Benny Gantz’s cleaner contacted Iran-linked hackers and offered to infect minister’s computer with malware
Israel has charged the housekeeper for the country’s defence minister with espionage for offering to spy for hackers reportedly linked to Iran.
The man, identified as Omri Goren, reportedly has a criminal record but worked at Benny Gantz’s home as a cleaner and caretaker.
Continue reading...We are raiding the Audio Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.
This week, from 2018: Israel sees the international boycott campaign as an existential threat to the Jewish state. Palestinians regard it as their last resort. By Nathan Thrall
Continue reading...Toronto-based researchers say new evidence suggests Candiru’s software used to target critics of autocratic regimes
Researchers have found new evidence that suggests spyware made by an Israeli company that was recently blacklisted in the US has been used to target critics of Saudi Arabia and other autocratic regimes, including some readers of a London-based news website.
A report by Toronto-based researchers at ESET, an internet security firm, found links between attacks against high-profile websites in the Middle East and UK, and the Israeli company Candiru, which has been called Israel’s “most mysterious cyberwarfare company”.
Continue reading...Belgium to act amid rising cases and hospital admissions; Irish cabinet ‘extremely concerned’ by rise in cases after lockdown ended
In the UK, Conservative party chairman Oliver Dowden has backed AstraZeneca’s controversial announcement that it is moving to seek a profit from its Covid vaccine sales. Britain’s biggest pharma firm late last week said it expects the vaccine to move to “modest profitability” as new orders are received. This morning on Sky News, asked about it, Dowden said:
Well, I think the drug companies like AstraZeneca, who invested huge amounts of money into the vaccine programme, are entitled to have a profit from their investment. Actually, if you look at the Oxford AstraZeneca model, and contrast it to others around the world, the number of very, very low cost doses that are made available particularly to developing countries is an exemplary model.
If we look at his year, compared with where we were last year, of course it’s not just the overall number of cases, hospital admissions and deaths we need to look at, but also the trends. If we look at that, we can see that although there has been quite a lot of variation over the past few weeks, and we’re still reporting very high numbers of cases, the total number of daily hospitalisations and the total number of deaths are quite long way below where we were in November last year, which should give us some level of confidence.
If we look at the situation in Germany, for example, over the past couple of weeks cases have been rising in a really concerning way. And that’s the really key thing in terms of whether we need to react in response to what’s going on in Europe. When we already have a high number of cases, it doesn’t necessarily mean we need more restrictions to prevent what might come in from Europe, but really what it actually is, is a message that really shows us how important it is to get vaccinated so that we do prevent cases starting to rise again and of course that’s spilling over into hospital admissions.
I think there’s some really tough decisions that have to be made actually over the next few weeks. When it gets to younger people what they have to look at is the benefits and the risks to the individual. And the thing with very young children is generally they don’t get very sick. But by vaccinating them it protects the rest of the population indirectly, so that’s the decision that the government guided by Joint Committee for Vaccinations and Immunisations are going to have to make over the next few weeks
Continue reading...UK government watchdog finds lack of due diligence over human rights in occupied territories
JCB, the British tractor firm, has been found by a UK government watchdog to have failed to carry out due diligence human rights checks over the potential use of its equipment to demolish homes in the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT).
The watchdog ruled: “It is unfortunate that JCB, which is a leading British manufacturer of world-class products, did not take any steps to conduct human rights due diligence of any kind despite being aware of alleged adverse human rights impacts and that its products are potentially contributing to those impacts.”
Continue reading...Robert Koch Institute records 50,196 new cases of coronavirus in Germany; Netherlands would have western Europe’s first lockdown since the summer
Vic Rayner, chief executive of the National Care Forum, said there was a “human cost” to the UK government’s mandatory jab policy for care home staff, which became effective from today.
PA Media quotes Rayner on BBC Breakfast saying that about 8% of staff are leaving their jobs, on top of those who have already quit the sector since the policy was announced.
War games exercise will help prepare for the possible emergence of a lethal ‘Omega’ variant
Israel is to conduct the world’s first national Covid drill to test the country’s readiness for an outbreak of a new and lethal variant of the virus.
The drill, scheduled for Thursday, will take the format of a war games exercise and will be led by the prime minister, Naftali Bennett.
Restrictions on gatherings and movement, quarantine policy, lockdowns, curfews and tourism.
Oversight and warnings issued during the development of a new and dangerous variant, testing vaccine protection, epidemiological investigations, hospital capacity and the carrying out of mass-testing and vaccination programmes.
The legality of local or regional lockdowns and curfews, and other restrictions.
Economic support for the population.
Public security in enforcing quarantine, lockdowns and curfews.
Closing schools in outbreak centres, reducing class sizes and remote learning.
Departure and arrival policy at borders including Ben Gurion airport.
Informing the public and responding to “discourse on the internet”.
Continue reading...The Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, was rushed to her car by bodyguards after a large crowd of protesters gathered outside a London School of Economics event that she was addressing. Footage shows activists jeering and chanting: ‘Shame on you!’ as Hotovely is led away at speed with heavy police protection. The protests outside specifically targeted Hotovely, saying she had ‘advocated for settler colonialism, engaged in Islamophobic rhetoric and perpetuated anti-Palestinian racism’
Continue reading...Analysis: while identity of hackers is not known in this case, Palestinians have long been spied on by Israeli military
The disclosure that Palestinian human rights defenders were reportedly hacked using NSO’s Pegasus spyware will come as little surprise to two groups of people: Palestinians themselves and the Israeli military and intelligence cyber operatives who have long spied on Palestinians.
While it is not known who was responsible for the hacking in this instance, what is very well documented is the role of the Israeli military’s 8200 cyberwarfare unit – known in Hebrew as the Yehida Shmoneh-Matayim – in the widespread spying on Palestinian society.
Continue reading...Investigation finds rights activists working for groups accused by Israel of being terrorist were previously targeted by NSO spyware
The mobile phones of six Palestinian human rights defenders who work for organisations that were recently – and controversially – accused by Israel of being terrorist groups were previously hacked by sophisticated spyware made by NSO Group, according to a report.
An investigation by Front Line Defenders (FLD), a Dublin-based human rights group, found that the mobile phones of Salah Hammouri, a Palestinian rights defender and lawyer whose Jerusalem residency status has been revoked, and five others were hacked using Pegasus, NSO’s signature spyware. In one case, the hacking was found to have occurred as far back as July 2020.
Continue reading...Following the acclaimed author’s decision not to have Beautiful World, Where Are You translated by an Israeli publisher, two major retailers have removed her work from their shelves
Books by Sally Rooney will no longer be sold in two Israeli bookshop chains, after the acclaimed writer’s decision not to sell translation rights for her most recent novel to an Israeli publisher.
Rooney’s novels were previously available from Steimatzky and Tzomet Sefarim, but the books have now been removed from their websites, and will be pulled from physical shops too. The retailers have more than 200 branches between them.
Continue reading...Analysis: The question now is what effect the US move will have on Israel and on foreign governments who use NSO’s spyware
The US commerce department’s blacklist is usually reserved for America’s worst enemies, such as Chinese companies that have been accused of aiding human right abuses, and Russians who proliferate biological and chemical weapons programmes.
But on Wednesday, Israel’s NSO Group joined their ranks, marking a rare decision by the Biden administration to include a major technology company that is closely regulated by the Israeli government on its list of entities that threaten US national security.
Continue reading...Martin Indyk’s well-woven biography is sympathetic to the preacher of realpolitik condemned by many as a war criminal
As secretary of state, Henry Kissinger nursed the 1973 Arab-Israeli war to a close. The disengagement agreements between Egypt and Israel ultimately yielded a peace treaty. The Syrian border remains tensely quiet. Unlike Vietnam, in the Middle East Kissinger’s handiwork holds.
The Sunni Arab world has gradually come to terms with the existence of the Jewish state. Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan have diplomatic ties with Jerusalem. Relations with Saudi Arabia are possible.
Continue reading...As a doctor, I believe turning away from desperately ill kids – be they in Palestine or elsewhere – is a far greater crime
I have never walked away from a fight involving the wellbeing of children. I have never abandoned the right for Palestinian health workers to train in Israel for the benefit of those same children.
Why is this something I need to speak about publicly now?
Continue reading...I founded al-Haq in 1979. Israeli now considers it to be a terrorist group, along with other vital humans rights organisations
I was one of the founders of the human rights organisation Al-Haq in 1979 and remain proud of its work over the past four decades in defending human rights in the Israeli occupied territories. I was horrified when it was declared to be a terrorist organisation by the Israeli defence minister on 19 October, along with five other Palestinian NGOs.
During the many years of direct Israeli occupation, from 1967 to 1995, there was a long and expanding list of proscribed groups issued by the Israeli military commander under “emergency” regulations first put in place by the British in 1945. Al-Haq was never on this list.
Raja Shehadeh is a Palestinian writer and lawyer. His most recent book, Going Home: A Walk Through Fifty Years of Occupation, won the 2020 Moore prize
Continue reading...Defence ministry says the six groups have undercover links to militant PFLP movement
Israel has accused six prominent Palestinian human rights groups of being terrorist organisations, saying they have undercover links to a militant movement.
Most of the groups document alleged human rights violations by Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Continue reading...A sword believed to have belonged to a crusader who sailed to the Holy Land almost a millennium ago has been recovered from the Mediterranean seabed thanks to a sharp-eyed amateur diver. Though encrusted with marine organisms, the metre-long blade, hilt and handle became noticeable after undercurrents apparently shifted sands that had concealed it. The location, a natural cove near the port city of Haifa, suggested it had served as a shelter for seafarers, said Yaakov Sharvit, director of the authority's marine archaeology unit. The sword, believed to be about 900 years old, will be put on display after it is cleaned and restored
Continue reading...Metre-long relic, encrusted with marine organisms, is believed to be about 900 years old
A sword believed to have belonged to a crusader who sailed to the Holy Land almost a millennium ago has been recovered from the Mediterranean seabed thanks to an eagle-eyed amateur diver, the Israel Antiquities Authority has said.
Though encrusted with marine organisms, the metre-long blade, hilt and handle were distinctive enough to notice after undercurrents apparently shifted sands that had concealed it.
Continue reading...US artist returns to site for third time to highlight plight of Dead Sea, which is receding by about a metre a year
Hundreds of models wearing only white body paint have walked across a stark desert expanse near the Dead Sea, part of the latest photography project of American artist Spencer Tunick.
The 54-year-old photographer visited the spot in southern Israel as a guest of the tourism ministry to portray for the third time the shrinking Dead Sea via nude subjects.
Continue reading...The regime in Tehran says discussions will resume ‘soon’, but Israel has already ‘greatly accelerated’ plans for military action
Coordinated warnings last week from the US, Israel and the EU that “time is short” to revive an agreement curbing Iran’s nuclear activities raise a disturbing question: what will opposing governments do if, as seems likely, Tehran’s hardline regime continues to drag its feet while accumulating the wherewithal to build a nuclear weapon?
Israel’s leaders, as usual, are not mincing words. “Every day that passes, every delay in the negotiations, brings Iran closer to a nuclear bomb. If a terror regime is going to acquire a nuclear weapon, we must act. We must make clear that the civilised world won’t allow it,” said foreign minister Yair Lapid.
Continue reading...