“President Joe Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki worked for an Israeli firm accused of involvement in surveillance of Palestinians under Israeli military occupation.”
“Psaki’s public financial disclosures show that she earned at least $5,000 as a “crisis communications consultant” for AnyVision.”
“The exact date of the work is not specified, but it occurred between the time Psaki left the Obama administration in 2017 and her new role in the Biden White House.”
“This covers the period when AnyVision faced a public relations crisis over its alleged complicity in Israel’s abuses of Palestinian rights.”
“In 2019, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that AnyVision’s facial recognition technology was being secretly used by Israel’s occupation army “to monitor West Bank Palestinians at checkpoints on the way into Israel – while using a network of cameras deep inside the West Bank.””
“A subsequent report by Olivia Solon for NBC News stated that AnyVision “powers a secret military surveillance project throughout the West Bank.””
“Solon’s report focused attention on how American tech giant Microsoft had invested $74 million in AnyVision.”
“That spurred the #DropAnyVision campaign by human rights and Palestine solidarity activists calling on Microsoft to divest from the spy firm.”
“Microsoft announced a year ago that it was withdrawing from involvement with AnyVision, after it commissioned an investigation led by former US attorney general Eric Holder.”
“Microsoft said that Holder’s investigation could not substantiate the accusations about AnyVision’s secret involvement in surveillance of Palestinians [but] it was divesting anyway”.
Read more: Biden spokesperson Jen Psaki worked for Israeli spy firm
2021-week12
