The Israeli government assured this Monday that “it will not leave without an answer” and will act in the face of the scandal of police espionage on politicians, journalists and businessmen through the Pegasus computer program, the subject of new revelations.
According to the Calcalist economic newspaper on Monday, the Israeli police hacked the phones of public figures, journalists and members of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s entourage on a large scale thanks to the Pegasus program, allegations described as “very serious” by the current head of government. Naftali Bennet.
After the first Calcalist revelations, which prompted the justice to open an investigation on January 20, the police admitted last week to having used computer espionage technologies “without a mandate”, although without citing the Pegasus program of the Israeli company NSO.
This Monday the Calcalist newspaper affirms that it was common to use the Pegasus program to obtain information and that it was used without judicial authorization against Avner Netanyahu, one of the former prime minister’s sons, his advisers, journalists and mayors.
In a statement Monday, Prime Minister Bennet promised the government “will not leave unanswered” this matter. “What is alleged to have happened here is very serious,” says Bennet.
The Israeli prime minister considers, however, that the Pegasus program is an “important tool in the fight against terrorism” but that “it cannot be used as electronic espionage against the Israeli public or against those responsible” political or economic.
For that reason, “we must understand exactly what happened,” continues the prime minister.
Pegasus is a surveillance program that can turn on a phone’s camera or microphone to collect your information.
It sparked global controversy last year following revelations that it was used to spy on journalists and dissidents in countries including Mexico, Hungary, Poland and Saudi Arabia.
