ח"כ ישראל אייכלר: "האם מישהו חושב שהמדינה דמוקרטית?"ערוץ הכנסת

MK Yisrael Eichler (United Torah Judaism) on Monday evening, in a speech at the Knesset, commented on the controversy surrounding the Israel Police’s use of the NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware to hack into cellphones of a long list of public figures.

"The entire country is in turmoil over the publications about spyware that intrudes on the privacy of citizens, public figures, and anyone who has a phone. I see the public astonishment and laugh. I wonder, are you really surprised? Because I really am not," Eichler stated.

He quoted an excerpt from an interview he gave to Israel National News about four years ago and in which he said, among other things, "Does anyone think that the police and government agencies do not collect material about him?! Is there one public figure who thinks that we live in a democracy?"

If that was not enough, MK Eichler added in the same interview, "I know this and live in this reality. In a democratic state it cannot happen, but in the State of Israel it must happen, and in my opinion it has been happening for decades. The State of Israel is a dictatorship of a small group that rules. The beauty of the Israeli dictatorship is that it is not a dictatorship of one person, but a dictatorship of an entire milieu that whoever enters it is part of the dictatorial establishment whose job is one: To control the people, to divert them to wars of religion and state, so long as the people do not deal with the problems of housing, livelihood, education, transportation and security."

Eichler added in his speech on Monday that "the government ministers are scared. Everyone knows that there is a tailor-made case against him that they will pull out as soon as the government wants. All the conspiratorial ideas - here they are a reality."

MK Eichler concluded his remarks by calling on Knesset members: "You make a surprised face, but those who did not close their eyes saw very well what was happening here. And it did not happen overnight."