The darling export turns on its master: What to make of Israeli ministers' 'shock' over NSO
Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked reacted with uncharacteristic shock Monday to the newest disclosures regarding the police’s use of spyware against Israelis. “If this is true, it’s an earthquake,” she told Kan Bet public radio, “grave acts by the Israel Police that are in keeping with dark regimes. … Such a thing should absolutely not happen in a democratic state! This has to be looked into today. We cannot wait. … I read about it this morning and I was shocked. I can’t believe this is my country!”
After hearing such a trenchant speech from this paragon of human rights and democracy, one couldn’t help but recall Shakespeare’s “The lady doth protest too much.”
In fact, Shaked has several very good reasons for exaggerated theatrical protest. The first is named Shiri Dolev, president of the Israeli spyware firm NSO Group. Dolev is a close friend of Shaked’s, as they once put it in a television interview. But the interior minister forgot, totally by chance, to mention that relationship when she warmly recommended to the Knesset Intelligence and Secret Services Subcommittee that Israel adopt NSO’s tracking app to monitor Israelis during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also warmly welcomed NSO’s initiative at the time to penetrate the cellphones of everyone in the country as a result of the pandemic.
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The poor reputation of NSO’s spyware was known back then to anyone who even had a passing interest in the subject. The entire world was already dealing with the Israeli firm’s expanded role in tracking opponents of regimes and the company’s name had already also been linked to the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
These things weren’t just discovered Monday morning. Absolutely not. It’s like in “Casablanca” when Captain Renault declares: “I’m shocked, shocked, to find that gambling is going on in here,” while raking in the winnings with his other hand.
That’s also how Bennett sounded, exactly like Shaked, in hearing the reports that, wonder of wonders, the authorities have been using the spyware illegally in Israel too. “The reports describe an allegedly highly serious situation, unacceptable in a democratic country,” he exclaimed at the beginning of a cabinet meeting.
The feigned shock of Bennett and Shaked as well as several other cabinet ministers who “protesteth too much” are all the more disturbing in light of the fact that practices of this kind, involving tracking of the cellphones of politicians, social activists and journalists, has existed for years in connection with Palestinians within and beyond Israel’s borders.
- Pegasus scandal is a massive can of worms about to erupt all over Israel’s elites
- The NSO file: A complete (updating) list of individuals targeted with Pegasus spyware
- In last days in office, Israel’s Attorney General ordered police halt use of NSO spyware
After all, no one in the cabinet asked for a commission of inquiry when it turned out not that long ago that NSO’s Pegasus spyware had also been implanted in the cellphones of activists from Palestinian human rights organizations. Or when veterans of Unit 8200 of the army’s Intelligence Corps recounted how they had used personal information about innocent LGBT Palestinians that was obtained in similar ways simply to extort their cooperation.
The Israeli politicians only remembered that spyware was a terrible threat to democracy when the threat literally hit home – on their cellphones – and when it turned out that among those starring on the list of targets were ministry directors general and parliamentary aides. They hadn’t cared about the issue when the Israeli firm starred in an affair involving the dismemberment of a Saudi journalist or when its spyware was used against Palestinians. It’s only now, when it turns out that their own cellphones and those of their confidants might be under surveillance, that they suddenly remember to be shocked.
To some extent, it’s better late than never because the current calls from within the cabinet for a state commission of inquiry are the right step. And yet one would ask to what extent the system is capable of investigating itself. After all, an inseparable part of this foul-up involves a failure of judicial oversight and the enthusiasm with which Israel’s security institutions were quick to embrace “the folks” at NSO as Israeli developers whom we could be proud of and who deserved support in plying their wares around the world.
Will the judge be found who will be resolute in criticizing his colleagues’ rubber-stamping of court orders authorizing the police surveillance? It’s not clear. And the creep of civilian cybertechnology firms into the defense establishment? And the lack of regulation of their exports? And their use against Palestinians?
No, state commissions of inquiry don’t usually go too far in slaughtering sacred cows. They mark one for slaughter while the rest continue on their way. That’s what will happen with the spyware affair too, if the main topic of scrutiny is the presence or absence of warrants and the authority of antiquated laws, rather than the way all Israeli systems are programmed to permit, too easily, violations of human rights.