Pegasus Scandal: Israeli Journalists’ Union Rep Warns of ‘Loss of Democracy’
Disability rights group head vows to file court claim against police following hacking allegations
If Israel does not fully investigate the serious allegations involving the police’s extrajudicial use of the Pegasus surveillance system to spy on citizens, then democracy in the country is in danger of “being lost,” an Israeli journalists’ union representation has warned.
Reports that surfaced on Monday stated that the NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware had been used by police to target citizens, public officials and journalists without authorization.
Israel’s Public Security Minister Omer Barlev on Monday announced that he would set up a government commission of inquiry to examine the explosive allegations. The commission will be headed by a retired judge and Barlev noted that he would request that it be given the power to summon witnesses, seize relevant documents and carry out all the necessary investigations.
Pegasus is a powerful spyware weapon that can remotely activate a cellphone’s microphone or camera as well as collect all its data.
The most recent allegations, first reported by the Israeli Calcalist business daily and news site, state that Israel Police misused the software to hack the phones of politicians, journalists, human rights activists, and citizens. The police conducted these hacks without judicial warrants in order to collect intelligence.
Anat Saragusti, a veteran journalist who heads the Press Freedom unit at the Union of Journalists in Israel, said that if true the news is “earth-shattering.”
“If the commission does not [properly] investigate and restore trust in law enforcement as a whole and the police in particular, then we are lost,” Saragusti told The Media Line. “We are lost in terms of democracy, in terms of the state’s relationship to its citizens, and in terms of our society.
“I’m not against the police; it’s a very important body that serves citizens and democracy,” she added. “But if the police are turned into a tool to attack citizens, then there’s a very deep crisis of trust and this trust needs to be restored.”
The revelations also open a can of worm relating to press freedom and could hinder journalists, who have also apparently been targeted, from carrying out their professional duties. Out of fear of being listened in on by police, some might turn to working off the grid, so to speak, and avoid using smartphones for particularly sensitive stories, she said.
“Freedom of the press is such an important value in a democratic country, and in order for there to be freedom of the press journalists have to be independent,” Saragusti asserted. “It’s unacceptable that the state would spy on journalists.”
Among those the police reportedly spied on were disability rights group leaders, who have been regularly holding protests across the country.
Naor Lavie, a spokesperson for Israel’s Organizations for the Rights of People with Disabilities and the Elderly, said he was in “complete shock.”
“I knew that our phones were being hacked; I had told a reporter at Channel 13 News about this because apps, phone numbers, and messages I had written to activists on WhatsApp suddenly disappeared,” Lavie told The Media Line. “This had never happened before.”
Lavie revealed that he planned to continue using his phone in his day-to-day life as he saw no other viable alternative.
“I’m planning on going to the Department of Internal Police Investigations to file a court claim against the Israeli Police,” he said. “The [police] are supposed to protect us and not invade our privacy. We will not be silent about this. If needed, we’ll hold a large protest with everyone else who has had their phones hacked.”
According to Calcalist, the police targeted a wide range of public figures, including Netanya Mayor Miriam Feirberg, Mevaseret Zion Mayor Yoram Shimon, key witnesses involved in the trial of former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Netanyahu’s son Avner, as well as businesspeople and CEOs in various government ministries.
Commenting on recent developments, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that the latest findings represent a “very grave situation.”
“These cyber tools were designed to fight terrorism and serious crime, not be used against citizens,” Bennett said at the start of Monday’s cabinet meeting. “We will see to a transparent, in-depth, and quick inquiry because all of us – citizens of the State of Israel, government ministers, and all establishments – deserve answers.”
The Pegasus surveillance system does not require a user to click on anything in order to activate. Once the spyware has secretly installed itself on a smartphone, it can access virtually any data found there and then pass that on to the attacker. This means that photos, videos, messages, recordings, GPS records, passwords, and call logs are all fair game.
Unfortunately, there does not appear to be a cybersecurity tool that can defend against it at this time, cybersecurity expert Guy Barnhart-Magen said.
“[Despite] my own dislike of Pegasus, NSO and the way that they deal with things, they have one of the best technical teams in the world,” Barnhart-Magen, chief technology officer and co-founder of the cybersecurity company Profero, told The Media Line. “My best advice would be to fully replace the phone, harden it and be very cautious about anything you do on that device.”
