First modification:
Israel has been hit again by the espionage scandal with the Pegasus program. Revelations from the Calcalist outlet brought to light that the police had spied on a wide range of citizens, including relatives and people from the circle close to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. These revelations could jeopardize Netanyahu’s trial if some accusations were based on data obtained from espionage.
New chapter of the Israel police espionage scandal with the Pegasus program. A revelation published by the Israeli media outlet Calcalist states that “no one was immune” in the country to the espionage network opened by the police. According to Calcalist, relatives and people close to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not have escaped police surveillance.
“General directors of ministries, journalists, businessmen, corporate executives, mayors, social activists or even family members of the prime minister, all were targeted by police and had their phones hacked” with spyware from the Israeli company NSO, the outlet reported.
Among the people close to Netanyahu would be his son Avner, two communication advisers, the wife of a defendant in one of the three corruption trials facing the former Israeli president, as well as others involved in the case. All of them and the rest of the people would have had their personal phone data spied on.
The scandal over the Pegasus program came to light in July 2021 when The Washington Post, Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories, among others, revealed that more than 50,000 phone numbers of journalists, activists and even heads of state had been spied on in a dozen of countries by means of this Israeli-created software.
Netanyahu calls for an investigation
After hearing the news, Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that “a solid and independent investigation” be opened into what happened and described this February 7 as a “black day for Israel.” For his part, the current prime minister, Naftali Bennett, described the accusations as “very serious”.
If true, the trial for corruption against the former head of government and the other defendants could be questioned for having hypothetically obtained information about the defendants illegally. For the moment, the defense has already requested that the judicial process be suspended until the facts are clarified.
Israeli media also reported on Sunday that this software had been used by police to spy on a key witness in the trial, Shlomo Filber. Israel’s former police chief, Roni Alsheikh, who commanded the police establishment for much of the time the espionage allegedly took place, declined to comment on the new revelations.
Activists would also have been spied on
Calcalist’s investigation also reveals that the police used the Pegasus system to spy on activists opposed to the Netanyahu government, as well as groups of Ethiopian Jews protesting abuses by the police establishment.
According to Catalist, the police would have collected data on “the location of the protests, the plan for the mobilizations, how many people would attend and which crossings could be blocked”, with the aim of drawing up “an operational plan” for each of the demonstrations to which they would have treated as “real threats” against the State.
The current Minister of Public Security, Omar Bar Lev, announced that he will form a government investigation commission to clarify the actions of the Police after these new publications. Both the Attorney General’s Office and the State Controller already opened investigations in this regard weeks ago.
With AP, EFE and Reuters.
First modification:
Israel has been hit again by the espionage scandal with the Pegasus program. Revelations from the Calcalist outlet brought to light that the police had spied on a wide range of citizens, including relatives and people from the circle close to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. These revelations could jeopardize Netanyahu’s trial if some accusations were based on data obtained from espionage.
New chapter of the Israel police espionage scandal with the Pegasus program. A revelation published by the Israeli media outlet Calcalist states that “no one was immune” in the country to the espionage network opened by the police. According to Calcalist, relatives and people close to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not have escaped police surveillance.
“General directors of ministries, journalists, businessmen, corporate executives, mayors, social activists or even family members of the prime minister, all were targeted by police and had their phones hacked” with spyware from the Israeli company NSO, the outlet reported.
Among the people close to Netanyahu would be his son Avner, two communication advisers, the wife of a defendant in one of the three corruption trials facing the former Israeli president, as well as others involved in the case. All of them and the rest of the people would have had their personal phone data spied on.
The scandal over the Pegasus program came to light in July 2021 when The Washington Post, Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories, among others, revealed that more than 50,000 phone numbers of journalists, activists and even heads of state had been spied on in a dozen of countries by means of this Israeli-created software.
Netanyahu calls for an investigation
After hearing the news, Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that “a solid and independent investigation” be opened into what happened and described this February 7 as a “black day for Israel.” For his part, the current prime minister, Naftali Bennett, described the accusations as “very serious”.
If true, the trial for corruption against the former head of government and the other defendants could be questioned for having hypothetically obtained information about the defendants illegally. For the moment, the defense has already requested that the judicial process be suspended until the facts are clarified.
Israeli media also reported on Sunday that this software had been used by police to spy on a key witness in the trial, Shlomo Filber. Israel’s former police chief, Roni Alsheikh, who commanded the police establishment for much of the time the espionage allegedly took place, declined to comment on the new revelations.
Activists would also have been spied on
Calcalist’s investigation also reveals that the police used the Pegasus system to spy on activists opposed to the Netanyahu government, as well as groups of Ethiopian Jews protesting abuses by the police establishment.
According to Catalist, the police would have collected data on “the location of the protests, the plan for the mobilizations, how many people would attend and which crossings could be blocked”, with the aim of drawing up “an operational plan” for each of the demonstrations to which they would have treated as “real threats” against the State.
The current Minister of Public Security, Omar Bar Lev, announced that he will form a government investigation commission to clarify the actions of the Police after these new publications. Both the Attorney General’s Office and the State Controller already opened investigations in this regard weeks ago.
With AP, EFE and Reuters.
First modification:
Israel has been hit again by the espionage scandal with the Pegasus program. Revelations from the Calcalist outlet brought to light that the police had spied on a wide range of citizens, including relatives and people from the circle close to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. These revelations could jeopardize Netanyahu’s trial if some accusations were based on data obtained from espionage.
New chapter of the Israel police espionage scandal with the Pegasus program. A revelation published by the Israeli media outlet Calcalist states that “no one was immune” in the country to the espionage network opened by the police. According to Calcalist, relatives and people close to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not have escaped police surveillance.
“General directors of ministries, journalists, businessmen, corporate executives, mayors, social activists or even family members of the prime minister, all were targeted by police and had their phones hacked” with spyware from the Israeli company NSO, the outlet reported.
Among the people close to Netanyahu would be his son Avner, two communication advisers, the wife of a defendant in one of the three corruption trials facing the former Israeli president, as well as others involved in the case. All of them and the rest of the people would have had their personal phone data spied on.
The scandal over the Pegasus program came to light in July 2021 when The Washington Post, Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories, among others, revealed that more than 50,000 phone numbers of journalists, activists and even heads of state had been spied on in a dozen of countries by means of this Israeli-created software.
Netanyahu calls for an investigation
After hearing the news, Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that “a solid and independent investigation” be opened into what happened and described this February 7 as a “black day for Israel.” For his part, the current prime minister, Naftali Bennett, described the accusations as “very serious”.
If true, the trial for corruption against the former head of government and the other defendants could be questioned for having hypothetically obtained information about the defendants illegally. For the moment, the defense has already requested that the judicial process be suspended until the facts are clarified.
Israeli media also reported on Sunday that this software had been used by police to spy on a key witness in the trial, Shlomo Filber. Israel’s former police chief, Roni Alsheikh, who commanded the police establishment for much of the time the espionage allegedly took place, declined to comment on the new revelations.
Activists would also have been spied on
Calcalist’s investigation also reveals that the police used the Pegasus system to spy on activists opposed to the Netanyahu government, as well as groups of Ethiopian Jews protesting abuses by the police establishment.
According to Catalist, the police would have collected data on “the location of the protests, the plan for the mobilizations, how many people would attend and which crossings could be blocked”, with the aim of drawing up “an operational plan” for each of the demonstrations to which they would have treated as “real threats” against the State.
The current Minister of Public Security, Omar Bar Lev, announced that he will form a government investigation commission to clarify the actions of the Police after these new publications. Both the Attorney General’s Office and the State Controller already opened investigations in this regard weeks ago.
With AP, EFE and Reuters.
First modification:
Israel has been hit again by the espionage scandal with the Pegasus program. Revelations from the Calcalist outlet brought to light that the police had spied on a wide range of citizens, including relatives and people from the circle close to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. These revelations could jeopardize Netanyahu’s trial if some accusations were based on data obtained from espionage.
New chapter of the Israel police espionage scandal with the Pegasus program. A revelation published by the Israeli media outlet Calcalist states that “no one was immune” in the country to the espionage network opened by the police. According to Calcalist, relatives and people close to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not have escaped police surveillance.
“General directors of ministries, journalists, businessmen, corporate executives, mayors, social activists or even family members of the prime minister, all were targeted by police and had their phones hacked” with spyware from the Israeli company NSO, the outlet reported.
Among the people close to Netanyahu would be his son Avner, two communication advisers, the wife of a defendant in one of the three corruption trials facing the former Israeli president, as well as others involved in the case. All of them and the rest of the people would have had their personal phone data spied on.
The scandal over the Pegasus program came to light in July 2021 when The Washington Post, Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories, among others, revealed that more than 50,000 phone numbers of journalists, activists and even heads of state had been spied on in a dozen of countries by means of this Israeli-created software.
Netanyahu calls for an investigation
After hearing the news, Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that “a solid and independent investigation” be opened into what happened and described this February 7 as a “black day for Israel.” For his part, the current prime minister, Naftali Bennett, described the accusations as “very serious”.
If true, the trial for corruption against the former head of government and the other defendants could be questioned for having hypothetically obtained information about the defendants illegally. For the moment, the defense has already requested that the judicial process be suspended until the facts are clarified.
Israeli media also reported on Sunday that this software had been used by police to spy on a key witness in the trial, Shlomo Filber. Israel’s former police chief, Roni Alsheikh, who commanded the police establishment for much of the time the espionage allegedly took place, declined to comment on the new revelations.
Activists would also have been spied on
Calcalist’s investigation also reveals that the police used the Pegasus system to spy on activists opposed to the Netanyahu government, as well as groups of Ethiopian Jews protesting abuses by the police establishment.
According to Catalist, the police would have collected data on “the location of the protests, the plan for the mobilizations, how many people would attend and which crossings could be blocked”, with the aim of drawing up “an operational plan” for each of the demonstrations to which they would have treated as “real threats” against the State.
The current Minister of Public Security, Omar Bar Lev, announced that he will form a government investigation commission to clarify the actions of the Police after these new publications. Both the Attorney General’s Office and the State Controller already opened investigations in this regard weeks ago.
With AP, EFE and Reuters.