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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">The Israeli Plot to Assassinate
Al-Jazeera: A New Front in the War on Palestinian Journalism</h1>
November 19, 2025</div>
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<div><font size="1">The law, which was dubbed the
\u2018Al-Jazeera Law\u2019, passed on Monday with a majority of
70 votes to 10. (Image: Palestine Chronicle)
</font>
<p><strong>By <a
href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/robert-inlakesh"
title="Display all articles for Robert Inlakesh"
moz-do-not-send="true">Robert Inlakesh</a></strong></p>
<blockquote>
<h3>The potential negative implications are enormous
and will impact not-for-profit organizations, media
networks, and even individuals who report honestly
on Palestine.</h3>
</blockquote>
<p>From banning the network from reporting inside
occupied Palestine, to using their military to
assassinate their journalists and cameramen, to now
targeting Al-Jazeera as a means of bringing down
pro-Palestinian media outlets in the US. The Israel
Lobby is hatching a campaign to destroy the media
outlet by leveling fact-free accusations against it.</p>
<p>This Monday, an article was published by the
Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies
(FDD), a pro-war think tank that was instrumental in
arguing the case for the illegal invasion of Iraq. In
the piece, it was argued that Al-Jazeera collaborates
with Hamas beyond the confines of journalism.</p>
<p>The arguments laid out in the FDD\u2019s \u201cDoes Al Jazeera
Collaborate With Hamas?\u201d piece hinge upon a number of
claims that lack any credible evidence. This includes
pointing to fabricated documents, released by the
Israeli military, that accused reputable journalists
in Gaza of being combatants of Hamas and Palestinian
Islamic Jihad (PIJ), many of whom have now been
murdered, based on these faulty accusations.</p>
<p>The FDD article also attempts to depict Al-Jazeera
Arabic as having broadcast speeches and videos on
October 7, 2023, as crossing the line into working
with Hamas and, therefore, implicating the network in
the attack itself. Evidently, reporting on such an
event and airing original content from various groups
is not something exclusive to Al-Jazeera.</p>
<p>Regardless of the merits of such arguments, the
takeaway is that the Qatari-funded network is being
targeted and implicated in \u201cterrorism\u201d. This is not a
tactic that is exclusively used by the FDD, but also a
large range of employees of Washington-based
pro-Israel think tanks, who are routinely spreading
propaganda against Qatar, the Muslim Brotherhood, and
Al-Jazeera.</p>
<p>This also happens to be in line with a wider Israeli
propaganda campaign that was launched earlier this
year and is also being supported by the likes of the
United Arab Emirates. It hinges upon a strategy that
entails a legislative push to criminalize the Muslim
Brotherhood as a means of cracking down on a broader
set of targets that are being linked to the Islamic
organization.</p>
<p>Back in July, a bill called H.R. 4397, the \u201cMuslim
Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2025\u201d, was
introduced to Congress. Lobbying in the bill\u2019s favor
were the FDD and Christians United for Israel (CUFI).</p>
<p>During that same month, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu began his marathon on conservative
American podcasts, attempting to bolster his image.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
began financing propaganda tours for some 16
right-wing influencers, aiming, according to Haaretz
News, to bring 550 conservative figures to Israel by
the end of the year.</p>
<h4><strong>The Threat to Al-Jazeera Impacts Everyone</strong></h4>
<p>As of now, there are a range of pro-Israeli
influencers and others who self-style themselves as
promoters of \u201cpeace\u201d and opponents of Hamas, who are
spreading constant fear-mongering about Muslims in the
West.</p>
<p>Take Laura Loomer, who has access to the White House
and is often described as influential on the Trump
administration. Loomer herself is virulently
anti-Muslim, constantly talking about terrorist
attacks, and specifically goes after both Qatar and
the Muslim Brotherhood.</p>
<p>Upon the historic victory of New York City Mayor,
Zohran Mamdani, Loomer made the following post on X
(formerly Twitter):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>\u201cTrump could easily dismantle Mamdani and his
entire Islamic network by denigrating the Muslim
Brotherhood as a terrorist organization and filing
charges against the Islamic groups and 501 (c) (3 )s
that funded Mamdani\u2019s campaign. The Holy Land
Foundation terrorism trial contains troves of
evidence for prosecution. Why hasn\u2019t this been done
yet? TAKE AWAY THE 501c3 STATUS OF THE 4 LETTER
ISLAMIC TERROR \u201cNON PROFITS\u201d THAT FUND MAMDANI. WHY
HAS THIS NOT HAPPENED YET?\u201d</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this post, the anti-Islam commentator outlines a
strategy for taking out the Council on
American\u2013Islamic Relations (CAIR) and other
not-for-profits in the United States, specifically
those who backed Mamdani. As a means of doing so, she
argues in favor of repeating the injustice carried out
against the Holy Land Foundation, once the largest
Muslim charity in the US.</p>
<p>Human Rights Watch outlined the case against the Holy
Land Foundation as follows:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>\u201cThe defendants in the Holy Land Foundation (HLF)
case were never accused of directly funding
terrorist organizations or terrorist attacks, nor
were the Palestinian charities they funded accused
of doing so. Nonetheless, they were prosecuted under
US \u201cmaterial support\u201d legislation on the notion that
the social programs they financed help win the
\u201chearts and minds\u201d of Palestinian people for Hamas.
The U.S. government\u2019s case was based in part on
evidence obtained through FISA wiretaps as well as
evidence obtained via questionable foreign
intelligence from Israel, faulty translations, and
accusations by anonymous Israeli military witnesses
who claimed that charities receiving funding from
the HLF \u2013 and from the U.S. government itself \u2013 were
involved in \u2018terrorism\u2019.\u201d</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, the strategy being used here is to
vilify the Muslims through using Islamophobic
fear-mongering tactics, similar to those used to
justify the \u201cWar on Terror\u201d during the early 2000s, as
a means of justifying a legislative move against the
Muslim Brotherhood. From there, media outlets like
Al-Jazeera and countless not-for-profits across the US
can be construed as affiliates of Hamas, or simply the
Muslim Brotherhood, therefore making them a target for
a government crackdown.</p>
<p>Making this even more concerning is that the US
government, appearing to carry out the agenda set
forth through the Heritage Foundation think-tank\u2019s
\u201cProject Esther\u201d document, has been pursuing a mass
censorship campaign already.</p>
<p>Take the infamous case of the detention by ICE of
former Columbia University student, Mahmoud Khalil.
The justification provided by the US government for
the totally unconstitutional move to detain and
attempt to deport him was that he supported Hamas.</p>
<p>Yet, when the likes of the Israeli Lobby connected
Canary Mission attempted to demonstrate their alleged
support for Hamas, all they could point to was that he
was present when chants were made that had also been
previously stated by Hamas officials.</p>
<p>Despite the clearly flimsy case against Khalil, he
was still pursued and experienced a life-changing
crackdown on his \u201cfree speech\u201d rights. Similarly, any
case against Al-Jazeera is likely to follow a
similarly evidence-free line of argument. It is also
not only about Al-Jazeera; the reason for its
targeting is its coverage of the genocide in Gaza.</p>
<p>Alongside this possible threat to ban the outlet
entirely, there are pressures to force Al-Jazeera to
bow down and change the trajectory of its
Palestine-related coverage by siding against Hamas, or
at least distancing itself from them. If this were to
occur, it would ruin both the network and lose a
significant base of its audience, as well as working
to inflict a knock-on effect that could intimidate
other outlets.</p>
<p>While countless arguments can be made about
Al-Jazeera\u2019s coverage as a state-funded media outlet,
what agendas it pursues in favor of Qatar and
disagreements with its framing of various issues, this
push against it is a question of free speech.</p>
<p>This is to say that you can be in opposition to
Al-Jazeera\u2019s editorial line, while loathing the Muslim
Brotherhood and/or Hamas, yet realize the agenda at
play here. The potential negative implications are
enormous and will impact not-for-profit organizations,
media networks, and even individuals who report
honestly on Palestine.</p>
<p><em>(The Palestine Chronicle)</em></p>
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<p><br>
</p>
<p><span><em>\u2013 Robert Inlakesh is a journalist,
writer, and documentary filmmaker. He focuses on
the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He
contributed this article to The Palestine
Chronicle. </em></span></p>
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