It was inevitable that the Israeli occupation would become increasingly privatized. With so many Israeli companies involved in maintaining the infrastructure around the occupation, these firms found innovative ways to sell their services to the state, test the latest technology on Palestinians, and then promote them around the world. Israel embraced neoliberalism from the mid-1980s and privatization of major state-owned enterprises accelerated in the 1990s. Nonetheless, while the defense industries are increasingly in private hands, they continue to act as an extension of Israel's foreign policy agenda, supporting its goals and pro-occupation ideology. The human cost of this neoliberal shift has been devastating: Israel has the highest income inequality of any nation in the OECD. The poverty rate in 2020 was 23 percent of the Israeli Jewish population and 36 percent of the Arab population. [...] Many Palestinians are unaware of how the occupation has been privatized because it makes no difference if a state officer or private individual harasses or humiliates them. Neither entity is accountable to those over whom they rule. I saw this constantly when working and traveling across the West Bank beginning in 2005. Many checkpoints through which Palestinians are forced to travel to access their schools, workplaces, or Israel if they are fortunate enough to get of the few work permits handed out by the state, use facial recognition technology and biometric details to document their every move.

— Palestine Laboratory by Antony Loewenstein (22% - 23%)