Spy balloons give Jerusalem police an
eye in the sky
Violence
down since Israeli-made blimps deployed, spokesman says, but East Jerusalem
residents angered over privacy violation.
Israeli
police are watching from above in their attempts to keep control in Jerusalem
in the face of the city’s worst wave of violence in nearly a decade.
Police have
been flying surveillance balloons over the city’s eastern sector and Old City —
the location of its most sensitive holy sites — to monitor protests and move in
on them quickly. They say the puffy white balloons, which carry a rotating
spherical camera pod, have greatly helped quell the unrest. But the eyes in the
sky are unnerving Palestinians.
“They want
to discover everything that’s going on. (They see) who is going, who is coming,
who is that person,” said Imad Muna, who works at a local bookstore.
The Israeli
company that makes the Skystar 180 aerostat system says the balloons can stay
in the air for 72 hours and carry highly sensitive cameras.
Rami Shmueli,
the CEO of RT LTA Systems Ltd, said his company gives police a “third
dimension” in their quest to quell tensions in east Jerusalem, where they have
been clashing regularly with masked youths hurling rocks and firebombs.
“We give
them an aerial view of the streets and those people who are throwing stones, we
can detect them even if they hide behind buildings or in gardens,” said
Shmueli. “When we see them and when we see their activity, we can direct the
police forces to their location. And even if they escape we can follow them and
make sure that police catch them.”
Israeli Zaka
emergency services volunteers carry the body of a Palestinian assailant who was
shot dead while attacking a synagogue in Jerusalem on November 18, 2014. (photo
credit: AFP / GALI TIBBON)
Israeli Zaka
emergency services volunteers carry the body of a Palestinian assailant who was
shot dead while attacking a synagogue in Jerusalem on November 18, 2014. (photo
credit: AFP / GALI TIBBON)
Over the
past month, 11 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks, including a
deadly assault last week on a Jerusalem synagogue that killed five people. Most
of the violence has occurred in Jerusalem, along with deadly attacks in Tel
Aviv and the West Bank.
The violence
has been connected in large part to continuing unrest at Jerusalem’s most
sensitive holy site — a hilltop compound revered by Jews as the Temple Mount
and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. The Temple Mount, home to the ancient
Hebrew temples, is the most sacred site in Judaism. Today, it is the site of
the al-Aqsa Mosque and the gold-topped Dome of the Rock, the third-holiest
place in Islam.
Jews are
allowed to visit the site, but under a longstanding arrangement, they are
barred from praying there. A growing number of visits by Jewish worshipers —
some of whom seek to pray or want to rebuild the Jewish Temple there — has
sparked rumors that Israel is plotting to take over the site — a charge Israel
denies — and prompted violent riots by Palestinian youths. Israeli crackdowns
and restrictions on Muslim access to the site, imposed as a security measure, have
further inflamed tensions.
The
helium-filled balloons were successfully used in Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip
last summer. While various types of surveillance blimps have been used in the
Jerusalem area for years, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said a strategic
decision was recently made to increase their use as part of a broader effort to
use the latest technologies.
He said
police currently have four surveillance balloons deployed over Jerusalem,
including one that monitors the Old City and its volatile holy sites, and
others over Arab neighborhoods that have experienced unrest. Since the aerial
deployment, he said there has been a marked decrease in street violence.
“It is
tremendously important and gives us gives a 360-degree view of what is going
on,” Rosenfeld said. “Our units can respond a lot quicker, a lot faster and
much more effectively.”
The Skystar
system is currently also deployed in Afghanistan, Mexico, Thailand, Canada,
Russia, in various countries in Africa and was used for security at the World Cup
in Brazil, the company says.
The balloons
are part of a broad collection of surveillance equipment that includes security
cameras throughout the city, including 320 of them in the Old City — as well as
undercover units, riot-control forces and intelligence gathering.
Police have
arrested some 1,000 protesters since the summer, when the violence erupted
following the killing of a 16-year-old Palestinian boy by Jewish extremists in
a revenge attack for the earlier killing of three Israeli teens in the West
Bank.
Sheik Ikrima
Sabri, the imam of the al-Aqsa Mosque, said Palestinians are well accustomed to
the aerial surveillance of mass prayers each Friday. But he said the new
surveillance over residential areas is a problem.
“It is
practically over the houses. It violates the privacy of people. There are women
in the houses and these machines can photograph them,” he said.
Saleem
Mohtaseb, a resident of Shuafat, an Arab neighborhood that has experienced
frequent unrest, said the cameras have further frayed people’s nerves. “I asked
my wife to close the curtains whenever she sees it in the sky. I know many
people who have done the same,” he said.
Read more on http://www.timesofisrael.com/spy-balloons-give-jerusalem-police-an-eye-in-the-sky/
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