Kyl–Bingaman Amendment

The Kyl–Bingaman Amendment (Public Law 104-201, Section 1064) is a United States law. It was put into force by the Military Defense National Defense Authorization Act for 1997.

The Kyl–Bingaman Amendment (KBA) prohibits US authorities from granting a license for collecting or disseminating high resolution satellite imagery of Israel at a higher resolution than is available from other commercial sources, that is, from companies outside of the United States. An exception exists if this is done by a US federal agency, or if it is done in order to abolish the secrecy of such recordings.

U.S. law mandates U.S. government censorship of American commercial satellite images of no country in the world besides that of Israel. The largest and most important global sources of commercial satellite imagery, such as Maxar Technologies, and the largest and widely-used online resources, such as Google and Bing, are American and this makes KBA a powerful instrument of U.S. government suppression of information. For example, as a result of KBA, images on internet platforms such as Google Earth have been deliberately blurred.[1]

History

The Clinton Administration liberalized satellite communication and imaging technology for commercial uses and it declassified U.S. government satellite images taken decades before during the Cold War. The Israeli government successfully lobbied the U.S. Congress for restrictions.[2] The amendment is named after United States Senators Jon Kyl and Jeff Bingaman.

Image resolution limit

In August 2017 the Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing (ACCRES), part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which regulates the Kyl–Bingaman Amendment restrictions, announced a review of the current image resolution limit of 2 meter Ground Sampling Distance (GSD). This was done in response to evidence that commercial satellite companies outside the United States were selling images with resolution higher than that limit.[3] Imagery of higher resolution than the 2m GSD limitation has been commercially available from companies outside of the United States since 2012.[4]

In March 2018 research by Andrea Zerbini and Michael Fradley at the University of Oxford demonstrated that imagery below the 2m limit covering Israel had been available since 2012 from the French company Airbus, and a number of other satellite companies had subsequently passed the 2m threshold, including the South Korean company Kompsat, who were producing a 0.4m GSD resolution from its K3A satellite.

In its October 2018 review, the NOAA rejected the evidence that sub-2m imagery of Israel was available from commercial sources outside of the U.S., but was unable to counter the factual claims of Zerbini and Fradley or to publish its own research methodology. After a further review in 2019, the NOAA reversed itself and dropped the GSD limit to 0.4m in a decision published in the Federal Register on 21 July 2020.

Impacts

Hindering observation of the Israeli occupation

KBA's restriction on satellite image collection and dissemination has been extended to include the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights. As a consequence, the law has obscured important aspects of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, including the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, demolitions of Palestinian homes by the Israeli government, and human rights abuses.[5]

Impeding scientific research and commerce

A range of scientists from climate scientists to archeologists often use satellite imagery to survey and assess areas and to monitor change. Such efforts have been hindered by the lack of available high quality satellite images. Also, KBA has undermined business interests of U.S. technology companies with its restrictions on collection and dissemination of images.[6] [7]

References
  1. Foreign Policy, 3 Aug 2020, Israel Can’t Hide Evidence of Its Occupation Anymore: For More than 20 Years, an Obscure U.S. Law Concealed Satellite Imagery of Israel’s Activities in the Occupied Territories. Because of an Abrupt Reversal, Satellite Technology Can Now Be Used to Defend Palestinians’ Human Rights"
  2. Foreign Policy, 3 Aug 2020, Israel Can’t Hide Evidence of Its Occupation Anymore: For More than 20 Years, an Obscure U.S. Law Concealed Satellite Imagery of Israel’s Activities in the Occupied Territories. Because of an Abrupt Reversal, Satellite Technology Can Now Be Used to Defend Palestinians’ Human Rights"
  3. ACCRES (22 November 2017). "ACCRES 22nd Meeting Minutes Final" (PDF). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  4. Zerbini, Andrea; Fradley, Michael (2018). "Higher resolution satellite imagery of Israel and Palestine: Re-assessing the Kyl–Bingaman Amendment". Space Policy. 44-45: 14–28. doi:10.1016/j.spacepol.2018.03.002.
  5. Foreign Policy, 3 Aug 2020, Israel Can’t Hide Evidence of Its Occupation Anymore: For More than 20 Years, an Obscure U.S. Law Concealed Satellite Imagery of Israel’s Activities in the Occupied Territories. Because of an Abrupt Reversal, Satellite Technology Can Now Be Used to Defend Palestinians’ Human Rights"
  6. Foreign Policy, 3 Aug 2020, Israel Can’t Hide Evidence of Its Occupation Anymore: For More than 20 Years, an Obscure U.S. Law Concealed Satellite Imagery of Israel’s Activities in the Occupied Territories. Because of an Abrupt Reversal, Satellite Technology Can Now Be Used to Defend Palestinians’ Human Rights"
  7. Zerbini, Andrea, and Fradley, Michael, Space Policy, August 2018, vol. 44-45, pp. 14-28, Higher Resolution Satellite Imagery of Israel and Palestine: Reassessing the Kyl-Bingaman Amendment 
Foust, Jeff (July 18, 2020). "U.S. government to allow sale of high-resolution commercial satellite images of Israel". Space News. Retrieved August 5, 2020.


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