The Deadly Merger

The Deadly Merger describes the effort to move the U.S.–Israel relationship beyond military aid and toward deeper, more permanent integration of military technology, intelligence, surveillance, data, and weapons infrastructure.

The House version of the FY27 National Defense Authorization Act included the United States–Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative, known as Section 224. The proposal would expand cooperation in AI-powered autonomous weapons, intelligence and surveillance networks, cyber warfare and quantum technology, military biotech, defense innovation, and joint weapons development and production.

It would also promote network integration and data fusion between U.S. and Israeli military systems, creating deeper coordination, more data sharing, and fewer barriers between the two governments’ military infrastructures.

For years, Israel has subjected Palestinians to increasing levels of high-tech surveillance, using data to track daily life and target people for arrest and extrajudicial killing.

The collection of vast amounts of surveillance data helped Israel build Lavender, an AI-powered system used to generate targets during the assault on Gaza, contributing to the mass killing of Palestinian men, women, and children.

The U.S. has deployed similar technology-driven surveillance tactics against Black and brown communities for decades. Today, the tech billionaire class has more financial and political power than ever to expand this model.

The spread of automated license plate readers on city streets and law-enforcement tools such as Mobile Fortify, used to target immigrants, is only the beginning. The tech billionaire class wants surveillance to become pervasive and inescapable, erasing anonymity in public, undermining personal privacy, and giving the state new ways to repress grassroots movements before they can grow.

At the same time, Congress is directing extraordinary public resources toward the Pentagon and military technology while millions struggle with rent, groceries, healthcare costs, and debt. We should be investing in our communities, not expanding war and surveillance.

Deeper technology integration creates institutional lock-in. Shared weapons development, surveillance networks, data systems, and corporate investment make the relationship more permanent and insidious, while increasing the political and financial power of the companies that benefit from it.

We are building a cross-movement fight that connects Palestinian liberation with local struggles against surveillance, data centers, military technology, and billionaire power.

Our plan is to educate and organize our communities, pressure lawmakers to reject U.S.–Israeli military integration, investigate and stop harmful technology contracts, build ethical procurement power, support workers and organizers confronting Big Tech, and strengthen arms embargo and BDS campaigns.

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