Israel used Palantir technology in its 2024 Lebanon pager attack which killed two children. A new book claims the settler-colonial state used similar technology for raids in Gaza. US-based journalist Michael Steinberger wrote The Philosopher in the Valley: Alex Karp, Palantir, and the Rise of the Surveillance State.
Palantir is a global tech firm led by far-right billionaire Alex Karp. The firm has significant military interests in the US. Karp is close to US president Donald Trump.
One of the book’s central claims is that in a 17 September pager 2024 attack:
The company’s technology was deployed by the Israelis during military operations in Lebanon in 2024 that decimated Hezbollah’s top leadership.
On 18 September, Israel detonated walkie-talkies with similar effects:
It [Palantir tech] was also used in Operation Grim Beeper, in which hundreds of Hezbollah fighters were injured and maimed when their pagers and walkie-talkies exploded (the Israelis had booby trapped the devices.
The Israel pager attack killed twelve, including two children, and injured nearly 3000 people. The second Israeli attack with weaponised walkie-talkies killed twenty five and injured 600 people.
The UN called the attacks war crimes:
Simultaneous attacks by thousands of devices would inevitably violate humanitarian law, by failing to verify each target, and distinguish between protected civilians and those who could potentially be attacked for taking a direct part in hostilities.
Such attacks could constitute war crimes of murder, attacking civilians, and launching indiscriminate attacks, in addition to violating the right to life.
Palantir has close ties to Israel
The Dissident magazine says Israeli intelligence used Palantir technology before 7 October 2023. But their interest accelerated as the Israel genocide gathered pace:
The demand for Palantir’s assistance was so great that the company dispatched a a team of engineers from London to help get Israeli users online.
Palantir even had to expand operations in Israel to keep up with demand:
Palantir ended up having to rent a second-floor building that housed its Tel Aviv office, to accommodate the intelligence analysts who needed tutorials.
Steinberger wrote that Palantir also made money out of raids against Palestinians:
Its software was used by the Israeli military in several raids in Gaza.
Palantir’s war technology extends to the UK too. The British government announced a massive contract on 18 September 2025. A press release said:
Palantir and the UK military will work together to transform lethality on the battlefield.
The UK will soon use Palantir technology in its own ‘kill chain’:
Some of these new capabilities will support development of what is known as the ‘kill chain’, whereby military planners fuse a wide range of information and data sources from open source and military platforms to provide military commanders with faster options for attacking an enemy target.
Palantir’s influence and taste for militarism is growing. Palantir is embedded into the architecture of US empire. Significantly, US vassals Israel and the UK are involved too. At the present time, the primary victims are in places like Lebanon and Palestine, so it is little wonder Western media and politicians have let Palantir have their death game.
Featured image via the Canary
By Joe Glenton
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