Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants children, and eventually every person in Israel, to get microchipped – as Israel starts to lift its COVID-19 lockdown.
Netanyahu made this suggestion at a press conference on Monday, arguing that the technology would help Israelis adjust to the ‘new normal’ while maintaining social distancing.
“I spoke with our heads of technology in order to find measures Israel is good at, such as sensors. For instance, every person, every kid – I want it on kids first – would have a sensor that would sound an alarm when you get too close, like the ones on cars,” Netanyahu explained.
According to a report by The Jerusalem Post and Ynet News, cyber experts and privacy activists are opposed to the idea.
“Theoretically, I get the idea behind it. But although such distance-sensitive microchips exist in vehicles, it is different in humans,” Cyber Security expert Einat Meron told Ynet.
According to Meron, “Microchipping children will not pass any test – both practically and legally.”
On the impracticality of Netanyahu’s idea, Meron argues that a beeping sound telling people they are close to each other is not enough because it does not change anything, as people would still have gotten close to each other anyway.
As for the legality of the idea, Melon explains that information obtained by the State from the sensors in the microchip implants, renders the technology open to abuse both from the State and criminals.
“If the information with the kids’ location is uploaded to the internet, a pedophile with some cyber knowledge may invade the system and stalk them outside their schools, follow them and distribute the information on other platforms,” Meron said.
The Prime Minister’s Office responded to the concerns raised about the microchip implants, stating, “The prime minister’s suggestion is not to be implemented through databases, but through simple technology notifying citizens about their distance. It is a voluntary option that is designed to help children keep their distance, like Mobileye with vehicles. It is an idea that may help maintain social distancing, and there will not be any violation of privacy.”
It is rather surprising that Benjamin Netanyahu, considered an icon by American Evangelicals, is open to human microchipping. The hero worship that American Evangelicals express towards Netanyahu is not mere idolization of an authority figure; it is cult-like, and fueled by fanatical belief that Israel must build a ‘Third Temple’ in Jerusalem, for Jesus to come back. Many of these Evangelicals are convinced that Netanyahu’s leadership over the State of Israel will be instrumental in the building of this temple.
The contradiction between Netanyahu embracing human microchipping and the reverence that American Evangelicals have for him, coupled with a prime manifestation of their eschatology being opposition to microchip implants, becomes all too apparent. However, Netanyahu’s openness towards human microchipping might not necessarily be contradictory to contemporary Evangelical eschatology because of recent changes to Evangelical doctrine.
Influential preacher Pat Robertson, a close friend to Netanyahu, became the genesis of these doctrinal changes when he recently came out saying that Biblical verses talking about a ‘Mark of Satan’ which people will be required to have on their hand – and which many Christians equate to microchip implants, are not to be taken literally. According to Robertson, this means that microchip implants are not the Mark of Satan. This surprising proclamation by Robertson will likely lead more American Evangelicals to be open to Netanyahu’s idea of microchipping children.
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