STANFORD STUDENTS FOR ISRAELI TECH

Abstract

This paper affirms Israeli technology and its potential to improve the quality of life for both Israelis and Palestinians. It argues the choice lies in the Palestinians’ hands — renounce Hamas, renounce terror, acknowledge Israel’s right to exist, and we can move toward peace. Focusing on the Israel-Hamas war, we examine efforts to delegitimize Israel, its AI-driven tech, and its right to self-defense. Anti-Zionists and tech critics decry Israel as a “racist,” “settler colonialist” project armed with tech that enforces its “apartheid.” Yet, they promote their own ethnic “Arab Palestine” “from the river to the sea,” as though anti-racist justice consists in statehood for Arab Palestinians but not any other inhabitants of the land. Through a close reading of anti-Zionist work and the key influences of Palestinian scholars Edward W. Said and Elia Zureik, we demonstrate that the settler colonialism thesis, which claims to be an “objective, historical, secular” lens, is flawed and antisemitic. This is a long read. We hope to do justice to Said and Zureik’s work and seriously address criticisms of Israel, its technology, and Palestinian loss of life, before offering our positive views moving forward. Contrary to the anti-Zionist critics and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, we believe that Palestinian suffering can end without delegitimizing Israel. Most importantly, normalization of Palestinian and Israeli relations can provide Palestinians self-determination, freedom, and equality. By normalization, we mean that neither side will attain the all-or-nothing demands of groups like BDS or far right Israeli organizations, and that instead both will gain acceptance and equality. After October 7, 2023, such a coexistence appears increasingly fraught, but remains possible. We end with our view of Israeli technology as an important component for an Israeli and Palestinian future.