BDS calls out Israeli tech industry as 'threat to the world'

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
18 Feb 00:25
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The movement says Israeli spyware empowers authoritarian regimes' torture and assassination of human rights activists, journalists, and elected officials.

Illustrative photo showing two individuals carrying out cybercrimes (Reuters)

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) slammed "Israel's" tech industry as a threat not just to Palestinians but also "to the world."

The statement comes following an investigation carried out earlier by a consortium of journalists, who work for 30 different news outlets, including Le Monde, Der Spiegel, and El País, exposing a private Israeli cyber-espionage company based in "Modi'in", a new illegal settlement established between "Tel Aviv" and occupied Al-Quds, responsible for virtual extortion, blackmail campaigns, and disinformation operations worldwide, targeting presidential-level elections in countries, manipulating lawsuits, influencing nuclear energy deals, and meddling in cryptocurrency prices.

The consortium of journalists, led by French NGO Forbidden Stories, revealed that the cyber unit was run by 50-year-old former Israeli special forces operative, Tal Hanan, working under the name of "Jorge".

The "Israeli disinformation technology, developed by former intel officers in Team Jorge, has been used in manipulating elections and rigging votes in 33 countries in Africa, U.S., Europe, Asia & Latin America," the statement continued.

BDS added, "Apartheid Israel's military technologies, tested on Palestinians, empower dictators' and authoritarian regimes' surveillance, torture, even assassination of human rights activists, journalists," and elected officials.

The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNS) "reiterates the call to impose an immediate military embargo on apartheid Israel," the statement added, calling for "cutting US military funding and banning trade in Israeli arms and spyware."

"Time to dismantle apartheid," the movement stressed.

Israel has always tested technologies of death, surveillance, disinformation and repression on Palestinians, exporting them to dictatorships & authoritarian regimes worldwide with pride. #MilitaryEmbargo pic.twitter.com/bYr5u24yLV
— BDS movement (@BDSmovement) February 17, 2023

BDS continued in a Twitter thread: "Israeli spyware was used in the Saudi regime’s gruesome torture and murder of Jamal Khashoggi and in targeting many other journalists, human rights activists, feminists and opponents of its criminal war on Yemen."

It also noted that the Israeli spyware "is a global tool of oppression & repression from Mexico to Azerbaijan," adding that the "Israeli disinformation technology spreads chaos from Nigeria & Greece to California."

"Disinformation tech from apartheid Israel’s #TeamJorge was first tested on Palestinians, using extortion and threats of character assassination to recruit collaborators," the Twitter thread continued.

The Israeli spyware was used in "hacking South African & French presidents as well as US & European officials," BDS said in its statement, adding that "Israeli disinformation services have rigged elections in Nigeria, Kenya, Greece, and 30 other countries."

Israeli-led spyware industry has been embroiled in a seemingly never-ending spate of extremely prominent controversies. Revelations that it sells its spyware to authoritarian regimes, that its products have been used to spy on journalists, activists, politicians, and even potentially world leaders, and accusations that it played a role in murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death have put it at the center of international criticism.

In December 2022, US senior senators said they will look into the government's purchase and use of strong spyware developed by two Israeli hacking firms called Graphite, as Congress passed legislation aimed at limiting the spread of hacking tools.

“Such use could have potential implications for U.S. national security, as well as run contrary to efforts to deter the broad proliferation of powerful surveillance capabilities to autocratic regimes and others who may misuse them,” Representative Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who chairs the House Intelligence Committee said then.