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What happened: Following the severe allegations made in Calcalist’s investigative report over the last few weeks into phone hacking, the Israel Police presented the results of their preliminary inquiry to ministers last night.

• According to the police, of the 26 names that the police allegedly spied on using NSO’s Pegasus software, only three were found to be correct and only one person’s phone was successfully hacked.
• These results were presented to a limited forum consisting of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett along with Minister for Public Security Omer Bar-Lev (Labour), Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar (New Hope) and new Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, on her first day in the job.
• The police admitted that it tried to hack into three devices owned by mayors and other local authority leaders, and a senior official, but according to the police, “this was all done with a warrant, in keeping with the law”.

The allegations: According to the report in the economic newspaper Calcalist: 

• The police cyber-SIGINT unit used NSO’s Pegasus to illegally hack the phones of citizens and seized control of them without having first received a court warrant.
• Pegasus spyware was installed on the phones of politicians, leading businesspersons, the directors general of ministries, mayors, the CEOs of large companies, journalists, protest organisers, advisers to the prime minister and his family.
• The analysts in the cyber-SIGINT unit, which tracked the demonstrators, were told that the goal was to collect preliminary information because of “concern of public order being disrupted”.
• This gathering of intelligence took place under the former commissioner of police Roni Alsheich, who himself was formerly a deputy director of the Shin Bet. Along with Alsheich, Asst. Cmd. Yoav Hassan was the director of the SIGINT unit and Yosef Kahlon was the director of the technology department, both of whom are veterans of the IDF’s 8200 Unit.
• Two weeks ago, Calcalist reported on how the spyware was used against the Balfour Street demonstrators (against former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu). It is now reporting that Pegasus was also installed in the phones of the leaders of the protests by the disabled organisers of the Ethiopian Jews’ demonstrations, who were ironically protesting police discrimination. The same spyware was also installed in the phones of West Bank settlers just before outposts were removed.
• The targets allegedly included three former ministry director generals, including Keren Turner, the former director general of the Transport Ministry and then of the Finance Ministry. Someone suspected her of leaking secret documents to journalists, and the Police cyber-SIGINT unit installed Pegasus on her phone.

Context: The concerns over alleged abuses first surfaced last month with the Calcalist reporting how police have been using NSO’s technology since 2013 without warrants.

• The use of the technology exposed a loophole in the law that related to outdated models of wiretapping.
• The police, the State Attorney’s Office and the Public Security Ministry have argued that they need technological tools such as Pegasus to fight organised crime.
• The allegations have caused alarm across the political spectrum and have challenged the fundamental rights of citizens living in a democracy.
• The revelations do not appear to be politically motivated, with figures both on the left and right appear to have been targeted. Both government and opposition have described the revelations as an earthquake and have called for a state commission of inquiry.
• Leader of the Opposition Netanyahu told the Knesset: “It is a black day for the state of Israel. Something unthinkable happened here. Police officials have illegally spied, with the most aggressive tools in the world, on countless civilians.”
• Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) said: “If the report is correct, this is an earthquake, acts that suit benighted regimes from the previous century that we mustn’t resemble. The massive invasion of many people’s privacy is lawlessness that must end today. An external commission of inquiry is needed. It wasn’t for these purposes that the police bought these programs. The Knesset and the entire public deserve answers, today.”
• Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz) said: “This has to do with the foundations of our democratic regime and everyone’s rights. Anybody can be hurt, nobody is immune to this pandemic. But there is another aspect that I think is no less important. There is serious suspicion of criminal offenses, and since the suspects are police or former police, we need a criminal investigation. The police cannot investigate itself. I doubt that the Police Internal Investigations Department can cope with such a comprehensive investigation of senior officers and in depth. That’s why I think the investigation must be conducted by an agency external to the police, headed by a Supreme Court judge, beyond the state commission of inquiry.”
• A police official responded to the allegations, telling Maariv, “Wiretapping software, including spyware of one kind or another, have been used by the police for eight years already, and of course only subject to court-issued warrants and clear rules. To date, no one has established that the police committed any offence, but everyone is disparaging it and is pointing an accusatory finger at it.”

Relating to Netanyahu’s trial:

• The NSO spyware was allegedly used on the phone of Shlomo Filber, then director general of the Communication Ministry, who has since turned state witness.
• A court had issued a warrant permitting the police to extract information from his telephone. However, the police used the spyware that enabled them to extract information beyond the scope permitted by the warrant.
• As part of the investigation into Case 4,000, the police allegedly hacked phones on two other key witnesses: former Walla CEO Ilan Yeshua and former Walla editor Aviram Elad.
• They also allegedly hacked a phone registered in the name of Avner Netanyahu, the prime minister’s son. The correspondence on the phone was written in the feminine form, from which the police concluded that it may have been used by Sara Netanyahu.
• The phones used by Netanyahu’s media advisers, Topaz Luk and Jonathan Urich, were also reportedly hacked, as was the phone of Iris Elovitch, wife of Shaul Elovitch.
• The police are insistent that no evidence was acquired illegally.
• As a result of the revelations, Netanyahu’s trial has been temporarily postponed.

Looking ahead: Bennett and the relevant ministers have asked the Shin Bet and Mossad to perform an initial investigation into the police before a decision is made about establishing a commission of inquiry.

• The intermediate measures are aimed at establishing facts, possibly from NSO directly as a commission of inquiry cannot be launched based on the media reports alone, which so far have not presented any evidence into their allegations.
• Following the inquiry, Minister Bar-Lev said that he would support the establishment of a governmental commission.
• Other politicians from both the coalition and opposition have called for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry, which would have the broadest investigatory powers of any inquiry.
• Justice Minister Sa’ar said that he is in favour of a state commission of inquiry, formed by the Supreme Court president and not by the minister.
• The opposition also called for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry but argued that it should be appointed by President Isaac Herzog.
• The Knesset will need to pass updated legislation that will establish conditions for the use of cyber tools in preventing serious crime but ensure it cannot be used to tracking law-abiding citizens. Boundaries will need to be set with clear protocols and appropriate oversight
• One idea is to place legal oversight on the police to approve future action in the cyber realm.