Public Comment

24, July 2021 There is world-wide demand led by prominent human rights groups such as Amnesty Int’l to immediately halt the sale of the Israeli spyware, PEGASUS. 

Pegasus is sold by the Israeli cybersecurity company, NSO Group. The software can secretly infect a mobile phone and harvest its information. 

According to reporting from The Pegasus Project, an international consortium of 17 media organizations, the Israeli spyware is widely abused by governments to target political opponents. 

It is the favorite tool of autocrats, including former President Trump who allegedly used it to spy on prominent members of the Democratic Party. Earlier versions of the software were used to spy on prominent Palestinians which led to a large number of high-profile assassinations. 

PBS “Frontline” reports on the shocking revelation that the Israeli government failed to halt NSO‘s business relationship with Saudi Arabia even after the Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated in 2018 in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, and allegedly used Pegasus to surveil Khashoggi’s fiancée. 

It was reportedly used extensively by former Prime Minister Netanyahu to spy on his political opponents. The newly minted autocrat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, allegedly used Pegasus to surveil and neutralize his political opponents. This has generated a dark cloud of fear in the once thriving democracy. 

It is outrageous the NSO group and the Israeli government puts profits and political influence over the survival of democracy and human rights.