What do you think?
Rate this book
War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification
Modern warfare has a new form. The days of international combat are fading. So how do major world powers maintain control over their people today?
War Against the People is a disturbing insight into the new ways world powers such as the US, Israel, Britain and China forge war today. It is a subliminal war of surveillance and whitewashed terror, conducted through new, high-tech military apparatuses, designed and first used in Israel against the Palestinian population. Including hidden camera systems, sophisticated sensors, information databases on civilian activity, automated targeting systems and, in some cases, unmanned drones, it is used to control the very people the nation’s leaders profess to serve.
Drawing from years of research, as well as investigations and interviews conducted at international arms fairs, Jeff Halper reveals that this practice is much more insidious than was previously thought. As Western governments tighten the grip on their use of private information and claw back individual liberties, War Against the People is a timely reminder that fundamental human rights are being compromised for vast sections of the world, and that this is a subject that should concern everyone.
War Against the People is a disturbing insight into the new ways world powers such as the US, Israel, Britain and China forge war today. It is a subliminal war of surveillance and whitewashed terror, conducted through new, high-tech military apparatuses, designed and first used in Israel against the Palestinian population. Including hidden camera systems, sophisticated sensors, information databases on civilian activity, automated targeting systems and, in some cases, unmanned drones, it is used to control the very people the nation’s leaders profess to serve.
Drawing from years of research, as well as investigations and interviews conducted at international arms fairs, Jeff Halper reveals that this practice is much more insidious than was previously thought. As Western governments tighten the grip on their use of private information and claw back individual liberties, War Against the People is a timely reminder that fundamental human rights are being compromised for vast sections of the world, and that this is a subject that should concern everyone.
354 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 20, 2014
15 people are currently reading
630 people want to read
About the author
Jeff Halper
10 books33 followersJeff Halper is an Israeli anthropologist, writer, speaker and human rights activist. He is the head of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and a founding member of the One Democratic State Campaign
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 24, 2020
This is one of the most important tools for activists involved in the BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) movement. Halper helps readers get an inside view of the deep ties between Israeli academic institutions and its military production - one of the primary reasons why there is a robust academic boycott of Israel. Importantly, Halper also painstakingly details precisely how Israeli militarization has infested global police forces and military outfits. For Americans who want to understand how their police became increasingly militarized over the last couple of decades this is a good resource as well. Likewise, Halper shows the overwhelmingly horrific acts that Israel has inserted itself in the operation of paramilitary forces, policing, coups, and suppression of religious and ethnic minorities in South America to Africa to Asia.
Think of any atrocity or violation of sovereignty around the world and you can see very clearly the evidence Halper presents about the role Israel played. From the genocide in Rwanda to India's occupation of Kashmir.
Although I do wish he would have discussed BDS - especially sanctions - more explicitly as a way to counteract Israel's role around the world and, especially, in Palestine, this book is a necessary resource for anyone committed to social justice.
Think of any atrocity or violation of sovereignty around the world and you can see very clearly the evidence Halper presents about the role Israel played. From the genocide in Rwanda to India's occupation of Kashmir.
Although I do wish he would have discussed BDS - especially sanctions - more explicitly as a way to counteract Israel's role around the world and, especially, in Palestine, this book is a necessary resource for anyone committed to social justice.
August 24, 2016
Overall an informative, incisive read. The author sets out to locate Israel's international standing within its military/intelligence/security prowess, which is highly coveted by developing countries/BRICS/MINT. At times the book gets a bit too technical, with too many details on sales/arms/models etc., however, as asserted by the author himself, this is because even social science-oriented people should understand the intricacies of the international weapons trade. Also, the author offers no convincing alternative to what he calls the "securocratic" model, apart from the reordering of society in small-scale productive units, which might fail to convince some. The book's strength lies in its presentation of Israel's relations with a variety of international actors and the documentation of its gradual attainment of military powerhouse status.
November 6, 2023
Halper details convincingly how Israel has used the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank to develop arms and security exports, which are then leveraged to advance the state's political interests. Providing a counter narrative to the traditional view that the occupation is diplomatic deadweight, this book weaves the highly localised conflict into an analysis of securitisation on a global scale and has changed how I think about Israel-Palestine more than anything I've read in years.
January 1, 2025
“Warfare is often less about defeating genuine enemies or making the world a safer place than it is about profiteering and power.” Amen to that. The author calls the US the self-appointed world’s policeman for the capitalist world system, and calls Israel “the predominant authority on securitization and prolonged pacification.” Heck, Israel could have so easily taught Elizabeth Smart’s abductor about prolonging her pacification. “You pacify JUST one, Sir? We pacify millions, here’s our brochure.” In 1900, the gap between rich and poor nations was a ratio 22:1; by 2000, that ratio had become 267:1. To protect this hegemony of corporate and political elites now requires a “securocratic war” and a “virulent neoliberalism” that demands “accumulation by dispossession” and “securing insecurity.” Think of it as “pacification in the name of enforcing the hegemony of transnational capital” that “secures the world-system against threats from counter-hegemons (authentic resistance to dispossession)”.
The US now has 11 active aircraft carrier battle groups while none of our potential adversaries have more than one. It’s good to be king. The US military is presently financed a third more than during the Vietnam War. Core spending on the US military has now reached 50% of the world’s military spending. Fomenting civil war in countries that have export resources is the new black; “Africa bleeds because of its abundant wealth.” This book says that if a country has no export resources, it has a one in a hundred chance of civil war every year; if a country has export resources, then the chance for civil war in ANY given year is one in five. In 1900, 85-90% of casualties in war were military; by the 1990’s, 80 percent of war casualties were civilians. US media wants us focused on Muslim extremism and not Christian and Zionist extremism which in contrast guarantees an 80+% civilian body count in their illegal conflicts.
The US arms industry spends twice what pro-Israel groups do per election cycle. Lockheed Martin alone “outspends AIPAC by a factor of four.” Fun Fact No Liberal Will Tell You: The Bush administration denied Israel advanced refueling tankers that would allow Israeli fighter planes to reach Iran (which would be a war crime) – Obama instead signed a bill to the Right of Bush that would allow both the tankers and for Israel to execute an air strike on Iran. Liberals hated Bush’s policies and then stayed silent when their President was even worse (like Obama executing a 16-year-old US citizen by drone for future crimes). IHL means international humanitarian law. Israel legally wants to ignore IHL and allow indiscriminate [what Hitler did] attacks on civilians (Principle of Distinction) and employing disproportionate [what Hitler did] force (Principle of Proportionality) [p.85]. Yet, disproportionality is a “grave violation” of Article 51(5)(b) of Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions and Article 8(2)(b)(iv) of the Rome Statutes.
Israel: Israel is the first country to publicly acknowledge it plans to develop “an arsenal of nanotechnology weapons”. It’s an expert in scrubbing data so Israeli actions can’t be traced back. China is Israel’s second largest arms trading partner ($11 billion in 2013). Military stuff the US doesn’t want to sell to China, simply gets sold through Israel behind our back. Israel “has more military aircraft than any European country and more land-based weapons (tanks, artillery, and other on the ground stuff to kill your fellow humans with)”. 75% of all arms made in Israel comes from ELTA, IAI, IMI, and RAFAEL. Israel is only the size of New Jersey, yet it has 1,000 arms companies and 312 homeland security companies. All this and (aside from its Hannibal Directive) Israel still couldn’t find its own ass with a flashlight on October 7th. Imagine conditioning your survival on expansionism and pacification. This 2015 book says Israel has received $121 billion from the US (not including the billions more since 2015, and especially post-10/7/23).
Each unguided Qassam sent into Israel by Hamas costs $800, if Israel thinks a Qassam might land on a Zionist, Israel sends not one but two Tamir interceptor missiles at the offending $800 Qassam at a cost of 35K to 50K per missile. Successful resistance to illegal occupation demands financially inconveniencing one’s illegal occupier. An Israeli company Nanoflight makes a special paint to make drones, missiles, and warplanes “disappear” by absorbing radar waves emitted by radar making easier to kill unwanted civilians wherever you wish to direct your war crimes. Jane’s Defense Weekly says Israel has 100 to 300 nuclear warheads. Israel still pretends it has none, otherwise a long-standing secret executive order (see Washington Post article) and the Leahy law would stop Israel from getting aid. Fans of the end of the world will be delighted to know that Israel presently (p.114) has the capability to nuclear strike “almost all parts of North America”. We are endlessly giving money to someone who has logistically planned out striking the US with nuclear weapons – what a “friend” of the US Israel is! If Israel uses one-megaton bombs on Iran, “Iran would face economic collapse” and “serious damage would also occur to all the electrical systems in the Middle East, and Europe as well (p.116).”
90% of all Israeli imports come from sea. Israel’s “Death Sharks”, 9-meter-long speedboats, have 360-degree cameras that can “read a license plate from a distance of 26 kilometers.” At sea level, can you even see sea level 26 kilometers away due to the curvature of the earth?
At the time of this book’s publication in 2015, the author says Israel is “developing an unmanned D-9 Caterpillar” (Actually, they already exist in 2024: see Ynetnews.com “IDF operates unmanned D9 Bulldozers”). Now, the next Rachel Corrie can have the privilege of being murdered by remote control – hooray for increasingly complex technology. “In 10-15 years, one-third of Israel’s military machines will be unmanned.” Thus if, an Israeli soldier gets moral injury from deliberately targeting civilians and children, the ever-thoughtful IDF will soon have unmanned Skynet ability to bypass basic morals. The IDF has developed a VIPeR (Versatile, Intelligent Portable Robot) that is only nine inches tall, and travels on all terrain yet can be weaponized “with a mini-Uzi submachine gun or with grenades that it releases from a 4-ft-long robotic arm.” Israel’s CornerShot was a gun developed in Palestine which was developed to shoot around corners (using video displays) allowing the morally challenged to better shoot one’s fellow humans.
The OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories) are “the most monitored, controlled and militarized place on earth.” “Israel has failed miserably in both combatting terror and resolving its conflicts.” Instead of the obvious “hearts & minds” approach to winning over the people you are occupying, Israel has chosen “pacification” (“mowing the grass” p.145), involving “intimidation, isolation, confrontation, and the use of disproportionate force, all intended to induce despair” and make Palestinians give up all courage and objectives. Israel requires “framing” George Lakoff style that flips the truth where the oppressed suddenly become the threat, and the oppressors look somehow (maybe if you squint) like victims only defending themselves. Israel relies on being seen as history’s ultimate victim. Of course, the indigenous of the world were history’s ultimate victims, but you aren’t even supposed to think about them, and their clearly far bigger victim numbers. Zionist leader Jabotinsky in 1923 wrote, “Every indigenous people will resist alien settlers as long as they see any hope of ridding themselves of the danger of foreign settlement.” The intentional victimizers of the indigenous get to frame THEMSELVES as the victims? That’s the power of framing. Jabotinsky also wrote this upcoming injustice was not possible w/o force and (famously) an Iron Wall”. Is the sacred Jewish value of “Tikkun Olam” about building bridges to bring humans together, or building an Iron Wall to drive humans apart? Israel’s Wall is 26 ft tall and surrounded by 13 ft deep ditches. Add the wall’s surveillance cameras, snipers, “killer dogs” (you read that right), and you have both Givenchy’s new scent, “L’Eau de Occupation”, and Ralph Lauren’s daring new air freshener, “Home Invasion by IDF”.
Women’s Empowerment Israel Style: Women (ages 19 to 20) in the IDF exclusively operate “spot and shoot” at Wall command centers where they can kill Palestinians “at the press of a button on a joystick” (p.157). Experience the joy of being a woman “firing remote-controlled machine-guns mounted on watchtowers every few hundred meters along an electronic fence that surrounds Gaza.” Haaretz reports it found that not one woman doing this has failed to take out an “incriminated” Palestinian. The right for 19 and 20-year-olds to execute w/o jury or trial.
In Israel, Order 101 forbids raising a Palestinian flag or publishing articles or artwork “made to influence public opinion”. “Order 1015 requires the permission of the Military Commander for the planting of fruit trees including olives.” “You are hereby charged for the crime of planting fruit trees on your own land w/o permission. How do you plead?” 800,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel in the OPT since 1967. That’s 40% of the Palestinian male population. Counterinsurgency just a fancy word for pacification.
In 2005, when Zionists want you to believe Israel TOTALLY left Gaza, “Israel merely replaced traditional ground-based occupation with aerial occupation and invisible occupation, and aerially enforced colonization (p.178).” Israel’s penchant for political assassinations has “been used to eliminate moderate leaders like Thabet Thabet or Ismail Abu Shanab.” If you murder moderate leaders opposed to you, who do YOU think will replace them? More extremist leaders most likely – leaders you can conveniently and more EASILY vilify. As Noam has repeatedly told us, in 1967, Israel intentionally chose expansion over peace and security.
Israel loves to hate on Iran, but did you know “Israel, in fact, continued to supply the Khomeini regime with military equipment and ammunition at least until 1987”? This of course violated the US arms embargo at the time. When the US Congress stopped Reagan from funding the Contras, Israel took over (p.198) “supplying training and Israeli weapons (to Contras)”. Page 232 is all about Israel’s deep connection to the known dealing of conflict diamonds and as such in 2011 Israel’s gross diamond sales were 30.5% of its total exports. Israeli journalist Peter Hirshberg, states that the real money for Israel is NOT training guards for dictators but “the real money is in things like diamonds and lumber.” The police department in the US with the closest working relationship to Israel is the NYPD (p.261).
This really was a terrific book, because of the 53 Israel/Palestine books I’ve so far read & reviewed for work since October 7th (It’s been almost a full-time job for me), none of the others came close (not even “The Palestine Laboratory”, by Antony Loewenstein) in giving one the full story of Israel’s financial investment in pacifying one’s fellow man in total violation of the sacred Jewish values of Tikkun Olam. When your schtick as a nation is about mostly making money off the pacification of others, when your “safety” and financial goals are predicated on the oppression of others, don’t be surprised when those you oppress, develop a deep respected culture of permanent resistance.
The US now has 11 active aircraft carrier battle groups while none of our potential adversaries have more than one. It’s good to be king. The US military is presently financed a third more than during the Vietnam War. Core spending on the US military has now reached 50% of the world’s military spending. Fomenting civil war in countries that have export resources is the new black; “Africa bleeds because of its abundant wealth.” This book says that if a country has no export resources, it has a one in a hundred chance of civil war every year; if a country has export resources, then the chance for civil war in ANY given year is one in five. In 1900, 85-90% of casualties in war were military; by the 1990’s, 80 percent of war casualties were civilians. US media wants us focused on Muslim extremism and not Christian and Zionist extremism which in contrast guarantees an 80+% civilian body count in their illegal conflicts.
The US arms industry spends twice what pro-Israel groups do per election cycle. Lockheed Martin alone “outspends AIPAC by a factor of four.” Fun Fact No Liberal Will Tell You: The Bush administration denied Israel advanced refueling tankers that would allow Israeli fighter planes to reach Iran (which would be a war crime) – Obama instead signed a bill to the Right of Bush that would allow both the tankers and for Israel to execute an air strike on Iran. Liberals hated Bush’s policies and then stayed silent when their President was even worse (like Obama executing a 16-year-old US citizen by drone for future crimes). IHL means international humanitarian law. Israel legally wants to ignore IHL and allow indiscriminate [what Hitler did] attacks on civilians (Principle of Distinction) and employing disproportionate [what Hitler did] force (Principle of Proportionality) [p.85]. Yet, disproportionality is a “grave violation” of Article 51(5)(b) of Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions and Article 8(2)(b)(iv) of the Rome Statutes.
Israel: Israel is the first country to publicly acknowledge it plans to develop “an arsenal of nanotechnology weapons”. It’s an expert in scrubbing data so Israeli actions can’t be traced back. China is Israel’s second largest arms trading partner ($11 billion in 2013). Military stuff the US doesn’t want to sell to China, simply gets sold through Israel behind our back. Israel “has more military aircraft than any European country and more land-based weapons (tanks, artillery, and other on the ground stuff to kill your fellow humans with)”. 75% of all arms made in Israel comes from ELTA, IAI, IMI, and RAFAEL. Israel is only the size of New Jersey, yet it has 1,000 arms companies and 312 homeland security companies. All this and (aside from its Hannibal Directive) Israel still couldn’t find its own ass with a flashlight on October 7th. Imagine conditioning your survival on expansionism and pacification. This 2015 book says Israel has received $121 billion from the US (not including the billions more since 2015, and especially post-10/7/23).
Each unguided Qassam sent into Israel by Hamas costs $800, if Israel thinks a Qassam might land on a Zionist, Israel sends not one but two Tamir interceptor missiles at the offending $800 Qassam at a cost of 35K to 50K per missile. Successful resistance to illegal occupation demands financially inconveniencing one’s illegal occupier. An Israeli company Nanoflight makes a special paint to make drones, missiles, and warplanes “disappear” by absorbing radar waves emitted by radar making easier to kill unwanted civilians wherever you wish to direct your war crimes. Jane’s Defense Weekly says Israel has 100 to 300 nuclear warheads. Israel still pretends it has none, otherwise a long-standing secret executive order (see Washington Post article) and the Leahy law would stop Israel from getting aid. Fans of the end of the world will be delighted to know that Israel presently (p.114) has the capability to nuclear strike “almost all parts of North America”. We are endlessly giving money to someone who has logistically planned out striking the US with nuclear weapons – what a “friend” of the US Israel is! If Israel uses one-megaton bombs on Iran, “Iran would face economic collapse” and “serious damage would also occur to all the electrical systems in the Middle East, and Europe as well (p.116).”
90% of all Israeli imports come from sea. Israel’s “Death Sharks”, 9-meter-long speedboats, have 360-degree cameras that can “read a license plate from a distance of 26 kilometers.” At sea level, can you even see sea level 26 kilometers away due to the curvature of the earth?
At the time of this book’s publication in 2015, the author says Israel is “developing an unmanned D-9 Caterpillar” (Actually, they already exist in 2024: see Ynetnews.com “IDF operates unmanned D9 Bulldozers”). Now, the next Rachel Corrie can have the privilege of being murdered by remote control – hooray for increasingly complex technology. “In 10-15 years, one-third of Israel’s military machines will be unmanned.” Thus if, an Israeli soldier gets moral injury from deliberately targeting civilians and children, the ever-thoughtful IDF will soon have unmanned Skynet ability to bypass basic morals. The IDF has developed a VIPeR (Versatile, Intelligent Portable Robot) that is only nine inches tall, and travels on all terrain yet can be weaponized “with a mini-Uzi submachine gun or with grenades that it releases from a 4-ft-long robotic arm.” Israel’s CornerShot was a gun developed in Palestine which was developed to shoot around corners (using video displays) allowing the morally challenged to better shoot one’s fellow humans.
The OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories) are “the most monitored, controlled and militarized place on earth.” “Israel has failed miserably in both combatting terror and resolving its conflicts.” Instead of the obvious “hearts & minds” approach to winning over the people you are occupying, Israel has chosen “pacification” (“mowing the grass” p.145), involving “intimidation, isolation, confrontation, and the use of disproportionate force, all intended to induce despair” and make Palestinians give up all courage and objectives. Israel requires “framing” George Lakoff style that flips the truth where the oppressed suddenly become the threat, and the oppressors look somehow (maybe if you squint) like victims only defending themselves. Israel relies on being seen as history’s ultimate victim. Of course, the indigenous of the world were history’s ultimate victims, but you aren’t even supposed to think about them, and their clearly far bigger victim numbers. Zionist leader Jabotinsky in 1923 wrote, “Every indigenous people will resist alien settlers as long as they see any hope of ridding themselves of the danger of foreign settlement.” The intentional victimizers of the indigenous get to frame THEMSELVES as the victims? That’s the power of framing. Jabotinsky also wrote this upcoming injustice was not possible w/o force and (famously) an Iron Wall”. Is the sacred Jewish value of “Tikkun Olam” about building bridges to bring humans together, or building an Iron Wall to drive humans apart? Israel’s Wall is 26 ft tall and surrounded by 13 ft deep ditches. Add the wall’s surveillance cameras, snipers, “killer dogs” (you read that right), and you have both Givenchy’s new scent, “L’Eau de Occupation”, and Ralph Lauren’s daring new air freshener, “Home Invasion by IDF”.
Women’s Empowerment Israel Style: Women (ages 19 to 20) in the IDF exclusively operate “spot and shoot” at Wall command centers where they can kill Palestinians “at the press of a button on a joystick” (p.157). Experience the joy of being a woman “firing remote-controlled machine-guns mounted on watchtowers every few hundred meters along an electronic fence that surrounds Gaza.” Haaretz reports it found that not one woman doing this has failed to take out an “incriminated” Palestinian. The right for 19 and 20-year-olds to execute w/o jury or trial.
In Israel, Order 101 forbids raising a Palestinian flag or publishing articles or artwork “made to influence public opinion”. “Order 1015 requires the permission of the Military Commander for the planting of fruit trees including olives.” “You are hereby charged for the crime of planting fruit trees on your own land w/o permission. How do you plead?” 800,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel in the OPT since 1967. That’s 40% of the Palestinian male population. Counterinsurgency just a fancy word for pacification.
In 2005, when Zionists want you to believe Israel TOTALLY left Gaza, “Israel merely replaced traditional ground-based occupation with aerial occupation and invisible occupation, and aerially enforced colonization (p.178).” Israel’s penchant for political assassinations has “been used to eliminate moderate leaders like Thabet Thabet or Ismail Abu Shanab.” If you murder moderate leaders opposed to you, who do YOU think will replace them? More extremist leaders most likely – leaders you can conveniently and more EASILY vilify. As Noam has repeatedly told us, in 1967, Israel intentionally chose expansion over peace and security.
Israel loves to hate on Iran, but did you know “Israel, in fact, continued to supply the Khomeini regime with military equipment and ammunition at least until 1987”? This of course violated the US arms embargo at the time. When the US Congress stopped Reagan from funding the Contras, Israel took over (p.198) “supplying training and Israeli weapons (to Contras)”. Page 232 is all about Israel’s deep connection to the known dealing of conflict diamonds and as such in 2011 Israel’s gross diamond sales were 30.5% of its total exports. Israeli journalist Peter Hirshberg, states that the real money for Israel is NOT training guards for dictators but “the real money is in things like diamonds and lumber.” The police department in the US with the closest working relationship to Israel is the NYPD (p.261).
This really was a terrific book, because of the 53 Israel/Palestine books I’ve so far read & reviewed for work since October 7th (It’s been almost a full-time job for me), none of the others came close (not even “The Palestine Laboratory”, by Antony Loewenstein) in giving one the full story of Israel’s financial investment in pacifying one’s fellow man in total violation of the sacred Jewish values of Tikkun Olam. When your schtick as a nation is about mostly making money off the pacification of others, when your “safety” and financial goals are predicated on the oppression of others, don’t be surprised when those you oppress, develop a deep respected culture of permanent resistance.
Want to read
September 15, 2016OK I don't even have the book yet but I'm struggling with how to use GoodReads properly and to my own purpose of making book friends who are catching some of the same clues and tunes from the books we read and listen to...
Here's the podcast that put me on to this book:
http://tlv1.fm/the-tel-aviv-review/20...
Often books aren't nearly as interesting as they sound when I listen to a half hour discussion with the author, but this one hit so many of the truths I hardly ever hear discussed, I have to get it.
Here's the podcast that put me on to this book:
http://tlv1.fm/the-tel-aviv-review/20...
Often books aren't nearly as interesting as they sound when I listen to a half hour discussion with the author, but this one hit so many of the truths I hardly ever hear discussed, I have to get it.
November 13, 2021
Intensively researched, every statement made in the book is backed-up with extensive facts, figures and sources. By chance, I started reading well before the NSO Pegasus spyware story was widely known so when the story finally broke I was up to speed on that aspect. Essential reading for global security specialists and those interested in the (under-reported) behind the scenes workings of international relations. Heavy going for non-specialists due to the aforementioned density of facts and figures but nevertheless, definitely worth reading.
January 27, 2026
Heavy going in parts. Unavoidable given the detail necessary to support the theses. Conclusion & call to action a little too “Horizontalist” for my taste though.
May 12, 2016
Excruciating detail concerning Israel's war making/securitization industries & the exportation thereof.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews