Netroots Nation 2026 – Shared Systems: Surveillance, Policing, and Repression from Israel-Palestine to the U.S.

Since 2006, Netroots Nation has hosted the largest annual conference for progressives, drawing thousands of attendees from around the country and beyond. Just Vision's panel, Shared Systems: Surveillance, Policing, and Repression from Israel-Palestine to the U.S., has been selected for inclusion in this year’s conference.

Around the world, states and security agencies increasingly learn from one another how to police populations and crush dissent. Israel’s genocide in Gaza and decades of control over Palestinian life have served as a testing ground for mass surveillance, biometric tracking, phone extraction, and AI-driven targeting–tools. Through U.S.–Israel security partnerships and private contracting, these methods now shape U.S. immigration enforcement and policing, including visa screening, surveillance, and protest monitoring. Moderated by Alix Gerz, and featuring Mohammad Mhawish, Samer Araabi, and Anwar Mhajne, this panel will examine how surveillance practices, repression tactics, and the vendors behind them intersect across Israel-Palestine and U.S. governance, while exploring strategies to challenge them.