Activists opposed Oakland’s contract this week with an Israeli cellphone data extraction company, which they say has been used in Israeli military operations in Gaza and to surveil journalists and activists across the world.
While the Oakland Police Department has contracted with digital intelligence company Cellebrite since 2014, the City Council voted Wednesday to extend the contract through June 2027.
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“By approving this contract, Oakland has chosen to bring in technology tied directly to Israeli occupation forces, the surveillance of Palestinians, and immigration enforcement here in the U.S.,” said Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the Bay Area’s office of the Council of American-Islamic Relations. “That decision should never have been made without meaningful engagement with the communities most likely to be impacted by expanded surveillance and discriminatory policing.”
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