{"id":125560,"date":"2026-03-17T07:48:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T10:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/899980013"},"modified":"2026-03-17T07:48:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T10:48:54","slug":"blood-tech-the-uk-ambassador-the-sex-offender-palantir-and-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/03\/17\/blood-tech-the-uk-ambassador-the-sex-offender-palantir-and-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"Blood tech: The UK ambassador, the sex offender, Palantir, and Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the second part in Al Jazeera\u2019s Blood Tech series, looking at how governments around the world \u2013 including those who have criticised Israel \u2013 are still using the technology it has tested on Palestinians. You can read the first part, which looks at how the UK has utilised Israeli military spyware, here<\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ties between the US tech giant Palantir and the United Kingdom government are coming under increased scrutiny following the arrest of former UK ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson over his links to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n

Palantir, which was a client of Mandelson\u2019s recently-shuttered consultancy company Global Counsel, has been instrumental in supporting<\/span> Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza and continued occupation of the West Bank.<\/p>\n

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Despite its public criticism of both Palantir and Mandelson, the UK government has entered into extensive contracts with the US tech giant, signing a defence contract worth 240 million pounds ($323m) in January. The contract was awarded to Palantir directly, while another, worth 330 million pounds ($444m) and involving the UK\u2019s Ministry of Health, was awarded in November 2023 following a bidding process. The latter contract\u2019s contents, campaigners say, remain heavily redacted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Support for Israel<\/h2>\n

In addition to its role supporting US President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown, which has resulted in killings<\/span> and unlawful deportations<\/span>, Palantir has partnered extensively with the Israeli military and its operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

Established in 2003 by a cohort of technology entrepreneurs, including Peter Thiel and current CEO Alex Karp, Palantir opened its first office in Israel in 2015.<\/p>\n

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According to Open Intel<\/a>, a platform tracking corporate involvement in the Gaza genocide, Palantir has actively recruited veteran members of Israel\u2019s cyber intelligence wing, Unit 8200. After agreeing to what its website refers to as a \u201cstrategic partnership\u201d with Israel in January 2024, the company significantly stepped up its operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, combining various data sets from intercepted communications, satellite and other online data to compile targeting, or \u201ckill lists\u201d, for the Israeli military.<\/p>\n

While Palantir characterises its technology as an analytical tool rather than a direct targeting system, its integration into Israeli command-and-control workflows has drawn criticism from human rights researchers. Senior figures at the United Nations<\/span> have also argued that technologies such as Palantir\u2019s materially shape the pace and scale by which the Israeli army is able to target people.<\/p>\n

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Palantir CEO Alex Karp said Hamas was the primary reason for deaths in Gaza [Thibault Camus\/AP Photo]<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In May last year, responding to heckles from an audience in Washington, DC, over his company\u2019s role in the Gaza genocide, a laughing Karp said that \u201cthe primary source of death in Palestine\u201d, where Israel accepts that 70,000<\/span> people were killed during its military campaign, \u201cis the fact that Hamas has realised that there are millions and millions of useful idiots\u201d.<\/p>\n

Responding to Al Jazeera\u2019s request for comment, a spokesperson for Palantir UK said: \u201cAs a company, Palantir does support Israel. We\u2019ve chosen to support them because of the appalling events of October 7th. And more broadly, we\u2019ve chosen to support them because we believe in supporting the West and its allies \u2013 and Israel is an important ally of the West.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Israel\u2019s genocidal campaign in Gaza began after Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

Mandelson ties<\/h2>\n

Scrutiny over Mandelson, Palantir, and its relationship with the UK government gained new urgency after the ex-ambassador\u2019s arrest in late February over allegations contained in the Epstein files \u2013 millions of documents detailing the disgraced financier\u2019s activities \u2013 that Mandelson had maintained a relationship with Epstein after his 2008 sex offence conviction and may have shared with Epstein market-sensitive information of financial interest to him.<\/p>\n

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More in World<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Numerous UK opposition MPs and trade groups have called for a full review of Palantir, with some lawmakers describing<\/a> it as \u201cghastly\u201d and \u201ca highly questionable organisation\u201d. Of concern to many is the visit Mandelson and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer paid to Palantir\u2019s headquarters in Washington, DC, in February 2025, 11 months before the UK selected the American company in an uncontested bidding process to provide artificial intelligence to its armed services.<\/p>\n

Requests from tech fairness group Foxglove, The Good Law Project and Al Jazeera have yet to reveal details of that meeting. However, responding to a Freedom of Information request by the Good Law Project in April 2025, the UK\u2019s Cabinet Office described it as an \u201cinformal\u201d and un-minuted meeting between the UK prime minister, its ambassador and a US company that, by that time, was already accused of participating in war crimes in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

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UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and UK ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson during their trip to Washington, DC, in February 2025 [Carl Court\/Pool photo via AP]<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Responding to Al Jazeera\u2019s questions for details of the meeting, a government spokesperson said: \u201cMinisters engage with a range of companies as part of their international travel, to promote trade and investment links for the UK.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe also utilise a range of international suppliers based on operational requirements, value for money, and compliance with our security and legal obligations, with all suppliers subject to rigorous due diligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palantir and the NHS<\/h2>\n

Palantir\u2019s contract with the UK\u2019s health service has also been called into question.<\/p>\n

Foxglove and other NGOs, including the human rights-focused pressure group MedAct, have raised specific questions over Palantir initially accepting just 1 pound ($1.35) in March 2020 for an emergency contract to help the National Health Service (NHS) handle the COVID pandemic. The contract allowed Palantir to access NHS data, and the company was eventually handsomely rewarded \u2013 the current deal between Palantir and the NHS is worth 23.5 million pounds ($31.6m).<\/p>\n

In September 2022, reporters from Bloomberg<\/a> claimed to have seen documents suggesting a \u201csecret plan\u201d from Palantir to further entrench itself within the NHS without public scrutiny, a tactic typically referred to as \u201cvendor capture\u201d.<\/p>\n

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An email, cited by Bloomberg, from Palantir\u2019s regional head, Louis Mosley, titled \u201cBuying our way in\u2026!\u201d reportedly outlined a strategy of \u201choovering up\u201d smaller rival businesses serving the NHS to \u201ctake a lot of ground and take down a lot of political resistance\u201d.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the company later said the choice of language was \u201cregrettable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Palantir has since continued to expand its footprint in the NHS, including sending delegates to a dinner hosted by Mandelson\u2019s Global Counsel in February 2023, where the NHS\u2019s chief data and analytics officer, Ming Tang, was listed as the \u201cguest of honour\u201d.<\/p>\n

This was roughly nine months before Palantir was selected to lead the NHS\u2019s new Federated Data Platform, a contract worth hundreds of millions of pounds.<\/p>\n

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This undated photo in an unidentified location provided by the US Justice Department on December 19, 2025, shows former UK Ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson (left) and Jeffrey Epstein (right), who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking underage girls [AFP]<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Captured state<\/h2>\n

Neither the UK ministers for defence nor health, John Healey and Wes Streeting, respectively, have responded to Al Jazeera\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

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However, speaking to Bloomberg in February, Healey claimed that Mandelson had no role in securing Palantir\u2019s uncontested contract with the Ministry of Defence and that the decision had been his alone.<\/p>\n

While acting as an opposition minister in June 2024, Streeting, who, in private WhatsApp messages to Mandelson in July, conceded that Israel was \u201ccommitting war crimes before our eyes\u201d, had rejected criticism of Palantir and its access to the NHS data systems, saying such concerns didn\u2019t \u201cwash with me\u201d.<\/p>\n

Streeting had told journalists: \u201cThere\u2019s been a national decision taken with significant investment of public money. This is of vital importance to patients. Go further, faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anna Bacciarelli, a senior AI researcher at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera that successive UK governments are to blame for Palantir\u2019s access to public service data.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThanks to successive UK governments, Palantir has a strong foothold in multiple public services, while also contracting with other governments carrying out abuses, including Israeli attacks on Gaza and the US administration\u2019s immigration crackdown,\u201d Bacciarelli said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll companies have a responsibility to ensure that their products and services are not causing or contributing to human rights abuses. The UK government should undertake thorough due diligence for all contractors, but especially so given Palantir\u2019s current access to the UK population\u2019s sensitive health data and UK national security data.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite what Palantir may claim its motivation to be, concerns are growing among activists, rights groups and end users over the UK\u2019s association with the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing what appears to be vendor lock-in at the MoD [Ministry of Defence], and it seems clear that Palantir\u2019s intention is to make as much of the UK government as reliant on its products as possible,\u201d Tom Hegarty, the head of communications at Foxglove, told Al Jazeera in emailed comments.<\/p>\n

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He then turned to some of the resistance Palantir has faced from within the UK\u2019s health service, itself prompted by perceptions of the US company, as well as questions over what value Palantir\u2019s technology would add to the existing systems of hospital and regional health authorities in Leeds and Manchester.<\/p>\n

\u201cPalantir has explicitly said in the past it aims to become the \u2018operating system\u2019 of governments. It\u2019s also been making inroads with the Met Police and at local council level, notably in Coventry [in the UK\u2019s midlands],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether or not that is a reason for the UK government to stop handing them fat contracts is a matter for ministers,\u201d Hegarty added.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… here. Ties between the US tech<\/span> giant Palantir and the … extensive contracts with the US tech<\/span> giant, signing a defence … While Palantir characterises its technology<\/span> as an analytical tool rather … armed services. Requests from tech<\/span> fairness group Foxglove, The …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125560\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}