Detention of Palestinian Children on the Rise during Pandemic

At the end of March, there were 194 Palestinian children imprisoned by Israel, an increase of 6% compared to last January, reports Defense for Children International Palestine (DCI).

Sixty percent of them are in pre-trial detention, an incredible measure given the risks of contagion they run, says the association which, like the UN agencies, is calling for the release of all Palestinian children imprisoned by Israel. (more…)

Facebook says Israeli spyware company ran vast hacking operation in the United States

Lawsuit reveals extent of Israeli spyware company’s U.S. operation

In 2019, nearly 1,400 WhatsApp users were hacked with a number human rights advocates and journalists targeted. The attack was allegedly the work the NSO Group, an Israeli spyware company.

Last October, Facebook (which owns WhatsApp) sued NSO over the breach, claiming that the company was unable to break Facebook’s encryption, but infected the phones of many users. NSO denied the claims. “The sole purpose of NSO is to provide technology to licensed government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to help them fight terrorism and serious crime,” the company said in a statement at the time, “Our technology is not designed or licensed for use against human rights activists and journalists. We consider any other use of our products than to prevent serious crime and terrorism a misuse, which is contractually prohibited. We take action if we detect any misuse.” NSO has tried to get the case dismissed, arguing that a California court has no jurisdiction in the matter, as its customers aren’t based in the U.S. (more…)

Israeli envoy calls Thomas Friedman & Dennis Ross spokesmen for Israel (who’ve now been replaced by an algorithm)

By Philip Weiss,  April 29, 2020

We always said that Tom Friedman (the New York Times columnist) and Dennis Ross (the former White House Middle East negotiator) were propagandists for Israel; well, a longtime former Israeli ambassador has confirmed the roles.

Ido Aharoni, former consul general in New York, gave a webinar to the Streicker Center of Temple Emanu-El in New York today about threats to Israel and how they are changing. The elites aren’t working for us in the same way, he said, since the smartphone came along. (more…)