Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now has his hands free to control his citizens in another way, as he will not have to consult Parliament. But if we refer to Israel and social control, the worrying situations do not come from the hand of this pandemic, as they have pointed out in Al Jazeera’s Listening Post programme, because Israel has been improving its capacities – and therefore technology – to control Palestinian movements for decades.

Harvard University professor Yael Berda has explained to Al Jazeera that Israel has the most sophisticated system to manage population among states around the world. “It basically governs four million people who are not entitled,” he explained, referring to the Palestinians. “Therefore, the issue of the suspension of rights is not discussed even when we talk about occupied territories.”

The State of Israel has placed the control of the pandemic in the hands of the security services: The Shin Bet agency, which now spies on all citizens, not just the Palestinians, has shown that it had a very large database for it. The agency does not have a very public profile and public accountability is not one of the things it likes the most, as explained by the Palestinian researcher Marwa Fatafta. “It’s not a kind of organization that should take responsibility for such a crisis,” said the expert.

Help in the murder of Khaxoggi to control the coronavirus

Given the geopolitical interests it serves, Israel is a highly militarized country. Military service is part of the national pride of the population and access to elite units, a social achievement. It can also often be a suitable place for contacts: Israelis who enter the private sector at the end of military service can benefit from the experience they have received in the army for economic benefits.

This is the case, for example, of the people who created the NSO technology company. They became famous worldwide with a spyware called Pegasus when they tried to hack the phone of a human rights activist in the United Arab Emirates. The Saudi Arabian regime has also used this software, according to dissident Omar Agaziz, who could have been used for the journalist's follow-up before the murder of Jamal Khaxoggi.

Well, now, the "coronameter" application that Israel intends to use against COVID-19 will be in the hands of NATO, according to Al Jazeera.

“Our ICT infrastructure is controlled by Israel, so it has direct access to Palestinian data. The state of health of people, if someone is having extramarital relationships, sexual orientation, their economic needs... can collect data on all of them and have sometimes been used to blackmail the Palestinians,” Fatafta said.

The situation is not only of concern to the Palestinians, but also the Israeli civil rights movements have begun to realise the danger beyond this crisis. In the name of national security, Netanyahu has achieved total impunity and, in addition to making the decisions he wishes, has considerably increased his media presence in the country. “He’s been in power for eleven years, he hasn’t won the last three elections, but he’s still manipulating the situation to concentrate more power in his hands,” said Yossi Melman of the Hareetz newspaper.