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21 Jul, 9 tweets, 1 min read
THREAD: Israeli Spyware Targets Activists & Journalists

A new investigation conducted by 17 news outlets revealed that Israeli surveillance company NSO Group’s software has been used to spy on journalists, activists and politicians around the world.
NSO Group is an Israeli spyware agency started by Israeli military veterans. The company’s “Pegasus” program targets cell phones and turns them into a walking spy device: a phone’s contacts, conversations and messages are all swept up by the program.
Israel’s Ministry of Defense must approve all NSO Group exports, making the Israeli government complicit in the hacking and surveillance of civil society activists around the world.
The latest investigation into NSO Group found that authoritarian governments, like in Azerbaijan, Hungary, and the United Arab Emirates, used the spyware to target journalists and dissidents.
The spyware was used to hack at least 37 smartphones owned by journalists from Azerbaijan, France, Hungary, India, Morocco and more.
The NSO Group, with Israel’s encouragement, also sold its products to Saudi Arabia, even after the kingdom assassinated Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
The investigation also revealed that NSO Group’s “Pegasus” was used to target people close to Khashoggi before and after he was murdered by agents of the Saudi government.
Israel is a superpower in the world of surveillance technology. Israeli veterans that serve in surveillance units learn how to spy by targeting Palestinians. Then, they often go on to create spy companies that sell products to repressive regimes.
Israeli spyware is aiding and abetting far-right governments’ efforts to squash dissent and free expression.

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More from @theIMEU

19 Jul
THREAD: Ben and Jerry’s decision on Israeli occupation: Here’s what you should know.
Ben & Jerry’s will no longer sell its ice cream products in stores in illegal Jewish-only settlements built on stolen Palestinian land.
The move comes in response to a years-long campaign by Palestinians and their allies to pressure Ben and Jerry’s over its complicity with Israeli apartheid.
Read 4 tweets
19 Jul
On Sunday, Israeli forces fired rubber-coated steel bullets and attacked Palestinian worshipers at the Aqsa Mosque. Afterward, hundreds of Jewish pilgrims entered the Aqsa compound, under the protection of heavily armed Israeli police.

Photos via Reuters. Image
This comes days before the Muslim holy day of Eid al-Adha. Palestinians fear that Israeli extremists are using the visits to Al-Aqsa to exercise greater and more direct control over the Noble Sanctuary. Image
Since 1967, Israel has occupied East Jerusalem, allowing Israeli settlers to take Palestinian homes and displace Palestinian families, Image
Read 4 tweets
17 Jun
THREAD: Israel’s government is filled with ministers known for anti-Palestinian racism. Here’s a look at their hateful and violent views:

👇👇👇👇👇
Prime Minister: Naftali Bennett
“I’ve killed lots of Arabs in my life—and there’s no problem with that.” (July 2013)

Foreign Minister: Yair Lapid
“We need to get the Palestinians out of our lives. What we have to do is build a high wall and get them out of our sight.” (Dec 2016)
Defense Minister: Benny Gantz
Boasted of bombing Gaza back to “stone ages” in a TV ad. (Jan 2019)
Read 7 tweets
14 Jun
THREAD: Naftali Bennett is now Israel’s Prime Minister

That means one thing: the deadly status quo of Israeli apartheid will continue, even without Benjamin Netanyahu at the helm.
While the face of Israel is different, both Benjamin Netanyahu and Bennett agree on entrenching Israeli apartheid.

Think of the change from Netanyahu to Bennett as Ted Cruz replacing Donald Trump.
Bennett is a far-right religious nationalist who once led the Israeli settler movement, is opposed to a Palestinian state but supports unilateral Israeli annexation and once boasted, “I’ve killed lots of Arabs in my life, and there’s no problem with that.” Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Read 8 tweets
7 Jun
THREAD: Updates in Sheikh Jarrah

Israel’s Attorney General essentially just paved the way for ethnic cleansing by declining to intervene in the Sheikh Jarrah case, giving Israeli settlers a green-light to forcibly displace Palestinians in the Jerusalem neighborhood.
The Attorney General could have stepped in and regarded the case as a public policy issue, but instead is refusing to get involved, implicitly accepting the argument that what’s happening in Jerusalem is a “real estate issue” instead of ethnic cleansing and apartheid.
Because of the Attorney General’s lack of action, three Palestinian families in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah could face forced displacement soon.
Read 8 tweets
30 May
THREAD: Who is Israel’s next Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett?

Bennett is a far-right ultranationalist who staunchly opposes Palestinian statehood or self-determination of any kind in Palestine/Israel.
In 2020, Defense Minister Bennett ordered a stop to Israeli army-run testing of Palestinian residents for COVID-19 in the Gaza Strip in the midst of the pandemic.
Not a settler himself, from 2010 to 2012 he was head of the main political body (Yesha Council) that represents Israeli settlers living on occupied Palestinian land in violation of international law and is a staunch supporter of Israel’s settlement enterprise.
Read 14 tweets

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