Gaza Charity's Plan to Record Classrooms With AI Draws Privacy Concerns

A U.S. charity that runs schools in Gaza plans to record classroom audio and use artificial intelligence to flag speech it considers hateful or inciting, The Independent reported. The founder says the goal is to keep teachers on a curriculum built around peace and tolerance, but Palestinian organizations, human rights advocates and at least one of the charity's own partner groups have raised ethical, safety and privacy concerns.

The charity is the Gaza Children Village, which operates its schools under the name Academies of Hope. Gaza residents already live with deep fears about surveillance after three years of war, which adds weight to the dispute.

What the charity says it plans to do

Founder and CEO Dr. David Hasan outlined the plan during a webinar with humanitarian organizations in September, according to the report. Hasan is a neurosurgeon born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents who teaches at Duke University Medical School in North Carolina. He said AI would analyze classroom audio for terms it classifies as antisemitic, inciting or hateful. A flagged word would trigger an alert to Hasan, who could then contact the teacher to review the context and offer feedback. He said recordings would be kept for 72 hours.

Hasan said the monitoring is meant to help train educators to stick to a curriculum he has previously described as focused on de-radicalization. He acknowledged the plan is controversial but said it is the only way the charity feels it can survive and deliver the lessons.

The lessons are largely based on the Palestinian Authority curriculum, Hasan has said, with material glorifying violence or promoting anti-Israel or antisemitic views removed. He declined to comment for the story or to share examples of the changes. A text message from Hasan sent before August, reviewed by The Associated Press, said the technology had been tested and was planned for dozens of classrooms. The message claimed it was built with PollyLabs, a New York nonprofit. PollyLabs said it had no role in developing or deploying it.

What critics say

Palestinian advocacy groups argue the charity operates without accountability to the local or UN bodies that traditionally oversee Gaza's schools. Ines Abdel Razek, co-director of the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, said she fears an effort to control the minds of new generations. She said support should go to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, and the Palestinian Authority to rebuild schools. Israel has alleged that UNRWA is infiltrated by Hamas, a claim the agency denies.

Mohammad AbuAlrob, a spokesperson for the Palestinian government, said the Palestinian Authority curriculum emphasizes tolerance and justice. He said he lacked enough information to evaluate the charity's curriculum, but that putting surveillance in classrooms would cross "an important line."

Amjad Iraqi, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, said many Palestinians feel unable to speak or type a thought without fear it could be used against them, a result of what he described as Israel's weaponizing of information. The Israeli military has used AI to analyze intercepted communications and identify targets, according to the report. The report says there is no evidence the charity plans to share recordings with third parties.

The curriculum question behind the dispute

The charity's defenders point to concerns long raised by Israel about Palestinian textbooks. A 2026 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office on problematic content flagged by the UN in Gaza cited examples such as using "the number of martyrs" to teach math and describing Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine. It also cited a reference to a youth shot while protesting for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

The same report said UNRWA had previously tried to change the curriculum to remove material at odds with neutrality, nonviolence and nondiscrimination, but met opposition from teachers and local communities.

What's at stake for Gaza's classrooms

For families and teachers in Gaza, the question is whether children's lessons will be recorded and judged by an outside organization. The charity's schools provide meals, medical care and psychological support alongside instruction. It opened its first facility last summer and is funded mainly by individual donors, including American Jews, according to the report.

The dispute also feeds into the unresolved question of who directs education in Gaza after the war, one of many open issues in the territory's postwar governance.

What remains unclear

It is not clear when the classroom monitoring will begin, which words would trigger alerts, or whether teachers, students and their families have been told about the plan.

Source: The Independent