Investigation Reveals Secret Cooperation Between Israel, Google, and Amazon

SadaNews - An investigation conducted by the British newspaper "The Guardian" and other media outlets has revealed that Google and Amazon agreed to conditions set by Israel that allow it to circumvent legal orders in exchange for signing a cloud services deal worth $1.2 billion.

According to what "The Guardian" reported in a joint investigation with the Israeli magazine "972+" and the Israeli site "Local Call", the massive cloud computing deal that the Israeli government signed with Google and Amazon in 2021, known as Project Nimbus, allows Israel to receive alerts from the two companies if authorities from any country request them to provide data for the purpose of an investigation or for legal use.

The investigation revealed that Israel conditioned the two companies to use a secret code known as the "Wink Mechanism" to circumvent foreign legal orders that might obligate the companies to provide Israeli data to authorities of other countries.

The mechanism works such that both Google and Amazon secretly inform the Israeli government through encrypted financial payments whenever they are compelled to deliver data related to Israel due to judicial orders abroad, where the amount paid corresponds to the international dialing code of the concerned country.

For example, if the country is the United States (+1), the two companies pay 1,000 shekels, and if it is Italy (+39), they pay 3,900 shekels. If a gag order prevents them from disclosing the name of the country, they must transfer 100,000 shekels (about $30,000).

According to leaked documents from the Israeli Ministry of Finance, these signals are considered a "secret alert" to Israel that its data has been handed over to a foreign entity, despite the companies' legal obligation not to disclose this.

Israel imposed further restrictions on the two companies preventing them from stopping or limiting the cloud services provided to the government and military, in order to avoid a repeat of the scenario involving Microsoft, which decided to cut off the Israeli Ministry of Defense's access to some of its cloud computing services, confirming that it found evidence of the Israeli occupation army using those services to spy on Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank.

The terms of the agreement state that Israel "has the right to transfer or create any data or content it desires within the cloud," and that the two companies cannot suspend or cancel their services even in the event of a violation of the general terms of use.

Israeli officials state that these terms came out of concern over pressure from employees or shareholders within the two companies calling for the cessation of dealings with Israel due to violations in Gaza and the West Bank. They also aim to protect Israel from any potential lawsuits in Europe or the United States due to the use of technology in occupation or spying.

American legal experts described this mechanism as "smart trickery but with risks", as it violates the spirit of American laws that impose confidentiality on judicial subpoenas.

For their part, Google and Amazon strongly denied the contents of the investigation, stating that they had not circumvented any legal obligations and that the agreed-upon terms did not violate American or international laws.

An earlier investigative report by "Dop Site News" revealed that Israel signed a $45 million contract with Google to hide the signs of starvation in Gaza.