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TECHNOLOGY A23
Friday 19 February 2016
Covertly, Israel prepares to fight boycott activists online
DANIEL ESTRIN Israel is looking to harness In this April 20, 2015, file photo, an Egyptian man shouts anti-Israeli slogans in front of banners with
Associated Press their technological prow- the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) logo during the launch of the Egyptian campaign
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Isra- ess for the fight to protect that urges boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel and Israeli-made goods, at the Egyp-
el is using its world-leading Israel’s international image. tian Journalists’ Syndicate in Cairo, Egypt.
expertise in cyber secu- Vaknin-Gil said her ministry
rity to take on the growing is encouraging initiatives Associated Press
threat of the global pro- to expose the funding and
Palestinian movement to curb the activities of anti- said. Ratson said social media gi- pus Tel Aviv, a Google-
boycott Israel. Israel activists, as well as Israel says the movement is ants are beginning to close sponsored event space for
The Israeli government re- campaigns to “flood the rooted in anti-Semitism and inciting users’ accounts. entrepreneurs, an Israeli
cently allotted nearly $26 Internet” with content that seeks not to change Israeli Twitter said in a statement web expert taught young
million in this year’s budget puts a positive face on Isra- policies, but ultimately to this month that since mid- activists how to mine the in-
to combat what it sees as el. She said some of these put an end to the Jewish 2015, it has closed more ternet for BDS activities.
worldwide efforts to “dele- actions will not be publicly state. than 125,000 accounts that “Delegitimizers are en-
gitimize” the Jewish state’s identified with the govern- Many online activists driv- were “threatening or pro- gaged in a Disneyland of
right to exist. Some of the ment, but that the ministry ing anti-Israeli campaigns moting terrorist acts, pri- hate,” Igal Ram of Firewall
funds are earmarked for will not fund unethical or il- on social media are tech- marily related to ISIS,” the Israel told seminar par-
Israeli tech companies, legal digital initiatives. savvy, second- and third- Islamic State group. But he ticipants. “We want to act
many of them headed by Established about 10 years generation Muslims in Eu- said Islamist activists are against the people who
former military intelligence ago, the pro-Palestinian rope and the U.S. who simply moving to “Darknet” run the Disneyland ... and
officers, for digital initiatives “BDS” campaign is a co- have grievances against sites not visible on the open the useful idiots who help.”
aimed at gathering intel- alition of organizations the West and also lead internet. Inspiration, an Israeli intel-
ligence on activist groups that advocate boycotts, online campaigns against Some Israeli tech compa- ligence analysis company
and countering their ef- divestment and sanctions European and U.S. govern- nies are starting to build sly founded by Ronen Cohen
forts. against Israel. Inspired by ments, said Elad Ratson, algorithms to restrict these and Haim Pinto, former mili-
“I want to create a com- the anti-apartheid move- who tracks the issue for Is- online activists’ circle of in- tary intelligence officers,
munity of fighters,” said ment, BDS organizers say rael’s Foreign Ministry and fluence on the “Darknet,” launched a technologi-
Sima Vaknin-Gil, the direc- they are using nonviolent spoke at last month’s cy- so activists think their mes- cal initiative some months
tor general of Israel’s Minis- means to promote the Pal- bersecurity forum. sage is reaching others ago to collect intelligence
try for Strategic Affairs and estinian struggle for inde- He said they often create when in fact it is being con- on BDS organizations in Eu-
Public Diplomacy, to Israeli pendence. code that allows activists tained, Ratson said. rope, particularly Scandi-
tech developers at a forum The movement has grown to blast thousands of mes- Other Israeli companies navian countries, the U.S.,
last month dedicated to into a global network of sages from social media work on forensic intelli- and South America, Cohen
the topic. thousands of volunteers, accounts — creating the il- gence gathering, such as said. He said the initiative
Initiatives are largely being from campus activists to lusion that many protesters detecting digital or seman- aims to dismantle the infra-
kept covert. Participants church groups to liberal are sharing the same anti- tic signatures buried in ac- structure of groups he said
at the invite-only forum, Jews disillusioned by Israeli Israel or anti-West message tivists’ coding so they are were responsible for incite-
held on the sidelines of a policies. They lobby cor- online. able to track and restrict ment and anti-Semitism
cyber technology confer- porations, artists and aca- Israeli officials lobby Face- their online activity. against Israel. He declined
ence, repeatedly stood up demic institutions to sever book to remove pages it Firewall Israel, a non-profit to give specifics.
to remind people that jour- ties with Israel. says incite violence against initiative sponsored by the “It’s no different than an
nalists were in the room. The movement has made Israelis, and there has been Reut Institute, an Israeli think operation, which you
Among the government inroads. U.S. and British talk of advancing legisla- tank, is building an online sometimes read about in
officials involved in the ef- academic unions have en- tion to restrict Facebook platform to help pro-Israel the newspaper, in Syria or
forts are some of Israel’s dorsed boycotts, student in Israel. A Facebook rep- activists around the world Lebanon,” Cohen said. “It’s
top secret-keepers, includ- governments at universi- resentative met with Stra- communicate about anti- the kind of thing that, if you
ing Sima Shine, a former ties have made divest- tegic Affairs Minister Gilad Israel activism in their com- want to do it in the future
top official in the Mossad ment proposals, and some Erdan in Israel last week munities. At a recent event ... you can’t work in the
spy agency, and Vaknin- famous musicians have about the matter. the initiative held at Cam- open.”q
Gil, who recently retired as refused to perform in Is-
the chief military censor re- rael. The BDS movement
sponsible for gag orders on also claims responsibility
state secrets. for pressuring some large
Israel has established it- companies to stop or mod-
self as a world leader in ify operations in Israel. In its
cyber technology innova- latest push, it has urged top
tion, fueled by graduates Hollywood actors to reject
of prestigious and secretive a government-paid trip
military and security intelli- to Israel being offered to
gence units. leading Oscar nominees.
These units are widely Omar Barghouti, co-found-
thought to be behind er of the BDS movement,
some of the world’s most said “quite a few web pag-
advanced cyber-attacks, es” that BDS websites linked
including the Stuxnet virus to have mysteriously disap-
that attacked Iran’s nucle- peared from the Internet.
ar energy equipment last “We assume Israel’s cyber
decade. sabotage is ongoing, but
Each year, these units churn we are quite pleased that
out a talent pool of Israelis its detrimental impact on
who translate their skills to the global BDS movement
the corporate world. Now has been dismal so far,” he
