While Israel is deploying militarised surveillance, AI and other invasive technology to map and murder thousands in the Gaza genocide, Glasgow City Council is using similar Israeli surveillance technology in its Public Space CCTV system to monitor and gather data on its own population.
Glasgow Council has been using the services of Israeli surveillance company Neptune Intelligence Computer Engineering (NICE) since winning a £24m Future Cities funding award in 2014. [1]
NICE was formed in 1986 by elements of the Israeli army’s infamous Unit 8200. [2]
Glasgow Council have consistently ignored concerns and criticisms over the NICE operation and refused to end it. [3]
Having undergone a number of corporate makeovers, NICE services are currently being delivered by Israeli company Qognify as part of Glasgow Council’s contract with IT firm CGI. [4]
The CGI contract was due to expire on 31 March 2025 as part of Glasgow Council’s new ‘in-house’ Road to Multi-Source Strategy (R2MS).
On 25 October 2024, amid growing concerns and opposition, the Council signed an extended 5 year contract with CGI, running till 2030, thus prolonging NICE services. Council responses to our Freedom of Information requests on this and related matters have been routinely evasive and unduly secretive.
Glasgow Council also now require all of its contracting companies to show suitability for being awarded a Professional Integrity Certificate (PIC). CGI assert that they meet all of the Council’s ethical criteria.
However, this is contrary to the evidence we have found and presented to the Council on CGI/Qognify/NICE. We have also sent the Council evidence of Qognify’s associate company Viisights (part of the Canadian AWZ conglomerate) operating illegally inside the Occupied Palestinian Territories. [5]
Israel is using this military and AI surveillance tech to run the genocide in Gaza, maintain its illegal occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and for further nefarious purposes across the region. [6]
Glasgow must not be complicit in these war crimes. Nor should its own citizens be monitored by companies running the same Israeli-based technology. [7]
Glasgow Council’s continued relations with Qognify and use of NICE technology runs contrary to its adopted motion of Solidarity with Palestine (28 March 2024), which, in endorsing the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that Israel is conducting a “plausible” genocide, pledges that it will do nothing to enable it. [8]
In addition, the ICJ has ruled (19 July 2024) that Israel’s entire presence and conduct across the Occupied Palestinian Territories is “unlawful”, and that no state or other public body should do anything that violates Palestinian rights within the OPT.
Glasgow Council should also be adhering to the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) call not to use Israeli goods and services.
Glasgow Council must honour its laudable motion, uphold the ICJ rulings and terminate these unethical services.
We demand an immediate end to Glasgow Council’s contractual connections to Qognify and the removal of NICE Systems surveillance tech from the streets of Glasgow. [9]
Notes:
[1] https://www.sourcesecurity.com/news/co-12064-ga-co-1229-ga.14276.html
[3] https://theferret.scot/glasgow-surveillance-system-law-change/
[5] https://breachmedia.ca/stephen-harper-awz-ventures-surveillance-tech-israel/
[6] https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/
[8] https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/news/glasgow-life-update-on-Gaza