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https://therealnews.com/deadly-exchange-us-sends-hundreds-of-law-enforcement-to-israel-to-learn-worst-practices-from-idf

DEADLY EXCHANGE’: US SENDS HUNDREDS OF LAW ENFORCEMENT TO ISRAEL TO LEARN ‘WORST PRACTICES’ FROM IDF

Through police exchange programs, local and federal officials travel to Israel for training that advocates say further militarizes the police and exacerbates harm to marginalized communities.

BY VICTORIA VALENZUELA
JANUARY 7, 2025

It is not uncommon for police to drive around with their lights flashing in Black and working-class neighborhoods in Atlanta. This is a tactic used to intimidate and make their presence known; for residents of these neighborhoods, it can feel like psychological warfare. US law enforcement learned this strategy from Israeli forces.

Thousands of law enforcement officials have traveled to Israel to learn new repression strategies and surveillance techniques from the Israel National Police, Israel Defense Forces, and the Shin Bet, who inflict violence, crowd control, and surveillance onto Palestinians. Anti-imperialist advocates say the tactics being taught to US law enforcement were battle-tested on Palestinians and spread to the US to target Black and Brown communities through a training relationship that grants Israeli forces more power and profit, causing further harm to Palestinians.

These programs are facilitated by the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, and the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange Program—the latter of which was started in 1996. US leaders sought Israel’s guidance to curb terrorism, and a ‘deadly exchange’ of worst practices between US and Israeli forces was born. Federal, state, county, and municipal law enforcement executives including local police departments, the FBI, and ICE have traveled to Israel, while thousands of officials have attended conferences with Israeli experts in the US. An inaugural “US-Israel Security Conference” by JINSA occurred last month, where a former Israel Defense Forces commander was included as a guest speaker.

“Certain police practices and policies that all happen time and time again, when you look back and try to pull back on the thread to see where they got this from, it always comes back to somebody went to Israel.”
STEVEN H., AN ORGANIZER WITH THE BLACK ALLIANCE FOR PEACE.

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