The government established a committee to investigate the Israel Police's use of spyware in a cabinet meeting on Sunday.
The committee, proposed by Justice Minister Yariv Levin, has been authorized by the government to inspect the conduct of the police and State Attorney's Office in the procurement and operation of spyware against citizens and public officials.
Levin said that the "Pegasus affair," in which Ciphon malware had been used from 2015 to 2021 to infect between 1,086 to 1,800 phones and extract information beyond warrants, is one of the most serious incidents in recent years.
"Exposing the truth about the matter, and preventing similar incidents of severe injury to the privacy rights of Israeli citizens, is vital and important like nothing else."
What will the committee accomplish in probing Israel Police spyware use?
The ultimate objective of the committee is said to be the development of regulations for the use of such technologies and allow law enforcement effective tools to combat corruption and crime, but to also protect privacy and strengthen public trust.
The justice minister said he was confident in the retired district judge and two lawyers were appointed to the committee. Labor MK Gilad Kariv said that if Levin was truly interested in protecting privacy and ensuring police effectiveness, the formation of the committee would have been conducted in a different manner.
Levin said that he regretted the "reluctance of some of the parties involved in this serious case to examine the issue in depth, despite the sharp conflict of interest in which they find themselves," possibly referring to a letter issued Sunday by the Attorney-General's Office.
Deputy Attorneys-General Gil Limon and Sharon Afek issued a letter saying that the committee had no authority to interfere in pending criminal cases, especially Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ongoing corruption trial.
Kariv alleged that the committee was part of a political deal between Netanyahu and Levin, in which Levin would sabotage the legal proceedings against Netanyahu and the prime minister would proceed with the judicial reform.
The Attorney-General's Office said that there had been no evidence yet that the Siphon spyware had been used on phone of people who were not subject to warrant or suspected of criminal offenses, which made the assertions about probing use of spyware against citizens and public officials problematic.
The government lacked authority to involve itself in criminal proceedings, said the Attorney-General's Office, because such matters lay under the responsibility of the courts, and there was an institutional separation between them and the Justice Ministry.
Any dealings with ongoing criminal proceedings, even unintentionally, could create the appearance or concerns about political influence in investigations and trials, Limon and Afek wrote. Public trust would be damaged in the purity and legitimacy of the justice system.
Limon and Afek also noted that the State Comptroller's Office was also conducting an inquiry into the use of spyware.
The Shin Bet and Israel Police had both opposed the establishment of the committee, which they have feared may impact their operations, including those against rising Arab sector organized crime. The methods used by law enforcement are essential and shouldn't be revealed to criminals, the Attorney-General's Office cautioned. This would allow criminals to counter police operations.
Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman called for a government inquiry to be formed in May following hearings on a 2021 report by Deputy Attorney-General Amit Merari. Rothman said there still had been an insufficient accounting of the use of spyware, which allowed police to access notes, contacts, applications and past correspondence from devices.