Israeli police orders commission to investigate illegal use of Pegasus
3 Min Read
Israeli police will be investigating into whether they've been spying on people or not because they are not biased.
-
Israeli security forces on patrol in the place where Israeli police in annexed east Al-Quds shot a Palestinian with special needs dead on May 30, 2020. (AFP)
On Monday, Israeli police chief Yaakov Shabtai requested that the Israeli government create a commission to investigate police use of the Pegasus spyware to surveil Israelis.
Calcalist, an Israeli news agency, published an article in January revealing that the occupation police had used Pegasus spyware, which is typically designed to be used against Palestinians, in addition to accessing, controlling, and extracting information from Israelis' mobile phones who may not be criminal suspects, including officials and opposition figures.
After the outlet published the piece, Avichai Mandelblit, an Israeli attorney general, briefed the police chief about the creation of an investigation committee to look into the accusations published.
"In light of recent reports on the use of technological systems by the Israeli police in the years leading up to my inauguration, I have asked the minister of public security to establish an independent commission led by a judge. The creation of such a commission will allow us to study all aspects of the issue in order to return public confidence to the police service and streamline the use of technological means," Shabtai said in a statement that the Israeli police released.
If the group were to discover any violations, the police were to face legal consequences.
Pegasus spyware belonging to the Israeli NSO group has been used to spy on 50,000 people, including politicians, businessmen, activists, journalists, and opposition figures.
Read more: Pegasus' nemesis: Meet QuaDream, another Israeli spyware company
Israeli police admits to 'unlawfully' using Pegasus spyware
After mounting accusations around the globe, the Israeli interior has been pointing fingers at its own government for the unlawful abuse of Pegasus spyware.
The occupation's police force, following mounting accusations by rights groups of abusing powerful spyware, said Tuesday that "anomalies" had been found in its electronic surveillance, meaning the legality of its information collection was in question.
The attorney general's office directed an investigation to be launched into the surveillance tactics used by the police on January 20, citing allegations about NSO Group's Pegasus spyware. At the time, the police claimed their wiretaps were conducted lawfully.
Further inquiries uncovered alleged "automatic technological anomalies," a senior police officer said, which led to the gathering of materials "over which there is a legal debate - whether they are covered by the world of secret monitoring."
The officer alluded to the Israeli 1979 Secret Monitoring Law, which empowers eavesdropping on "suspected criminals or terrorists," a law long used to justify spying on the private lives of Palestinians, though Pegasus provided the occupation with access to previous communications on hacked phones.
Israeli media had previously said the occupation government had used Pegasus against anti-government protest leaders without the required court warrants.
The reports added augmented pressure against "Israel," giving it a new layer: it went from international denunciations and condemnations after it was discovered that "Tel Aviv" exported Pegasus spyware, which was used to spy on human rights activists, journalists, and politicians, to internal ones.
