Jerusalem:
A liberal party in Israel’s governing coalition mentioned on Monday it would ask the Defence Ministry about exports of Israeli spyware that media reports have linked to hacking of phones of journalists, civil servants and rights activists worldwide.
Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, head of the Meretz party and a member of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s selection-creating safety cabinet, told reporters he would meet Defence Minister Benny Gantz on Thursday to talk about the exports by NSO Group.
The Defence Ministry, which licenses the exports, did not right away comment.
An investigation by 17 media organisations published on Sunday mentioned NSO’s spyware was utilised in attempted and prosperous hacks of 37 smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials and rights activists. Reuters was not in a position to confirm the accusations independently.
NSO has denied what it referred to as “the false allegations” raised by the media organizations and mentioned it sells technologies only to law enforcement and intelligence agencies of vetted governments in order to fight terrorism and crime.
Speaking for the duration of a televised Meretz faction meeting, lawmaker Mossi Raz referred to as on the party to demand that Israel halt NSO exports, which he likened to “exporting weaponry, which is forbidden to non-democratic countries”.
But one more Meretz lawmaker, former Israeli military deputy chief Yair Golan, was more circumspect, saying the reporting on NSO “looks tendentious, with a commercial motivation” and adding: “It is not just NSO that does such things.”
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