While the drone program of the U.S. military has received extensive coverage, its junior partner, the apartheid state of Israel, has long been a pioneer of the technology. From Palestine to Colombia to Afghanistan, pro-imperialist forces use Israeli drones as instruments of terror and repression.
Israel was the first country to develop modern unmanned aerial vehicle technology, and to use it on a mass scale in a military operation—its 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Israel is now the largest exporter of drones in the world and has set up subsidiaries in other countries—including in Columbus, Miss.—to increase drone production and sales.
Why Israel
Israel’s leading role in drone development is no historical coincidence. It stems from the state’s settler-colonial character, as a state that is widely seen as illegitimate among the region’s indigenous peoples. It only sustains itself through constant expansion, military fortification and various forms of asymetric warfare.
In the chilling words of a senior Israeli official, the country has been able to position itself on the cutting edge of drone technology because of “combat experience that helps us understand what we need and immediate operational use since we are always in a conflict which allows us to perfect our systems.” (emphasis added)
This “combat experience” was demonstrated during the murderous Israeli bombing campaign in Gaza last November. Twenty-nine Palestinian civilians, including eight children, were killed by Israeli drone strikes, representing more than one-fourth of all civilian casualties during the eight-day massacre.
Polling of the Israeli population found that the vast majority supported air strikes on Gaza, but opposed a ground invasion that could end in stalemate or defeat—as in Lebanon in 2006—and would risk significant Israeli lives. The deployment of drones thus corresponds to a popular weariness inside the imperialist centers with traditional wars of conquest—especially after recent failures in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Drones are not just used in times of direct war. They are an important component of the larger mechanism of occupation, constantly spying on and carrying out targeted assassinations of Palestinians.
Israeli drones around the world
Israel routinely “lends” drones to countries participating in the brutal occupation of Afghanistan if they do not have their own drone arsenal.
In early 2012, news broke that Israel had sold a $50 million drone technology system to the government of Colombia, a U.S. client regime that serves as a bulwark against the rising tide of progressive, independent governments in Latin America. Reports suggest that the drones will be used along the Venezuelan border — a clear attempt to intimidate the pro-socialist government of Hugo Chavez — and to aid in the war against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who are fighting for the rights of the country’s workers and farmers.
In early 2010, Israel unveiled the enormous Heron TP drone, effectively a pilotless heavy bomber the size of a commercial airliner. The long-range capacity of this drone is a clear threat aimed at Iran, a country that has long been a thorn in the side of U.S. imperialism and Zionist expansion.
Israeli drone technology, like all of its military development, is largely subsidized by the U.S. taxpayer in the form of billions of dollars of yearly military aid. The crimes committed by the Israeli regime continue with the seemingly endless political and diplomatic support of the U.S. government. Progressives and revolutionaries in the United States are well-positioned to deal a serious blow to Israel’s murderous drone program by fighting for an end to this partnership.
Drones are a frightening new addition to the arsenal of world imperialism. But history shows that no technological advance among the forces of repression is great enough to permanently stifle the struggle of poor and working people. As the mechanisms of oppression grow more sophisticated, so will the resistance of the oppressed.
