Deadly Exchange: The Dangerous Consequences of US-Israel Law Enforcement Exchanges
From the acting Deputy Director of ICE to the current Chief of Police in Washington DC, from San Diego to Chicago to Atlanta, since 2002 thousands of American law enforcement officials have trained in Israel with Israeli police, military and the Shin Bet. And thousands more have participated in security conferences and workshops with Israeli military, law enforcement and security officials held in the U.S. But despite their branding as top-tier counter-terrorism experts, Israeli police and security agents regularly violate civil rights, and implement racist and deadly policies.
This report comprehensively documents how these trainings solidify partnerships between the U.S. and Israeli governments to exchange methods of state violence and control, including mass surveillance, racial profiling, and suppression of protest and dissent.
Produced by Researching the American Israeli Alliance (RAIA) in partnership with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), the report is the result of dozens of FOIAs yielding hundreds of documents, exclusive interviews with American and Israeli personnel, and exhaustive academic and media research in English, Arabic and Hebrew. Accompanying the report, RAIA released the Palestine is Here Database, a search engine mapping Israeli trainings of US law enforcement across American cities and towns.
“American police already have a terrible track record on civil rights and racism – and then they go to Israel and train with Israeli police and security agencies that are documented human rights violators! We should be investing in our communities, not militarizing our police.”
Stefanie Fox, Jewish Voice for Peace Deputy Director
“The dangers of U.S. law enforcement training in Israel for communities across the United States make clear that U.S. policy on Israel is not just a foreign policy issue, but one of civil rights. This unholy alliance between the U.S. and Israeli governments and American military industries is creating an injustice that we must urgently address.”
Eran Efrati, RAIA Executive Director
Deadly Exchange: The Dangerous Consequences of American Law Enforcement Trainings in Israel documents how these training programs contradict the heroic efforts of the civil rights movements in the U.S. to counter racist state violence – including counter-terrorism initiatives – in black, brown and poor communities.
CASE STUDY: On a police training exchange in Israel, the Boston Police Commissioner visited Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, where he learned about Israel’s passenger screening process, including racial and ethnic profiling of passengers. Shortly after, Boston’s Logan airport became the first American airport to pioneer the Israeli inspired Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program. Years later, SPOT not only came under fire for being ineffective and wasteful, but also for facilitating discriminatory racial profiling at airports around the country.
The report also details the financial incentives and trade-offs between Israeli and American security firms and technologies.
CASE STUDY: Developed by Israeli police and manufactured by the Israeli company Odortec, “Skunk” is a foul-smelling liquid designed to cause nausea and linger for days when sprayed at high pressure onto protesters at demonstrations. Based on its proven effectiveness against Palestinian protests – particularly in West Bank village demonstrations against the Apartheid Wall – the American company Mistral Security began selling Skunk to U.S. police departments, including the St. Louis Metropolitan Police, following the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri.
Deadly Exchange: The Dangerous Consequences of American Law Enforcement Trainings in Israel demonstrates that the U.S. law enforcement agencies’ endorsement of Israel’s use of invasive surveillance, blatant racial profiling, and brutal force as a model for policing puts us all in danger.
Yes, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has participated in training programs with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and other Israeli security entities, and it maintains an office in Israel.
Here’s a breakdown based on other available information:
Training with the IDF Since the early 2000s, thousands of ICE officers (along with other U.S. law enforcement personnel) have engaged in training exchanges with Israeli military and police forces, which include the IDF. -https://deadlyexchange.org
These programs focus on areas like counterterrorism tactics, surveillance, threat detection, and inter-agency cooperation - deadlyexchange.org
Specific initiatives include:
The Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) National Counterterrorism Seminar (NCTS) and Advanced Training School (ATS), which have involved over 1,200 top U.S. officials (including from ICE) traveling to Israel or hosting Israeli experts since 2003 - deadlyexchange.org
The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) Law Enforcement Exchange Program (LEEP), started in 2002, sending U.S. delegations (including ICE) to Israel annually for tactical sharing - deadlyexchange.org
Other programs like the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE) and American Jewish Committee exchanges, which have included ICE participants learning from Israeli military strategies - deadlyexchange.org
These exchanges have been criticized for importing tactics associated with occupation and control, such as militarized checkpoints, arbitrary detentions, and surveillance, which some reports link to ICE’s operations in the U.S. - scalawagmagazine.org
Additionally, technology sharing (e.g., via companies like Palantir, Elbit, and Paragon) enhances these connections, with tools used by both ICE and the IDF for targeting and monitoring - scalawagmagazine.org
Whistleblower accounts, such as from U.S. Army veteran Anthony Aguilar, highlight how ICE agents train in Israel and apply those methods domestically - facebook.com
Office in Israel ICE operates an Embassy Branch office in Tel Aviv, Israel, as part of its Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) global network - ice.gov
The address is 71 Ha-Yarkon, Tel Aviv-Yafo 6343229, with contact phone: 011-972-3-519-7575 - ice.gov
This is one of over 90 ICE offices in more than 50 countries, focused on combating transnational crime through international cooperation - ice.gov
While the exact role isn’t detailed on the office’s page, ICE’s international presence generally involves liaison work with foreign law enforcement to prevent threats from reaching the U.S. - ice.gov
There are no explicit mentions of direct IDF partnerships on the office’s public info, but broader U.S.-Israel security collaborations (e.g., via DHS) support such operations - dhs.gov
These connections stem from long-standing U.S.-Israel security ties, but they’ve drawn scrutiny amid discussions of tactics and human rights - scalawagmagazine.org
This report comprehensively documents how these trainings solidify partnerships between the U.S. and Israeli governments to exchange methods of state violence and control, including mass surveillance, racial profiling, and suppression of protest and dissent. https://deadlyexchange.org/deadly-exchange-research-report/