Whistleblower issues warning to Israelis

TEL AVIV, Nov 07 (AFP): 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 that accepting too much government surveillance and too easily acceding to the argument that 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, who spoke 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.

The software has been pinpointed by independent experts as likely being used in a number of countries with poor human rights records.

"The idea is that companies like this increasingly are popping up all around the world," Snowden said.