Tel Aviv: US whistleblower Edward Snowden urged Israelis to be on guard against heavy-handed government and private surveillance in a speech by video link on Tuesday and defended his 2013 massive leak of classified documents. Snowden highlighted Israel’s high-tech capabilities, but warned accepting too much government surveillance and too easily acceding to the argument it is needed for security reasons posed serious risks.
“If we can allow ourselves to be terrorised by someone with nothing but a knife, to reorder our societies for the convenience of state power … we’ve stopped being citizens and we’ve started being subjects,” said Snowden, speaking from an undisclosed location in Moscow. The 35-year-old also spoke of the NSO Group, the Israel-based company known for its Pegasus spyware.