By Andrew Klein 

The statement, “In Israel, your ID card dictates your destiny,” is not an exaggeration; it is the operational foundation of the state. Let’s fill in the blanks for those who see an ID card as a simple piece of plastic.

What the ID Card Encodes in Israel:

The ID card issued by the Israeli Population and Immigration Authority contains a field for “Nationality.” This is not “Israeli.” It is either “Jewish,” “Arab,” or another ethnicity. This single data point triggers a cascade of life-altering consequences:

· For a “Jewish” Nationality:

  · Path to Citizenship: Automatic right to Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return.

  · Land & Housing: Access to subsidized housing and the right to buy or lease land in the vast majority of the country controlled by the Jewish National Fund, from which Palestinians are excluded.

  · Law & Protection: Lives under a civilian legal system with full political rights.

· For an “Arab” (Palestinian) Nationality:

  · Path to Citizenship: Extremely difficult, often impossible. Palestinians in the occupied territories have no path to citizenship.

  · Land & Housing: Subject to discriminatory land and planning laws. Over 1,000 Palestinian homes in Israel and the Occupied Territories are demolished each year, often for lacking permits that are systematically denied. (Source: UN OCHA)

  · Law & Protection: For the millions in the Occupied Territories, they live under military law, with no right to vote for the government that controls their lives.

This is not a “complex conflict.” It is a legally entrenched system of separate and unequal rights based on ethnic identity, codified in an ID number. As Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem have concluded, this meets the legal definition of apartheid.

The Global Export: When Your ID Becomes a Tool for Extraction and Control

The danger does not stop at Israel’s borders. The very technology and mindset that powers this system are being packaged and sold to the world as “security solutions.”

1. The Misuse of ID as a Single Gatekeeper:

An ID system becomes a weapon when it is theonly key to life. It reduces a multi-faceted human being—a parent, an artist, a tradesperson, a dreamer—to a single, state-controlled data point. This data point can then be used to:

· Include or Exclude: Grant or deny access to banking, healthcare, social benefits, and even physical movement.

· Extract: Enable sophisticated taxation, fines, and surveillance capitalism.

· Control: Silence dissent by threatening to revoke the ID, effectively erasing a person’s legal existence.

· Eliminate: As history has shown, from the Nazi use of census data and ID systems to identify Jews, to the current use of digital surveillance and ID to target Palestinians in Gaza for bombardment, the step from control to physical elimination is tragically short.

2. The False Promise of Security:

The claim that pervasive ID systems prevent crime and terror is a myth. They are performative theatre that creates a false sense of security while undermining real safety.

· Terrorists and Criminals Use False IDs: The 9/11 hijackers carried valid forms of ID. The 2004 Madrid train bombers used legitimate residency documents. (Source: 9/11 Commission Report, EU Counter-Terrorism Reports)

· Money Laundering Thrives: Vast sums are laundered through the world’s most robust financial systems, all of which require stringent ID. The “Panama Papers” and “Pandora Papers” exposed how the global elite use legal identities and shell companies to hide wealth. (Source: International Consortium of Investigative Journalists)

· Black Markets Flourish Under Surveillance: In highly surveilled states like China, black markets for fake IDs, VPNs, and censored information thrive, proving that control breeds evasion, not compliance.

Conclusion: The Choice Before Us

An ID card is a tool. Like any tool, its morality is defined by its use.

· Used Appropriately: It can streamline access to services, verify identity for a contract, and facilitate a functional society by mutual consent.

· Used Inappropriately: It becomes the linchpin of an extractive, controlling state. It engineers political outcomes by deciding who counts as a full human and who does not. It undermines trust in democracy by creating a permanent, digitally-enforced underclass.

When countries import surveillance technology from a state that has perfected the use of the ID card as a tool of apartheid, they are not just buying software. They are importing a blueprint for oppression. They are investing in a system designed not to protect citizens, but to sort, control, and ultimately, eliminate them.

The world must see the ID card for what it can become: not just a piece of plastic, but the barcode on a human life, waiting to be scanned for inclusion, or for deletion.

—

Sources: B’Tselem – “A Regime of Jewish Supremacy,” Human Rights Watch – “A Threshold Crossed,” UN OCHA – Demolitions Database, 9/11 Commission Report, ICIJ – “Pandora Papers.”