EU's Frontex gives seal of approval to Israeli surveillance firm

Frontex is a fan of Israeli surveillance tech. (European Union)

The European Union’s border guards have been quietly recommending surveillance technology made by an Israeli firm.

Frontex – the EU’s border and coast guard agency – arranges “industry days” during which weapons firms can showcase equipment deemed helpful in tracking migrants.

Unnoticed by news media, Israel’s BeeSense took part in one such event during April.

BeeSense had been invited to do so because Frontex placed it on a shortlist of 16 firms offering what the agency described as “technological solutions.”

While presenting its radars and sensors at the Frontex event, BeeSense boasted of a “strong footprint in the IDF [Israel’s military].”

Chris Borowski, a Frontex spokesperson, told me by email that the “industry days” offer a “platform to explore innovations in border management technologies.” EU governments are provided with “a chance to learn about the latest tools in the field.”

“It’s worth mentioning that Frontex doesn’t decide whether these technologies get used,” Borowski added. “That’s up to the national authorities.”

Borowski’s attempt to pass the buck is inexcusable. By shortlisting BeeSense, Frontex gave a seal of approval to Israeli surveillance technology at a time while Israel is actively destroying Gaza.

The shortlist was drawn up between December 2023 and the spring this year, a document I found on Frontex’s website indicates. The list, therefore, appears to have been completed after the International Court of Justice declared as plausible a complaint filed by South Africa which detailed how Israel is violating the Genocide Convention.

Under that convention, governments around the world are required to prevent and avoid assisting the crime of genocide. Recommending surveillance equipment from a firm with a “strong footprint” in the Israeli military breaks the spirit and arguably the letter of the convention.

BeeSense is part of the Avnon Group, a firm that is entrenched in Israel’s military-industrial complex.

“The Avnon Group was formed in 1990, and its advisory board includes two former IDF generals, a former police chief and a former head of the Mossad spy agency,” The Times of Israel observed two years ago. “The firm develops, manufactures and markets advanced weaponry, including cyber tools.”

Complicit in abuses

The April event was by no means the first time that Frontex showed an interest in Israeli technology.

During 2020, the agency signed a deal worth $118 million to lease Israeli-made drones.

The two drone providers involved – Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries – have a long record of testing their weapons on Palestinians. Both are contributing massively to the current genocide in Gaza.

Human Rights Watch has documented how Frontex uses the Heron, an Israeli drone, to monitor boats carrying migrants in the Mediterranean. Boats have been intercepted by the Libyan coast guard soon after they were detected by the drone, Human Rights Watch has noted.

In December 2022, the group accused Frontex of being complicit in cruelty. The agency knew full well that “migrants and asylum seekers will face systematic and widespread abuse when forcibly returned to Libya,” Human Rights Watch stated.

Frontex coordinates deportations by EU governments.

It is likely that deportations – euphemistically described as “returns” – will be stepped up in the near future and that Frontex will be allocated greater resources.

Ursula von der Leyen, who this week began her second term as president of the European Commission, is promising a new law that will “speed up and simplify” deportations. She is advocating, too, that the number of guards working for Frontex should reach 30,000 – a threefold increase.

To make her callous politics look reasonable, von der Leyen is insisting that deportations will take place in a “dignified manner.”

The same von der Leyen offered full and unconditional support to Israel when it declared war on Gaza. Considering that she has accommodated genocide, her assurances on respecting dignity cannot be taken seriously.