An Algorithm Marks the West Bank for Demolition

Israeli authorities are using artificial intelligence tools to monitor Palestinian land and accelerate enforcement in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera reports. The systems include ImiSight, a product developed by Israeli weapons manufacturer Rafael that compares imagery to detect changes in the landscape. Reporting cited by Al Jazeera says the technology was first used in the Naqab against Bedouin communities and has since been brought into West Bank enforcement, where detected structures may be treated as building violations.

The Israel Land Authority established an enforcement unit in April 2025 to operate in the West Bank. Peace Now says the agency uses advanced AI-based tools to detect what it calls encroachments and describes the unit as a step toward annexation. Israeli authorities have long cited missing permits when demolishing Palestinian homes. Palestinians and rights groups answer that those permits are exceptionally difficult to obtain. The software enters an unequal system already in motion.

The mechanism is simple. Images are compared. A change is flagged. Officials decide whether it matches permit and property records. An enforcement file can then move toward an order and, eventually, machinery. Al Jazeera’s account does not show that ImiSight alone issues demolition orders or that every flagged property is demolished. Human approval remains part of the process. That does not settle responsibility.

Automation changes volume and time. A survey team can inspect only so much land. Software can scan wide areas repeatedly and place more properties into an enforcement queue. Residents still face the old legal document, but the selection process moves behind a screen. The order has a signature. The target may have been found by a system the affected family cannot inspect.

The critical records are therefore mundane: source images, timestamps, parcel boundaries, permit files, confidence thresholds, previous system outputs, and the name of the official who approved each step. Errors can come from outdated maps, misaligned images, incomplete property records, or a lawful alteration classified as unauthorized. If residents receive only the conclusion, an appeal becomes a race to reconstruct evidence already held by the authority seeking demolition.

Speed also magnifies the permitting regime beneath the tool. When one population has little practical access to approval, more efficient detection does not produce neutral enforcement. It reproduces the same disparity across more land and at shorter intervals. Technical accuracy cannot answer whether the underlying rule is fair. It can only apply that rule more consistently.

Palestinian residents and reviewing courts need notice before enforcement advances, access to the images and records behind the allegation, a named human decision-maker, and enough time to correct the file or contest the law. Those are not requests for an ethical gloss on AI. They are the minimum controls required before a machine-assisted flag helps send a bulldozer to someone’s home.