Ireland’s national police force, the Garda Síochána, is reluctant to give up on the Israel-made technology Cellebrite despite demands by the Opposition to boycott the Jewish state, The Irish Times reported this week.
Gardaí Commissioner Drew Harris said the Israeli tech was essential for extracting data from computers and phones that could solve crimes - including violent crimes like murders.
“It’s a tool that we need to properly investigate crime which has some form of cyber or digital element,” Harris said. “And certainly all of the serious crime we are investigating has that element with it. When you look at the detections we’re getting, the crimes we’re preventing and the convictions that there are, we’d be very reluctant to step away from a very important tool.”
Can the Israeli tech be trusted?
Social Democrats justice spokesman Gary Gannon said Ireland should end “any forms of technology partnerships with the Israeli state” and that Israel “has proven itself to be not trusted”.
“We need to be very careful with regards to any form of technologies that are made in the Israeli state,” he said. “It’s very clearly Israel has a hostile relationship to Ireland based on the support our people have for a two-state solution. And they’ve proven themselves to be untrustworthy partners on the global stage.”
Despite concerns that Israel is “untrustworthy,” Cellebrite has severed ties with state actors in the past after questions about morality. Amnesty International noted the company ended product use in Serbia after it was discovered the tech was being used against journalists and activists.
The company also gained notoriety after the FBI used its tech to access data from the man who attempted to assassinate US President Donald Trump, according to CTech.
Ireland’s Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan reportedly said that while the Gardaí is free to choose its own technology, he recommends it review any potential alternatives by companies without ties to Israel.
Despite O’Callaghan’s input and calls to boycott the product, Cellebrite has been owned by Japan, not Israel, for more than a decade, The Irish Times noted.
The company’s website shows it has headquarters in the United States, Israel, Brazil, the United Kingdom, India, Australia, Germany, Canada, Japan, and Singapore.
The calls for a boycott reportedly originate from the knowledge that the company had originally been Israeli and that the technology continues to be used by Israel in the war against Hamas. The technology, according to Cellebrite, has been used by over 100 countries in more than 5 million cases.
In 2024 alone, The Irish Times reported that Gardaí spent nearly €500,000 on Cellebrite.
Only last week, Cellebrite proved its use in Ireland’s criminal justice system. Using Cellebrite, Gardaí officers extracted footage and audio recordings of the murder of Anna Mooney from the phone of her husband.
Mooney, who originally pleaded not guilty, changed his plea after the Central Criminal Court was told of the data extraction.
The company website promises, “Our technology helps convict bad actors and bring justice to victims of crimes, including child exploitation, homicides, sexual assault, mass violence, drug and human trafficking, fraud and financial crimes.”
The calls to boycott the technology were mocked by Dana Erlich, Israel’s ambassador to Ireland, who said, “Here’s an example of how some in Ireland are blinded by their hostility to Israel."
The Gardaí (Irish police) are being asked to boycott Israeli technology which helps prevent and solve crimes,” she wrote on X/Twitter. “Is hatred for Israel more important than the safety of Irish citizens?”