by Kit Knightly

But it's also true that, in its thirteen days of existence, the war itself has already pushed that agenda forward as well.

Censorship

Normalising the suppression of dissent and creating a culture of fear around free expression are a major part of the Great Reset, after all the other steps are so much easier if you outlaw inconvenient protests.

And, naturally, calls for the suppression of freedom of expression have sprouted up everywhere since the war started. We covered this in our article "Israel-Hamas "war" – another excuse to shut down free speech"

Since that article was published this campaign has gained momentum.

European Union Commissioner Thierry Breton sent warning letters out to every major social media platform, claiming they needed to "combat disinformation" regarding Israel and threatening them with fines.

In yet another blow to the "China is on our side" narrative, Chinese video-sharing service TikTok has eagerly agreed to "combat disinformation".

Students from Harvard and Berkeley have been threatened with "blacklisting" for voicing support for Palestine.

German and French police are breaking up pro-Palestine demonstrations, while – in both the UK and US – there are calls to arrest people for waving Palestinian flags, or deport those who "support Hamas".

Creating a culture of fear, making people afraid to express themselves or their political opinions, is just one of the many things that Covid, Ukraine, Climate Change and now Israel have in common.

Facial Recognition Software

It’s always curious when a supposedly “left field” story breaks and ties in neatly with an issue already in the news.

The rise of facial recognition software – a threat to everyone’s right to privacy  – is one such.

Before the “surprise attack”, Israel’s use of facial recognition technology was called “Automated apartheid” by Amnesty International. In the US, states have been opposing the use of FRT for a long time, with some introducing bills to ban it outright.

Now, however, Israel has allegedly been using facial recognition tech to identify dead and wounded. The Jerusalem Post calls it a “tool to help Israel recover from Hamas’ war”.