ramallah in the Palestinian Authority.<\/p>\n
Benson\u2019s visit comes at a time where local Arab Americans have grown increasingly frustrated with ongoing American military and financial support for Israel, especially considering its military admitted it accidentally bombed a building in Palestine last month just hours before a ceasefire, killing a family of eight in their home, including five children.<\/p>\n
In all, at least 34 Palestinians were killed during the period prior to Whitmer\u2019s visit.<\/p>\n
Huwaida Arraf, a Detroit-based attorney and co-founder of the pro-Palestine International Solidarity Movement, said she was not surprised by Benson\u2019s visit although she was highly disappointed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not necessarily \u2018surprised\u2019, as I know that Israel expends considerable energy and resources to promote itself as a leader in various sectors, largely as a way to detract from its continued occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people,\u201d she said in an email to The Arab American News.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis effort involves working with organizations and individuals across the U.S. (and the world) to draw politicians, officials and other influencers to Israel.\u00a0So, I know that Israel has agents working hard on this.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, I\u2019m disappointed and extremely upset that our elected representatives are using my tax dollars to visit and collaborate with a state responsible for grotesque human rights abuses, modern day apartheid and ongoing settler-colonialism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israel spent $19.7 billion on military and security in 2017, a $2 billion increase from the previous year, and has been positioning itself as a leader in cybersecurity, especially as the highly-charged 2020 U.S. election draws near.<\/p>\n
But critics say these expenditures are being used to enforce the occupation of Palestinian lands that has been deemed internationally illegal, a distinction that the Trump administration removed last month in a historic and controversial shift of United States policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s particularly disturbing that U.S. officials turn to Israel to collaborate on security issues considering that country\u2019s poor human rights record and the fact that Israel gets its \u2018expertise\u2019 largely from experimenting on Palestinians, whose human and civil rights Israel does not protect or respect, \u201dArraf added.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, December 19, Benson\u00a0retweeted<\/a>\u00a0a message from Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, calling Israel \u201ca\u00a0leader in\u00a0<\/span>#CyberSecurity<\/a><\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Many local Arab American leaders, including Arab American Civil Rights Chairman Nasser Beydoun, The Arab American News Publisher Osama Siblani and New Generation for Palestine founder Amer Zahr, have also questioned why Michigan would want to work with Israel on security issues considering its long history of bigotry against Palestinians, its police profiling and oppression.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s cybersecurity track record is also a cause for concern, Siblani said, noting an October lawsuit against Israel\u2019s NSO group by Facebook, Inc. alleging the cybersecurity company\u2019s spyware infected the phones of users after being delivered through the WhatsApp messaging platform, an encrypted service that is widely used because of its privacy advantages and by people of Middle Eastern descent. The Israeli company allegedly targeted the mobile phones of more than 1,400 users in 20 countries, including more than 100 human rights activists, lawyers, journalists and academics over a two-week period. Facebook is the parent company of WhatsApp.<\/p>\n \u201cIsrael interferes the most in our elections than any other nation in the world,\u201d Beydoun told The Arab American News, adding that he did not feel it was right for Benson to visit because of Israel\u2019s continued denial of voting rights to Palestinians in the occupied territories.<\/p>\n This year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s Facebook page was also sanctioned by the company after a chatbot linked to his account sent a message that \u201cArabs want to annihilate us all \u2013 women, children and men.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the Adalah Legal Center, a non-profit, non-sectarian Palestinian-run legal center in Israel which maintains a discriminatory laws database, more than 65 Israeli laws discriminate directly or indirectly against Palestinian citizens in Israel.<\/p>\n Arraf has similar concerns about continued Israeli security violations and oppression.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we have seen as a result of U.S. law enforcement training with Israeli police and military is the militarization of our police forces, increased racial profiling and violent repression of nonviolent protests. Earlier this year, Amnesty International joined a lawsuit against an Israeli cybersecurity company whose product is being sold to and used by repressive regimes to target activists, journalists and human rights defenders. It\u2019s outrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n As of press time, no update had been given by Benson\u2019s office about the results of the trip, which was scheduled to conclude December 20, but Arraf said she believes the business relationship is unnecessary for several reasons.<\/p>\n \u201cNeither Michigan nor any other state needs to turn to Israel for this kind of expertise,\u201d she said. \u201cI am confident that Michiganders do not want their officials bringing home mass surveillance and militarized policing.\u00a0This is not the \u2018expertise\u2019 that Michiganders want or need.\u201d<\/p>\n Zahr also criticized Israel for its continued practice of apartheid and discriminatory voting system, as well as Benson and the other secretaries of state who participated in the trip, which was funded by the American Jewish Committee. He criticized the committee for supporting Israeli bombing campaigns against the beleaguered Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n He added that he believes Benson\u2019s visit to Ramallah was \u201csimply an attempt to whitewash a visit to a nation that doesn\u2019t practice equal voting rights\u201d, calling the visit \u201cdisturbing\u201d for a leader in charge of Michigan\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very disturbing that any secretary of state would go to a nation that formally practices apartheid in a nation of 5 million people that don\u2019t have the right to vote for a nation that occupies them,\u201d Zahr said, adding that Israel surveils Arab voters at the polls and discourages them from voting through intimidation.<\/p>\n \u201cIsrael is a nation that doesn\u2019t practice democratic, equal rights or voting rights. There\u2019s nothing she can learn about equal voting rights or practices from Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n