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Is NSO harming Israel's national security? - Walla! technology

2021-11-09T11:44:52.841Z


Was Bnei Gantz's declaration of 6 Palestinian organizations as terrorist organizations intended to cover up NSO's spyware found on the organization's employees' phones?


Niv Lillian

09/11/2021

Tuesday, 09 November 2021, 13:14 Updated: 13:27

Is NSO harming Israel's national security?

Was Bnei Gantz's declaration of 6 Palestinian organizations as terrorist organizations intended to cover up NSO's spyware found on the organization's employees' phones?

And what are the implications for national security and our relationship with the United States?

Some matters that need to be investigated - and not by the Ministry of Defense

Interpretation

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A branch of the NSO Group near Sapir, August 24, 2021. (Photo: AP)

Is the offensive cyber company NSO Group harming Israel's national security and its foreign relations? If the previous entanglement, in which Pegasus spyware made by Emanuel Macron's phone was found, was not enough, French President Ronen Bergman's publication last night claims that the Defense Minister's declaration of 6 Palestinian human rights organizations as terrorist organizations was intended to cover up the fact that Pegasus was on the phone. Of the employees of the organizations, one of them, an American citizen.



Recall that in this context, last week, the US State Department declared NSO and another Israeli company, Candiro, as companies "carrying out actions against the national security of the United States", a declaration that is not easy at all.



According to a schedule released by Front Line Defneders, a human rights protector, and information shared with Citizen Lab, the University of Toronto's digital human rights lab that closely monitors NSOs, several Palestinian organization workers' phones have been hacked by Pegasus software. It was October 17th. On October 18, an employee of one of the organizations whose phone was monitored received a message that the Minister of the Interior had decided to cancel his residency in Jerusalem and deport him based on a "breach of loyalty to the State of Israel."



The next day, Defense Minister Bnei Gantz issued a statement declaring Palestinian human rights organizations to be "terrorist organizations." The U.S. State Department's declaration last week of the NSO as undermining U.S. national security - ostensibly, came out as a diplomatic-political response to Defense Secretary Benny Gantz's announcement.



If these allegations are true (Citizen Lab's youth so far has an excellent track record on exposures to NSOs), then this is a serious matter: the Department of Defense, de facto, comes out with declarations that inevitably cause further tension with the U.S. administration, which already dislikes NSO and the fact that its products have been sold to tyrannical regimes - and endanger American and other citizens.

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NSO has been declared "carrying out actions against US national security" (Photo: Reuters)

It follows that in fact, the Ministry of Defense puts the interests of a private company first, while the national interest and foreign relations of the State of Israel (and more with our greatest friend), become a secondary matter. And does the State Department, entrusted with handling this relationship, have no say in the matter? Everything is pushed in front of the holy cow called defense exports?



It is no secret that NSO maintains a close relationship with the Ministry of Defense, the body that is actually supposed to oversee it and approve any export of the company's product. Also the fact that NSO "equipped" several senior IDF and defense officials as employees of or advisers to the company, including Oded Hershkovitz, former deputy IDF spokesman as the company's communications consultant, and Brigadier General Ariela Ben Avraham, former chief censor, as global communications director Of society - is no secret. We will also mention the fact that Shiri Dolev, President of the NSO, is a close friend of Ayelet Shaked, the Minister of the Interior.



I am not claiming, God forbid, that this is corruption, or a matter that was done illegally.

However, if the claim that the proximity of the events is not accidental is correct, then it is a very problematic matter, which requires investigation - and not by those involved.

It is no secret that NSO maintains close relations with the Ministry of Defense (Photo: Reuters)

In any case, the Ministry of Defense should begin to take greater transparency with the public regarding its oversight procedures for companies such as NSO, and the examination of whether working relations with such companies affect decisions that affect Israel's national security and foreign relations should go out of its hands.

Perhaps even to the hands of an external civil review committee headed by a retired judge.



The Ministry of Defense in this matter can not examine itself, and we will remind the Minister of Defense that his ministry is the Ministry of Defense of the State of Israel - and not the Ministry of Defense for NSO's business.



NSO chose not to comment.

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Source: walla

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