Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Tuesday that Israel had smuggled tens of thousands of Starlink internet receivers into Iran to help anti-government protesters, but said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government did not complete the effort.
Bennett said he began a "process of acquiring and smuggling into Iran tens of thousands of Starlink receptors" to keep internet and social media access available during protests.
The systems were meant to help protesters organize and eventually bring down Iran’s government, he told the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem.
"Unfortunately, the current incompetent Israeli government stopped doing that," Bennett said. "And when the protest happened, that infrastructure was not there."
Internet shutdowns
Iranian authorities have repeatedly cut public access to the internet during unrest and during the US-Israeli war with Iran that began in late February.
Iran has accused Israel and the US of bringing Starlink equipment into the country to undermine its security.
During nationwide protests in January, activists and engineers used thousands of smuggled Starlink terminals to send images of security forces and protesters abroad, according to a New York Times report in January.
Iran responded by using military-grade electronic equipment to disrupt the GPS signals on which Starlink terminals rely, the report said.
Tougher penalties
Iran’s parliament later considered a draft anti-espionage law that would increase penalties for using or possessing unauthorized satellite internet equipment.
The draft, published in October after the 12-day war with Israel and the US, set prison terms of six months to two years for personal use of Starlink or other unlicensed satellite internet services.
It also set the death penalty for people found to have used such systems for espionage or to act against the state.
Crackdown during war
Iran intensified its crackdown on satellite internet access during the latest war, seizing terminals, blocking bank accounts and detaining people accused of using, selling or sharing access to the service. Officials have linked some cases to contact with foreign media and activities they describe as threats to national security.
Authorities said the suspects had traded access to the service, shared information with foreign-based media and taken actions against national security.
NetBlocks said at the time that internet connectivity in Iran had dropped to about 1% of normal levels, leaving satellite services among the few ways to reach the global internet.
In May, a source familiar with the case told Iran International that Hesam Alaeddin, a 40-year-old man arrested in Tehran over his alleged use of Starlink equipment, died after security agents beat him.
Regional risks
Iran has also signaled that it could target assets linked to Musk’s companies in the Middle East.
The IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency reported in June that Iran was considering adding Starlink-related infrastructure in Israel, Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Oman to a new target list.
Fars said the review followed what it described as evidence that the US and Israeli militaries had used infrastructure managed by Musk, including Starlink.
