{"id":100293,"date":"2017-10-16T12:02:54","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T11:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=100293"},"modified":"2017-10-23T19:29:56","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T18:29:56","slug":"an-al-jazeera-reporter-went-undercover-with-the-pro-israel-lobby-in-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/10\/an-al-jazeera-reporter-went-undercover-with-the-pro-israel-lobby-in-washington\/","title":{"rendered":"An Al Jazeera Reporter Went Undercover with the Pro-Israel Lobby in Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

An employee of the Qatar-based news network and TV channel Al Jazeera is seen at the channel\u2019s Jerusalem office on July 31, 2017. Photo: Ahmad Gharabli\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

9 Oct 2017 – <\/em>Britain\u2019s broadcasting regulator today concluded that Al Jazeera did not violate any rules in its controversial undercover investigation exposing the Israeli embassy\u2019s campaign to target British citizens critical of Israel, a campaign that included attempts to destroy the careers of pro-Palestinian British politicians.<\/p>\n

The move by the communications regulator, known as Ofcom, clears the way for a follow-up documentary focused on Israeli influence in the U.S., the existence of which has previously been suspected<\/a> but had yet to be made public. Clayton Swisher, director of investigative journalism for Al Jazeera Media Network, confirmed it to The Intercept on Monday. The goal of the British complaint may partly have been to delay publication of the follow-up American version, he said.\u00a0\u201cAt the very same time [as the London investigation] \u2014 and we can safely reveal this now \u2014 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The four-part series, \u201cThe Lobby,\u201d<\/a> dug into the Israeli embassy in London, as well as several other pro-Israel lobby groups, and their campaign to \u201ctake down\u201d British Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan.<\/p>\n

The investigation led to the resignation of a top Israeli official in London, as well as a high-profile complaint that Al Jazeera had broken broadcasting regulations in the United Kingdom. One of the complaints charged the investigation with anti-Semitism, but the government board ruled that imputing such a motive to a film critical of Israel would be akin to calling a series on gang violence racist.<\/p>\n

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn wrote to<\/a> Prime Minister Theresa May in January, calling for a probe into Shai Masot, the Israeli embassy\u2019s then-senior political officer. An undercover reporter secretly filmed Masot discussing a plot to \u201ctake down\u201d Duncan, which Corbyn described as \u201cimproper interference in this country\u2019s democratic process.\u201d Masot resigned shortly after the recordings were made public.<\/p>\n

Swisher, whose writing has also appeared in The Intercept, said that his outlet turned over reams of unpublished audio and video files to demonstrate that its report had not been unfairly edited. \u201cFor several months, we were put through the equivalent of an editorial colonoscopy. Turning over emails, different edits, all the raw footage, photos, cellphone messages \u2014 basically anything the investigators found of interest,\u201d said Swisher.<\/p>\n

Ofcom received complaints<\/a> about the series from pro-Israel British activists and a former Israel embassy employee. It dismissed all charges, which included anti-Semitism, bias, unfair editing, and the infringement of privacy.<\/p>\n

It ruled that as per the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance\u2019s guidance: \u201cIt did not consider that such a critical analysis of the actions of a foreign state constituted anti-Semitism, particularly as the overall focus of the programme was to examine whether the State of Israel was acting in a manner that would be expected of other democratic nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

All other charges were also dismissed as Ofcom found the program maintained due impartiality, the footage was not edited in a way which resulted in unfairness, and there was no unwarranted infringement of privacy.<\/p>\n

In January, pro-Israel activists in the\u00a0U.S. began to suspect they\u2019d been infiltrated when footage in America appeared in the British version of \u201cThe Lobby.\u201d\u00a0Tablet began piecing things together\u00a0<\/a>and identified the likely hoaxer as a highfalutin British intern who\u2019d dissonantly been renting a fully furnished $5,460\u00a0a month corporate apartment.<\/p>\n

Swisher wouldn\u2019t confirm or deny the identity of the American operative, but he said that with the American political class focused on foreign intervention in the affairs of the United States, now is an appropriate time to run the follow-up investigation. \u201cI hear the U.S. is having problems with foreign interference these days, so I see no reason why the U.S. establishment won\u2019t take our findings in America as seriously as the British did, unless of course Israel is somehow off limits from that debate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

A\u00edda Ch\u00e1vez<\/a><\/em> – <\/em>aida.chavez@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/u>Ryan Grim<\/a><\/em> – ryan.grim@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theintercept.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

9 Oct 2017 – The four-part series, \u201cThe Lobby,\u201d dug into the Israeli embassy in London, as well as several other pro-Israel lobby groups, and their campaign to \u201ctake down\u201d British Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan. The investigation led to the resignation of a top Israeli official in London, as well as a high-profile complaint that Al Jazeera had broken broadcasting regulations in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,62,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglo-america","category-media","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}