Israeli Intel Firm Collected Info On Linda Sarsour For Adelson-Backed Group
Image by Getty Images
(JTA) — A private Israeli intelligence-gathering firm collected potentially damaging information on Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour, according to a report in Haaretz.
The firm, Israel Cyber Shield, was gathering the intelligence for Act.IL, a pro-Israel advocacy organization, according to the report published Thursday. The goal was to use the information to persuade U.S. colleges not to invite Sarsour as a speaker on campus.
Sarsour, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, is a pro-Palestinian activist who advocates a boycott of Israel. She is a co-chair of the Women’s March, the liberal group that held large demonstrations across the country in January 2017 and again this year. She is a frequent target of right-wing pro-Israel activists.
Israel Cyber Shield is run by Eran Vasker, a former officer in the Israel Police’s international crime division. The firm compiled a dossier on Sarsour on behalf of Act.IL, which has a mobile app of the same name. The files included information on Sarsour’s parents, as well as a court case in which she was involved. It also included some widely reported information, including controversial tweets by Sarsour.
Act.IL is a project of the Israeli American Council that says its goal is to “help support Israeli-Americans become effective advocates for Israel in their communities, workplaces, on social media and on campuses.”
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
