Pro-Palestine Organization Leaks Banned Al Jazeera Documentary About Israel Lobby In U.S.

The Electronic Intifada, a Chicago-based pro-Palestine organization, has obtained and published Al Jazeera’s documentary about Israel’s lobby in the United States.

Filmed in 2016 and fully completed by October 2017, The Lobby – USA never saw the light of the day thanks to overwhelmingly intense pressure from U.S. lawmakers and U.S.-based Israel lobbyists, in coordination with the government of Israel.

As the Inquisitr reported in February this year, Al Jazeera was pressured to register as a foreign agent following revelations that the news network had planted one of its investigative journalists inside an influential Israeli lobbying organization.

“We had an undercover operative working in tandem in Washington, D.C. With this U.K. verdict and vindication past us, we can soon reveal how the Israel lobby in America works through the eyes of an undercover reporter,” the director of investigative reporting at Al Jazeera Clayton Swisher said at the time.

Swisher’s public announcement was made after it had been revealed that another Al Jazeera reporter infiltrated an Israeli lobbying group in the United Kingdom.

After the airing of Al Jazeera’s U.K. documentary, the British government regulator Ofcom concluded that the reporting was not anti-Semitic – as suggested by some – but rather “a serious investigative documentary which explored the actions of the Israeli Embassy.”

Information revealed in the documentary led to the resignation of an Israeli diplomat who was secretly filmed plotting to “take down” British officials.

Now, almost a year after its completion, the U.S. version of the documentary is seeing the light of the day.

Al Jazeera planted an undercover reporter, “Tony,” to pose as a pro-Israel volunteer. The documentary exposes efforts of Israel and its lobbyists to smear, intimidate, and spy on American citizens who support the pro-Palestine boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement.

The Lobby – USA also reveals that Israel’s black-ops government agency is operating on U.S. soil, and in collaboration with the Ministry of Strategic Affairs and U.S.-based lobbying groups, silencing and smearing activists.

For instance, the film shows former Israel embassy employee Julia Reifkind describing her job as “gathering intel, reporting back to Israel…to the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

Al Jazeera’s documentary also reveals that executive director of the Israel on Campus Coalition Jamie Baime is using his organization to gather lists of pro-Palestine events on college campuses, with the help of “enterprise-grade social media intelligence software,” which gathers information about pro-Palestine activists “within 30 seconds or less.”

Baime admitted to Al Jazeera’s undercover reporter that he is coordinating with the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs.

“With the anti-Israel people, what’s most effective, what we’ve found at least in the last year, is you do the opposition research, put up some anonymous website, and then put up targeted Facebook ads,” Baime can be heard explaining.

AIPAC, Washington’s most powerful Israel lobby group, is an integral part of Israel’s U.S. machinery.

Kudos to @intifada for having the courage to publish "The Lobby," the 4-part Al Jazeera undercover investigation about Israeli influence campaigns inside the US that Al Jazeera, under immense pressure, decided to censor. Many outlets wouldn't pubilsh this https://t.co/Dy8lYZmxm7

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 3, 2018

The Electronic Intifada notes that Al Jazeera is caving to pressure from U.S. lawmakers and lobbyists, and the government of Qatar is coordinating with the government of United States, and with Israel’s government to ban and censor the documentary.

The pro-Palestine boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement is slowly being nullified as well since the United States proposed the so-called Israel Anti-Boycott Act, which would outlaw the boycotting of companies doing business in Israeli settlements in Palestine, is gaining support.

Just two days ago, in an interview with the Jewish Insider, Democratic Senator Cory Booker revealed that he strongly supports the act.