Justification - Why Anonymity?

Are the religious, cultural historical propaganda still valuable? Or are they stuck in the emotional remnants? Is the idea of right or wrong still valid? Or is the idea of right or wrong substituted into the idea of priority?

Perhaps, the reason for the conflict can be justified, but no one can agree to the solution that ends the conflict. At the same time, the historical or religious values are losing its point in the other side of the world due to the technological advances. Most of them are more exposed to the information infrastructure – they communicate faster – new ideas come up every other second – instead of the value judgment over the idea that weather it’s right or wrong, the agents on the net collectively organize the structure to create priority. The structure of organization is not vertical hierarchy, but horizontally connected.

The physical segregation by the extreme security measures in the area causes the pockets of information that can’t flow – which leads to the discrepancy of information over same area. The possession of more or less information creates clear controlling hierarchy structure. The profiling system makes it harder for the freedom of expression. The communication hardly occurs in this discontinuous environment.

At the same time, the strict profiling policy makes it harder to achieve individual freedom. Based upon religion and nationality, the residence of the West Bank area are already tagged and categorized to be treated in certain way. Not only that, but also the fact that each side is segregated, yet bonding together within their own group based upon the imposed strong propaganda makes it impossible to have freedom of communication and expression.

It is true that the level of emergency and insecurity of the region requires the transparency from its members. However, are they ready for it? Isn't total transparency will cause another controlling measure that becomes restriction? Plus, if the transparency is not imposed fairly, it will only creates another vertical hierarchy in the region.

Instead of transparency, I want to propose anonymous network channel within the region that can go beyond the wall. The anonymous network channel will be designed to contribute to achieve equivalency of the information to the West Bank area. By not requiring individual profile data, it guarantees the freedom of expression and exchange of the information. At the same time, by storing the data from both side, the anonymous network somehow gains a role inside of the community as a new monument that does not carry any specific propaganda.

Invisible power and control

The cause of the conflict in Jerusalem is obvious, yet very complex – it is total mixture of the accumulated historical, religious and cultural conflict caused by different point of view. Because of the duration of the conflict and the historical contents of the cause of conflict, it is hard to trace back and make decision over who’s right and who’s wrong. Knowing that, the decision making or proposal of the solution is being avoided.

Between two polemic groups of Jerusalem and especially West Bank, the hierarchy of the power structure is pretty clear - One side has total control over the other. Yet, to avoid the responsibility of making smart decision over the problem, the controlling power decided to be invisible to the one they are controlling - to make sure that they guarantee the right to have separate political party and religious / cultural views. At the same time, to make clear that they have the control, layers of security policy are imposed over the social, cultural and infra - structure. The examples are the followings - barriers, checkpoints, ID.


As I posted below, at the terminal checkpoint, Israeli decided to hide behind the one-sided mirror. By being invisible, they are anonymous, but the power structure is clear. Barriers are another example of the effort being made to be invisible to the other side. The construction of the barriers are progressed rapidly in last two years, and almost near completion. The physical separation between east Jerusalem and West Bank, and Israeli vs. Palestinian area is now clear. However, the layout of the barrier is somewhat funny - the literal effort of creating the division between Israeli and Palestinian created the isolation of the city.


The different types of ID are another imposed security layer on top of the physical structure. The West Bank residents, Jerusalem Palestinians and Israeli have possess different types of ID that clarifies different types of personal profile, which eventually entitles them into different categories - means more or less control based upon who you are.


The checkpoints are the physical location where these control measures are enforced. The checkpoints are not necessarily high tech - they are haphazardly made physical structure, but the social impact of them are well designed. Checkpoints are the one that stops the movement inside of the West Bank area by forbidding the access to the Israeli reserved road that divides the towns from each other.

Allenby Bridge Terminal - Anonynous Surveillence

The power structure of surveillance in the Israeli controlled territory of West Bank is reflecting the current situation between Israeli and Palestinians. To avoid the conflict yet to make the borderline between the one controls and the one being controlled, Israeli security force would be invisible to the Palestinians during their action.

According to the description in the Article X, Israeli security agents would be separated from travelers by one-way mirrors even though they are all over the terminal building. The travel documents of Palestinians were to be checked by an Israeli officer who also checks their identity indirectly in an invisible manner. (Eyal Weizman, Hollow Land)

Within the terminal, the Palestinian officers guide several security checks, but the overall provision is done by the Israeli securities behind the mirror. This is due to the Oslo Accords - Palestinians are still under Israeli security domination, but encouraged to believe their own political authority.

The one-way mirror represents the political gesture of Israeli security control in the west bank territory. To make sure that they are encouraging or not enforcing the political authority, but not to lose the territorial control, they choose to be invisible. Yet, they are still looking over what is happening inside, either to maintain overall control or protect themselves from the possibilities of the uprising terrorism / attack.

Palestinians are being observed by anonymous force. They are required to provide their personal profile to the anonymous security personnel. Are they even sure that the one who goes over their travel documents are human or monkey? With the one-way mirror, it is impossible.

Anonymity and mass crowd

To stop the Israeli attack in Gaza area, one of the interesting tactics from the Palestinian is building a human shield: gather together as a bigger crowd when the attack is about to happen. The crowd is a mixture of the militant leaders to school girls. The action of gathering as a mass crowd deterred several Israeli air force attack since it can cause civilian casualty. (BBC News)

For me, this is one of the example of the idea of anonymity in the context of Israel - Palestine conflict. By gathering as a one big crowd, individual profiles blend into a bigger entity, the Palestinians. It gets hard to recognize who is causing the trouble and who is innocent. The individual anonymity is achieved by this action, and eventually prevents the adversary attack.

In anonymous networking system, the nodes are grouped together to lower the possibility to find clear target. If the group is bigger, it is better. It is hard to find who is doing illegal activities in the group even though the activity is coming out of the group. It is also unfair to accuse whole group as guilty because innocent individuals are involved and it is not fair. Mostly, the effort to find the target goes back to zero. The Palestinian movement of gathering together as a mass crowd to stop the Israeli attack is the physical representation of this idea in different context.

More Anonymities

Terrorism
By not claiming their responsibility over the event of terror, the terrorist group can create the sense of horror to their target group, and avoid counter attack. 22.8 percent of Israeli - Palestinian terrorism occurred between 1994 to 1999 time period are anonymous.

Underground Economy
Most of the underground economy chooses to be anonymous to avoid taxation from the government. The market not only includes illegal commerce (i.g. drugs, prostitutions, firearms, copyrighted media, etc.) but also legal service because of the benefit of not paying tax. Cash is preferred in underground economy because it is not easy to track.

Suicide group
Anonymous suicide is recent social phenomenon in developed Asian countries. Mostly formed over the internet, the victims exchange their information while staying anonymous. By belonging to the crowd, the individual victims are less recognizable and gains more confidence for suicide. The anonymity prevents them to be found by authority before the occurrence of suicide, but also protect the privacy of the members and their social life while they stay alive.

Homeless
Homeless are the one that are out of existing system. By being invisible to the system, they become anonymous to the society either voluntarily or involuntarily. By being out of system, homeless get out of the social responsibilities that are required from the location they reside.

Most Wanted
Most wanted fugitives from certain societies can be seen as physically anonymous because of their invisibility to the authority. By staying invisible and physically anonymous, they can delay the accusation from the authority while accomplishing their interests.

Pasquinade
Pasquinade is an anonymous lampoon. It obtained double meaning when people started to post anonymous satire to criticize their unhappiness over pope or the government.

Graffiti
If formal art is the one that has clear profile, graffiti is a type of art that stays anonymous in a way. The observer of the graffiti does not get the formal presentation of the artist or art. The artist like Bansky or Invader are anonymous but created their presence by repeating the similar style of art and getting recognized.

First federalist paper
Federalist paper is one of the iconic example of anonymity. The paper was published anonymously to avoid political oppression. The influence of the federalist paper to the constitution made the anonymity to be guaranteed as citizen’s right.

Anonymous Voting
In democracy, the degree of being anonymous in the voting system is important to achieve the fairness.

Bansky and Invader | Cultural Anonymity

Unlike formal art, the street art scenes including graffiti is anonymous. While blended in the urban fabric, the street art approaches observer by being itself, only with its content without letting people know who is the artist. In case of Bansky and Invader, the repetition of the similar style created the strong identity for the art itself, again, without the emphasis on the author.

Profile Experiment | Tor

I downloaded and installed Tor, the anonymous networking program. Unlike other programs, Tor asks the minimum amount of personal information, since it is not important and necessary. The website says the individual usage of Tor is to avoid tracking system from the websites. It is quite different from my understanding of Freehaven, the precedent of Tor - According to my research, Freehaven requires to contribute storage space as a server to store the information. Maybe it is different when I run my own server.


One of the interesting feature in the software bundle is 'Tor Network Map', which shows the physical location of the servers on the global map. Again, I am not really sure how much of anonymity is achieved when the information of location is released, especially aided by graphics.

What I need to do to hide myself in the network is to figure out Hidden Service. Without that, even though Tor is running, I am not really using or participating inside of the network. This is the message I got.


I am still getting used to the interface. One of my concern is whether I can run a server from school network or not, since they are tracking my daily use of network.