Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Israeli Intel Firm Collected Info On Linda Sarsour For Adelson-Backed Group

(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.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version