A former justice system official did not mince words when it came to reports the Israel Police had used Pegasus surveillance software to hack into civilians' phones.
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"The State Attorney's Office and the police knowingly hid information from the court and in violation of the law," the former official told Israel Hayom. "This is not an earthquake but a total meltdown of the system. If up until this morning I thought I was living in a democratic state, now I'm not so sure."
The official explained that "every serious police investigation has an accompanying attorney. It cannot be that they don't have knowledge of such surveilling and that they didn't receive the necessary court authorization. It's one thing to reveal partial information to the court to receive a wiretapping order without disclosing the full picture, and it's an entirely different thing to do such a thing without any order at all, in a way that is illegal and by state officials – and not just one time, not in a pinpoint manner, but as a matter of policy and routine practice. There are no words to describe how grave such conduct is, which is befitting dark regimes."
The official continued: "Imagine a situation in which the State Attorney's Office and the police work hand in hand and defraud the judges. That would be unimaginable, and yet that is what we're talking about. That's what happened."
The official warned that what the public has learned so far is likely "just the tip of the iceberg," and the troubling phenomenon may be more widespread than reported.
"The police didn't just act in violation of the law, it also concealed this when word began to get out. At first, they said all the orders were issued in accordance with the law, later that there may have been some exceptions. Now it's a whole wave, and there's no reason to believe we won't get to thousands of all kinds of wiretaps of innocent citizens…," the official said.
They noted that "the phenomenon began following Commissioner Roni Alsheikh's entry into the organization, and we're talking about many years that this has been going on without any oversight and without the knowledge of the authorities in charge. Journalists, social activists, protesters, government members, people in public service, CEOs, businesspeople, and in effect anyone the police decided was of interest. Alsheikh [who previously served in the Shin Bet security agency] did not make the transition from spy organization to the police in a democratic regime."
Asked about the impact of the report on the trials of Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu, the official said, "The State Attorney's office and the police are working here together. It's inconceivable for the State Attorney's Office not to have known what happened with [key state witness and ex-director-general of the Communications Ministry Shlomo] Filber's investigation, for example. And I can't comment any further on other witnesses, but if this happened with him, one can assume it happened with a number of characters connected to the affair. There are accompanying attorneys at the most senior levels. There's no such thing as passing information from side to side without them knowing about it.
"This is a disgrace for a democratic regime," the official said. Something I never in my wildest dreams thought would happen, we've gotten to. These are dark days for all those whose hearts are with democracy. It's just heartbreaking."
Commenting on Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit's treatment of the issue, the official said, "I believed his intentions were pure, as we've known each other well over the years. This is an honest man who has the good of the country and the system in mind. But when they put attorney Amit Marari, who was a member of the prosecution team involved in the affair, at the head of the investigative committee, it looks bad. It's as if they decided to in advance to wrap it up."
He further said, "These are organizations that close ranks to defend and back each other up, but I hoped that this wouldn't stick to the head of the organization. In my opinion, there is no avoiding a state commission of inquiry. Only it [a state commission of inquiry] can investigate the affair in depth and restore even a little bit of public trust in the system, even if takes a long time."
State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman lambasted recent reports on the use of surveillance software on citizens as "the trampling of democratic values and a serious blow to privacy."
He said his office would examine the issue, "and it will not only examine the police but also the Justice Ministry and the State Attorney's office.
"I believe it is important to examine this issue in depth. We will examine the sector's limits with a state commission of inquiry or another committee that is established."
The growing list of individuals whose phones were apparently illegally hacked by the Israel Police grew by dozens of names on Monday, as financial daily Calcalist revealed that despite previously alleging that the use of Pegasus – NSO Group's now-infamous surveillance technology – was limited to special cases, it was, in fact, extensively used to obtain information from civilians ranging from politicians and government functionaries to social activists and journalists.
The daily first revealed the police's use of Pegasus last month. Initial denials were quickly replaced with an admission that the police "misused" the spyware, but police officials insisted that all was above board in terms of the "few instances" when the surveillance technology was employed.
Monday's report in Calcalist, however, revealed that the measure – classified by the police as "technological and data-oriented policing" – was not limited to special cases, rather became a routine tool in intelligence-gathering. Moreover, the wide-ranged use of Pegasus was done without court orders or authorization from the Attorney General's Office, as required by law.
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.
The spyware has been the focus of a global scandal since mid-July, when the Pegasus Project, a group of 17 media organizations – having been provided with information by Amnesty International, the Citizen Lab of University of Toronto, and Forbidden Stories – revealed that the classified technology was being used to hack the phones of journalists, government officials and human rights activists around the world.
The latest installment in Calcalist's exposé on the matter said that under then-police chief Roni Alsheikh's command, officers with the Signals Intelligence Unit had hacked the phones of dozens of Israelis in what the daily described as an "intelligence phishing expedition."
These efforts were conducted prior to any official investigation against the targets and without judicial warrants, despite knowing that any information obtained sans such warrants was inadmissible in court.
Among the victims listed in the report as having been hacked are then-directors-general of the Transportation, Finance and Justice ministries, Keren Turner, Shai Babad and Emi Palmor, respectively, as well as the leaders of social protest movements, including anti-Netanyahu activists, social activists for disability rights and Israelis of Ethiopian descent. Several mayors were also hacked, including Miriam Feirberg (Netanya), Yoram Shimon (Mevaseret Zion), Yaakov Peretz (Kiryat Ata), and Motti Sasson (Holon).
In a statement, a representative for Alsheikh said, "These are unfounded statements that lack any factual basis and that hide behind anonymous sources and are therefore not worthy of comment. We will note that it was Alsheikh who brought from the Shin Bet the value of restraint, initiated workshops for commanders on the subject, implemented the value of restraint and proportionality in the organization's values, launched computerized testing and occupational polygraph tests under a new law legislated to maintain organizational norms."
In a statement, the Israel Police said that "earlier today, Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai contacted the public security minister and asked him to order the establishment of an external and independent investigative committee headed by a judge to examine all aspects of the issue.
"The Israel Police will cooperate fully and transparently with the committee, and to the extent irregularities or failures are found, they will be handled in accordance with the law."
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