Tel-Chai Nation

There had been some reports recently about Israeli police using spyware illegally against Israeli citizens. Now, it's been revealed even some of the alleged "witnesses" against Benjamin Netanyahu were targets of this reprehensible conduct:

Judges in former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's corruption trial canceled a court hearing on Monday that was scheduled for the next day.

[...] Attorneys filed the petition asking for a suspension following a report Monday morning that Israel's Police used the NSO Group's Pegasus spyware to hack into the phones of several public figures including protest leaders, journalists, mayors, governments employees, and associates of Netanyahu - including co-defendants and key witnesses in the trial.

[...] Netanyahu spoke out about police-spying allegations Monday night, calling it a "dark day for Israeli democracy," according to The Times of Israel.

He compared spyware use to the military "using planes meant to be used against Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas to blow up Israeli civilians.”

“They exposed citizens, followed them, listened in on them, and got into their most buried secrets. Who knows what improprieties they used it for? A spying application meant to be used against terror and to fight our enemies turned into an everyday tool for police to spy on civilians, against every law and norm,” Netanyahu said, following the reports.

This is most seriously disturbing, but hardly a surprise after years of leftists dominating institutions they don't belong in. The Jerusalem Post editorial said:

The latest revelations in the ongoing corruption trial of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu raise some disturbing questions about the Israel Police. Not only have their work methods come under increasing doubt, but also their response to allegations of possible wrongdoing.

Last month, Calcalist revealed that law enforcement agencies used NSO’s Pegasus hacking technology against Israel’s citizens. The report claimed that the police did so without the court approvals demanded by law.

Initially, police denied the claim, but in a dramatic about-face, last week it admitted that an internal probe found evidence that officers had conducted electronic surveillance of citizens without receiving proper judicial authorization. A statement said, still opaquely, “additional findings were discovered that change the state of affairs in certain aspects.”

When the initial scandal broke, MKs from across the political spectrum asked Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy to form a parliamentary commission of inquiry to investigate the alleged police usage of NSO Pegasus and similar technology, and State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman and the Privacy Authority both announced they would probe the police regarding the accusations. It is essential that this does not remain an empty promise. [...]

If the allegations of illegal police phone hacking are true, they raise serious questions about the extent to which the police allows itself to take independent action ignoring the necessary judicial procedure required in a democratic society.

The use of these tracking technologies without judicial oversight and the required permission cannot be justified and presents a severe violation of basic civil liberties. The police cannot be granted immunity to commit criminal acts in the name of fighting crime.

The time has come that accountability be taken by the higher echelons, and they could additionally prove they're willing to cooperate by setting up an actual internal affairs division, something lacking in this country's system, unlike the USA. The Jerusalem Post also reported:

Big Brother has been watching you.

That is the terrifying conclusion that emerged from Monday’s bombshell Calcalist report on the breadth and scope of the Police’s alleged illegal use of NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware to hack into the phones of unsuspecting Israeli citizens.

While Big Brother may not have been watching you specifically – at least not yet – he was watching a lot of people: from mayors to directors-general of government ministries; from social activists to business people; from journalists to relatives of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

And those are just what we know about at this point. Like Watergate, which started with one small innocuous story and snowballed, the Pegasus scandal – which began last month with a story that the spyware was used locally in a couple of anonymous cases – has now mushroomed to grotesque proportions.

What makes the revelations so terrifying is twofold: First, the Police reportedly hacked into and sucked out the contents of people’s phones without getting any court authorization to do so, as is mandated by law. Second, the people under surveillance were not suspected of any crime.

It’s as if the Police found itself in possession of a super-powered fishing pole, selected various people who appeared on their radar screen for various reasons, and “went fishing” to see what they could dig up.

That’s scary. That’s undemocratic. That’s intolerable. That’s what they do in a police state.

They are doubtless continuing to try and refuse to take responsibility, all the more reason why they should leave their jobs behind. It's just one of the most repellent paths the police took, and those responsible owe an honest apology.

Labels: Israel, Knesset, Moonbattery, msm foulness, political corruption