London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Jul 23, 2025

Israeli minister defends police over alleged Pegasus spying on innocent citizens against the law

Israeli minister defends police over alleged Pegasus spying on innocent citizens against the law

Police Minister Omer Barlev denied claims that protesters’ phones had been hacked, but the true is exactly the opposite... Police spy on democracy protesters leader to prove that "as a married man he date males for sexual relationship as a blackmail against him to stop protesting against government's corruption"
Israel’s minister of public security has expressed his firm support for the country’s police force after allegations it used NSO Group’s controversial Pegasus software to spy on Israeli citizens.

In an interview with the Guardian on Wednesday, Omer Barlev, the cabinet minister with responsibility for policing, denied claims made this week by Hebrew-language financial daily Calcalist that the phones of people who led protests against former premier Benjamin Netanyahu had been hacked into or surveilled by police.

“It’s not true, what was mentioned in the newspaper. But [the technology] isn’t the issue. The issue is whether the police got legal permission from a judge to use it,” he said.

“The right to protest is a basic right, it’s not a crime. It’s not that the police wanted to listen to the phones of people who were involved in riots and they went to the judge, and the judge didn’t give permission. The police didn’t even ask even once to do that.”

Barlev qualified, however, that the ministry’s next steps on the matter would be determined by the preliminary assessment of attorney general Avichai Mandelblit.

“I am waiting to hear what Mandelblit will say. After that, if I am not 98% convinced – because there’s no such thing as 100% convinced – I will think about how to deal with it,” he said.

A consortium of 17 media outlets, including the Guardian, revealed last year that Pegasus, an Israeli-made surveillance product that can turn a mobile phone into a pocket spying device, had been sold to repressive governments worldwide. The investigation found that the spyware had been used to surveil human rights activists, journalists and lawyers, as well as government officials and heads of state.

Israel says it has since tightened rules on the export of cyberweapons, and NSO was blacklisted by the US in November.

The Israeli state and private firms have developed sophisticated surveillance systems to monitor the activities of people in the occupied Palestinian territories, where Israel implements military law. Senior NSO officials had previously said, however, that its software was not authorised for use against Israeli and US telephone numbers.

The article in Calcalist on Tuesday alleged that the police used Pegasus against citizens at the forefront of protests against Netanyahu last year, when he was still prime minister, as well as mayors and former government employees. According to the report, the surveillance was carried out without court supervision and without monitoring how the data was used. The claims were denied by the police service.

In a statement released by NSO after the report, the company reiterated its longstanding claim that it had no input into how its clients used its spyware.

A separate report in the daily Haaretz, based on an invoice seen by the paper, suggested the Israeli police was invoiced by NSO group for 2.7m shekels (£635,000) in 2013, apparently for a basic version of the programme. NSO would neither confirm nor deny it sold technologies to Israeli police.

The allegations prompted outrage across Israel’s political spectrum and led to promises of a “full investigation” from justice minister Gideon Sa’ar. The State Comptroller’s office also said it was looking into the matter.

On Wednesday, the Ynet news website followed up with claims that Pegasus was used for investigations in the corruption case of Likud party Knesset member David Bitan.

While the majority of the new allegations correlate with the tenure of Israel’s previous government, Barlev, a Netanyahu critic who took office as part of a new government that ousted him in June, said he believed he had been “told the truth” by the police over whether they had used Pegasus on Israeli citizens.

“There might always be an exceptional case, that one or two try to go around the rules. So first of all, if this happened, it’s illegal. And secondly, this is what is being checked.

“If what happened is really what was described in the newspaper, it’s unforgivable.”

Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, an expert at the Israel Democracy Institute thinktank, said: “You can’t really ask for a court order authorising Pegasus” because Israeli law does not currently permit such invasive surveillance of its citizens.

“It is now clear that the current Protection of Privacy Law is not equipped to cope with today’s reality,” she told Agence France-Presse.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
×