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Company building of the BSO Group in the Arava valley between the Red and Dead Seas
Photo: AMIR LEVY/Getty Images
After a wiretapping scandal involving the Pegasus surveillance software, calls for an independent investigation into the events are increasing in Israel.
According to media reports, the police bugged government critics, business people, local politicians and one of the sons of ex-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for years without judicial orders.
Interior Minister Ajelet Schaked called on Twitter on Monday for an external commission to investigate the allegations, writing: "The Knesset and the public at large deserve answers, today."
The first allegations that the software from the Israeli NSO Group was also being used within Israel were made by the newspaper Calcalist in January.
The police initially denied the allegations.
After an investigation announced by the Attorney General, it was only said on Monday that one would cooperate with the investigators.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet said the allegations were "very serious" if proven true.
Spying on activists and opposition figures
In November, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry accused Israel of using the Pegasus software to spy on ministry employees and Palestinian human rights activists.
In mid-July last year, an international consortium of journalists reported that members of the opposition and reporters in various countries had also been spied on with Pegasus.
Traces of attacks were found on dozens of smartphones owned by journalists, human rights activists, their families and business people.
NSO countered that Pegasus is "sold exclusively to law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies of vetted governments for the sole purpose of saving lives by preventing crime and acts of terrorism."
The Pegasus software exploited vulnerabilities in Apple's iPhone operating system and was thus able to be installed on victims' devices unnoticed.
(You can find out how the spectacular hack worked here.) It was not until September 2021 that the US company managed to close the gap in question in its software.
In early November, the US government put NSOs on a sanctions list.
There is evidence that the spy software was supplied to governments, who used it to maliciously monitor government officials, journalists and scientists, among others.
Like WhatsApp and Facebook before them, Apple has filed a lawsuit and wants the court to have the NSO Group banned from using any Apple devices and software.
Apple is also demanding “compensation” from NSO for spying on users.
mak/dpa