Israeli officials from across the political spectrum were outraged to learn Monday of the scope of the Israel Police's use of Pegasus, NSO Group's now-infamous surveillance technology, which reportedly extended to dozens of civilians, ranging from politicians and government functionaries to social activists and journalists.
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NSO Group's Pegasus software allows its users to remotely access mobile phones infected with the spyware. It exploits security vulnerabilities in cellular operating systems to retrieve a device's content, including text and email messages, photos, call history, and location data.
Lawmakers demanded an independent inquiry into what the police classified as "technological and data-oriented policing" but was, in fact, an intelligence phishing expedition conducted against dozens of individuals prior to any official investigation against them, without judicial warrants, and despite police officials knowing that any information obtained sans such warrants was inadmissible in court.
President Isaac Herzog issued a statement saying, "Law enforcement cannot cut corners when doing its job. When you enforce the law you must be beyond reproach. We cannot lose our democracy. We cannot lose our police and we cannot afford to have the public lose faith in either. This matter mandates a thorough investigation."
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called the revelations in Calcalist "very serious," saying, "Pegasus and similar tools are very important in the war on terror and in the fight against serious crime, but they are not intended for widespread phishing among Israeli citizens or public figures.
"We need to understand exactly what happened. The deputy attorney general is looking into the matter. Once we know what happened we will not leave the public to wonder – we understand how serious this is."
The incidents in question allegedly took place under the command of former police chief Roni Alsheikh. Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai, who has already appointed a task force to examine the issue, appealed on Monday afternoon to Public Security Minister Omer Barlev to form an external review board on the matter.
"In light of recent publications regarding the use of technological systems by the Israel Police in the years prior to my command, I have asked the public security minister to order the establishment of an external, independent judicial review of the matter, to examine every aspect of this issue. This means to both regulate the use of such technology by the police and restore the public's faith in it.
"Any irregularities and failures found will be dealt with in accordance with the law," the commissioner, who is on a historic visit to the UAE, said in a statement.
Barlev has ordered the formation of a governmental commission of inquiry into the police spyware scandal and tasked it with "investigating the scope of the privacy violations against civilians."
He noted that reports of the privacy abuses "indicate that these failures – if they indeed happened – took place under previous commissioners, previous public security ministers, and previous governments. I can look Israeli citizens in the eye and promise – the commission of inquiry will review the length and breadth of these allegations.
"The police are under my responsibility and my authority. Such failures will not take place on my watch," he asserted, adding that the investigative panel "will be vested with the same authorities as a state commission of inquiry in terms of summoning witnesses, questioning them under warning, and seizing documents – regardless of how senior they may be in the political echelon, judiciary, or the Israel Police."
'We have to make sure this never happens again'
Israel Police spokesperson Eli Levi told Tel-Aviv-based 103FM Radio that the reports in Calcalist "wrong police officers. ... We need to let the commission of inquiry run its course. The police are open to any review, with full transparency. Police work in Israel has never before been called into question and if officers exceeded authority they will be prosecuted accordingly."
Levi noted that the police were "unfazed by the possibility of a commission of inquiry. We practice full transparency. Right now, we need to stop slandering the police."
Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked said, "If this is true, it is an earthquake. These acts characterize dark regimes to which we cannot be similar.
"Mass privacy violation is nothing short of lawlessness and it must end today. We have to form an external commission of inquiry. This is not the purpose for which the police procured this software. The Knesset and the public deserve answers, now."
Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee Chairman MK Gilad Kariv called for a legislative change, saying, "The current laws were drafted before anyone could even imagine what powerful tools would be at [the police's] disposal. We have to make sure that the legislation keeps up with technology and that strict oversight is in place.
Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg tweeted, "The revelations regarding this spyware leave no room for doubt: it is an earthquake that requires no less than a state commission of inquiry. The idea that a democratic state spies on its citizens as if it was a dictatorship should keep us all awake at night. There is no room for any excuse."
Blue and White MK Eitan Ginzburg said, "This is a difficult day for democracy. The police's ability to monitor anyone without evidence of a criminal offense and without a court order is appalling. Only an independent commission of inquiry can find out what was going on and until that happens, the commissioner must pull the plug on any use of this software."
Likud MK Miki Zohar tweeted, "This government commission of inquiry is a joke. They want to bury the story even though it is the most serious violation of Israeli democracy since the inception of the state."
Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich said that Alsheikh and any other police officer involved in the hacking "should be arrested without delay and interrogated by an independent counsel with the broadest possible jurisdiction. Simultaneously, a state commission of inquiry must be formed to understand how something like this could have happened in the first place and make sure it never happens again."
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel welcomed the decision to form a commission of inquiry into the explosive allegations, calling the move "vital."
The Privacy Protection Authority echoed the statement, saying that the implication of the allegations, if true, would be "beyond far-reaching."
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