Israeli police accused of using Pegasus spyware to hack phones in Binyamin Netanyahu inquiry
Israel’s police have been accused of using an infamous cyberwarfare tool to illegally spy on a long list of senior political figures, including some of Binyamin Netanyahu’s inner circle.
Naftali Bennett, the prime minister, promised action this morning on reports that officers had used the “Pegasus” spyware, a tool created by the Israeli company NSO that has been
Calcalist, an Israeli business newspaper, alleged that Pegasus was used to hack the phones of Netanyahu’s son, Avner, and senior aides who are also witnesses in the corruption case against the former prime minister.
It said the tool was used to “phish for intelligence even before any investigation had been opened against the targets, and without judicial warrants”. Activists, senior government officials and businessmen were also hacked, according to Calcalist.
The Jerusalem District Court today said it would not hold tomorrow’s session of Netanyahu’s trial and called on the prosecution to provide more answers on the use of spyware in the case.
“We won’t leave this without a response. Things allegedly happened here that are very serious,” Bennett said. “[Pegasus] and similar tools, are important in the fight against terrorism and severe crime but they were not intended to be used in phishing campaigns targeting the Israeli public or officials — which is why we need to understand exactly what happened.”
Omer Barlev, the internal security minister, said that he was setting up a state commission of inquiry “to look into all of the claims to their full depth and breadth . . . There won’t be such failings on my watch.”
The creation of an inquiry was supported by Kobi Shabtai, the Israeli police commissioner, who said that the Calcalist findings predated his appointment in January last year.
Israel has previously faced international criticism for allowing the export of Pegasus, which can switch on phone microphones and cameras and harvest data, to states with poor human rights records. The Calcalist reports, however, have unleashed domestic outrage.
President Herzog suggested that the credibility of key Israeli institutions was at stake. “We must not lose our democracy. We must not lose our police. And we must certainly not lose public trust in them. This requires an in-depth and thorough investigation,” he said.
NSO, the creator of Pegasus, also has British links: it is owned by Novalpina Capital, a private equity firm based in London and, as The Times revealed back in October, one of NSO’s advisers is Cherie Blair, wife of the former prime minister Sir Tony Blair.
