The Israel Files: Wikileaks Docs Show Top Hollywood Producers Working with Israel to Defend its War Crimes
The Israel Files is a new MintPress series exploring and highlighting the many revelations about the Israeli occupation of Palestine that WikiLeaks documents disclosed. It hopes to shed light on many of the most important and underreported revelations the publishing group exposed.
As Israel was launching a deadly assault on Gaza, killing thousands of civilians and displacing more than 100,000 people, many of America’s top TV, music and film producers were organizing to protect the apartheid state’s reputation from widespread international condemnation.
Together, the Sony Archive – a cache of emails published by Wikileaks – prove that influential entertainment magnates attempted to whitewash Israeli crimes and present the situation as defending itself from an impending “genocide”, liaised with Israeli military and government officials in order to coordinate their message, attempted to cancel those who spoke out against the injustice, and put financial and social pressure on institutions who hosted artists criticizing the apartheid government’s actions.
As Israel attacks, Hollywood plays defense
“[Israel’s message] Must be repeated ad infinitum until the people get it,” wrote Hollywood lawyer and producer Glenn D. Feig, in an email chain to many of Tinsel Town’s most influential executives. This was in response to the unprovoked 2014 Israeli attack on Gaza, one of the bloodiest chapters in over half a century of occupation.
Named “Operation Protective Edge”, the Israeli military engaged in seven weeks of near-constant bombing of the densely populated coastal strip. According to the United Nations, over 2,000 people were killed – a quarter of them children. 18,000 houses were destroyed, leaving more than 100,000 people homeless.
The Israeli military deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure, knocking out Gaza’s only power plant and shutting down its water treatment plants, leading to economic, social and ecological devastation in an area Human Rights Watch has labeled the world’s largest “open air prison”.
Many in Hollywood expressed deep concern. “We must make sure that never happens again”, insisted producer Ron Rotholz. Rotholz, however, was not referring to the death and destruction Israel imposed on Gaza, but to the fact that many of the entertainment world’s biggest stars, including celebrity power couple, Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, had condemned Israel’s actions, labeling them tantamount to “genocide.”
“Change must start from the top down. It should be unheard of and unacceptable for any Academy Award-winning actor to call the legitimate armed defense of one’s territory…genocide” he continued, worrying that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement – a worldwide campaign to put economic pressure on Israel in an attempt to push it to meet its obligations under international law – was gaining steam in the world of the arts. Israel’s legitimacy rests upon political and military support from the U.S. Therefore, maintaining support among the American public is crucial to the long term viability of its settler colonial project.
Rotholz then attempted to organize a silent, worldwide pressure campaign on arts venues and organizations, including the Motion Picture Academy in Hollywood and the Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals, to stamp out BDS, writing,
What we can do is urge the leaders of major film, TV and theater organisations, festivals, markets and potentially the heads of media corporations to issue official statements condemning any form of cultural or economic boycotts against Israel.”
Others agreed that they had to develop a “game plan” for opposing BDS.
Of course, when influential producers, festivals and heads of media corporations release statements condemning a certain position or practice, this is, in effect, a threat: stop taking these positions or suffer the professional consequences.
Loach on the brain
The Sony emails also reveal a near obsession with British filmmaker and social activist Ken Loach. The celebrated director’s film, “Jimmy’s Hall” had recently been nominated for the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and in the wake of Israel’s assault on Gaza, he had publicly called for a cultural and sporting boycott of the apartheid state.
This outraged many in Hollywood. Ryan Kavanaugh, CEO of Relativity Media, a film producing company responsible for financing more than 200 movies, demanded that not only Loach, but the whole Cannes Film Festival be cancelled. “The studios and networks alike must join together and boycott cannes,” he wrote. “If we don’t we are sending a message that another holocaust is fine with Hollywood as long as it is business as usual,” he added, framing the Israeli attack on a near-defenseless civilian population as a Palestinian genocide of Israelis.
Others agreed. Ben Silverman, former co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios and producer of shows such as “The Office”, “The Biggest Loser” and Ugly Betty” said that the industry should “boycott the boycotters”. Rotholz, meanwhile, wrote to the head of the Cannes Film Festival, demanding that he take action against Loach for his comments. “There is no place for [Loach’s intolerant and hateful remarks] in the global world of film and filmmakers”, he insisted.
Others came up with another way of countering Loach. “How about we all club together and make a documentary about the rise of new anti-Semitism in Europe,” suggested British film producer Cassian Elwes, adding,
I would be willing to contribute and put time into it if others here would do the same. Between all of us I’m sure we could figure out a way to distribute it and get it into places like Cannes so we could have a response to guys like Loach. Perhaps we try to use it to rally support from film communities in Europe to help us distribute it there”.
“I love it,” replied publishing oligarch Jason Binn, “And I will promote it in a major way to all 3.2 million magazine subscribers across all on and offline platforms. I can even leverage Gilt’s 9 million members,” he added, referring to the shopping and lifestyle website he managed.
“Me too,” said Amy Pascal, the Co-Chairperson of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Meanwhile, Mark Canton, producer of movies such as “Get Carter”, “Immortals” and “300” busied himself drumming up more Hollywood support for the idea. “Adding Carmi Zlotnik to this growing list”, he replied, referencing the TV executive.
This whole correspondence was from an email chain of dozens of high-powered entertainment figures entitled “Happy New Year. Too bad Germany is now a no travel zone for Jews,” which ludicrously claimed that the European country had become a Muslim-controlled Islamic theocracy.
“It is horrible. But in the end, it is no surprise, because apologists for Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians will go to any length to prevent the people opposing them,” Mr. Loach said, when asked for comment by MintPress. “We shouldn’t underestimate the hatred of those who cannot tolerate the idea that Palestinians have human rights, that Palestine is a state; and they have their country,” he added.
Shutting down free expression
The pro-Israel group in Hollywood also put serious pressure on American institutions to crack down on support for Palestinian human rights. Silverman revealed that he had written to Peter Gelb, the general manager of the New York Metropolitan Opera, in an effort to shut down a performance of “The Death of Klinghoffer”, an opera that tells the story of the 1985 hijacking of an airliner by the Palestine Liberation Front. “I suggest though that we each call him on Monday at his office at the Met and your point about the Met’s donors’ leverage is important,” he advised the other entertainment oligarchs, thereby shining a light on how the powerful move in secret to silence speech they do not approve of, and how they use their financial clout to coerce and strong-arm others into toeing their line. A lot of pressure was necessary, because, as Silverman explained, “as members of the artistic community it is very hard to be pro free speech only some of the time and not all of the time.”
Ultimately, the performance did go ahead, but not without a large and coordinated protest both inside and outside the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts, as individuals attempted to shut down the performance, claiming it was “antisemitic.”
Liaising with the IDF
The email conversations of many of Hollywood’s most influential individuals show that they believe they are on the verge of a worldwide extermination of Jews, and that Israel – and themselves – are the only things standing in the way of this impending fate. As Kavanaugh wrote, “It’s our job to keep another Holocaust from happening. Many of you may think that can’t happen, that is extreme…[but] If you pull newspapers from pre Holocaust it seems eerily close to our world today.”
[Ron: The Holocaust didn’t happen. It’s a HOLOHOAX. See eg: https://www.scribd.com/document/559529210/Holocaust-Deprogramming-Course
and:
https://www.scribd.com/document/641944917/Untitled ].
Rotholz was of a similar opinion, writing that,
It is imperative that leading figures in the LA/NY film, tv, media, digital and theater communities who support a strong and potent Jewish state develop a strategy for liasing with colleagues in London and Europe and also with the creative communities here and in Europe to promote and explain the Israeli cause.”
The Sony Archive emails also show that, not only were Tinsel Town’s top brass coordinating strategies to silence critics of Israel, but that they were also closely liaising with the Israeli government and its military.
Producer George Perez, for example, messaged his colleagues in the chain email to introduce them to an IDF colonel, stating (emphasis added),
Everyone please use this “reply all” list from here on. I have included Kobi Marom a retired commander in the Israeli army. Kobi was kind enough to give my family and I a jeep tour of the Golan Heights during our June trip to Israel. He also took us to visit an army base on the border of Israel and Syria, an area which has been in the news lately. Hard to imagine that the “kids” that we met at the base are most likely engaged in combat with our enemies.”
Seeing as the large majority of those who died were Palestinian civilians, it is unclear whether he considers all Palestinians or just Hamas as enemies of Hollywood. Perez also noted that “Kobi works closely with the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces (FIDF) who are in need of donations,” and advised that Hollywood needed to “dig deep to help in the constant struggle for the survival of Israel.”
The group also attempted to recruit Israeli-American movie star Natalie Portman into their ranks. But the Academy Award-winning actress appeared more concerned that her personal details were being shared. “How did I get on this list? Also Ryan Seacrest?” she replied, before directly addressing Kavanaugh, writing,
[C]an you please remove me from this email list? you should not be copying me publicly so that 20 people i don’t know have my personal info. i will have to change my email address now. thank you”.
While Portman’s open contempt for the group of rabidly pro-Israel producers is notable, more so was Kavanaugh’s response, which revealed how close the connection between the Israeli state and Hollywood is. Kavanaugh wrote back,
Sorry. You are right Jews being slaughtered for their beliefs and Cannes members calling for the boycott of anything Israel or Jewish is much much less important than your email address being shared with 20 of our peers who are trying to make a difference. my deepest apologies…I had lunch yesterday with Israel consulate general who brought J street up to me. He was so perplexed confused and concerned when he heard you supported them that he begged me to connect you two.”
Thus, the leaked emails prove beyond any doubt that both the Israeli government and the IDF liaise with some of the most powerful people in the entertainment world in order to push forward a pro-Israel message and stamp out any deviance from that line.
Hip hoppers for apartheid
While their efforts at recruiting Portman fell flat, one star who responded enthusiastically was hip hop mega producer Russell Simmons, founder of Def Jam Records and the brother of Joseph “Rev.Run” Simmons, one third of Run DMC. Simmons has recently been the subject of controversy, after 20 women have come forward, charging him with rape or other sexual misconduct.
The emails reveal that promoting engagement with Israel within the African-American community is one of Simmons’ primary interests. When asked if he had any ideas how to improve Israel’s image, he said, “Simple messaging from non Jews specifically from Muslims promoting peace and Israel’s right to exist…We have resources and the desire to win rather than lose the hearts of young Muslims and Jews.”
What these resources were, he explained,
We have hundreds of collaboration programs between Imams Rabbis and their congregations We have many respected imams who would join former chief rabbi metzker (spelling) rabbi Schneier and non Jews in promoting the Saudi peace plan”.
“Through this campaign we will be helping Israel,” he concluded.
Turning the tide
Despite the best efforts of Simmons and others, however, American public opinion has, in recent years, begun to turn against Israel. Young Americans, in particular, are more likely to sympathize with the plight of the Palestinian people and support an independent Palestinian state.
Much of this has to do with the rise of social media and a new generation of activists breaking through the barriers to highlight injustices being carried out by their government. Today, Americans are more likely to see first-hand, unvarnished accounts of Israeli brutality on social media platforms. As veteran political scientist Noam Chomsky explained to MintPress last year, “The veil of intense propaganda [is] being lifted slowly, [and] crucial U.S. participation in Israeli crimes is also coming more clearly into view. With committed activism, that could have salutary effects.”
Nevertheless, U.S. government support for Israel continues to rise. Between 2019 and 2028, it is scheduled to send nearly $40 billion in aid, almost all of it military, meaning that American taxpayer funds are contributing to Palestinian oppression and displacement.
Loach was even more upbeat on the issue, telling us that those who stand in the way of justice will be judged poorly by history, stating,
The denial of human rights of the Palestinians is one of the great crimes [of the modern era] and Palestinian rights is one of the great causes of last century and this century. We should all support the Palestinians. If you have any care for human rights, there is no question: the Palestinians have to be supported. And these people who oppose them, in the end, will fade away. Because history will show this was a terrible crime. Palestinians suffered ethnic cleansing of their homeland. We have to support the Palestinians, full stop.”
Those people, however, have no intention of “fading away”, and continue to organize on behalf of the Israeli government. Thanks to the leaked documents, those who care about Palestinian self-determination have a clearer understanding of how they operate.
Feature photo | Illustration by MintPress News
Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams.
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ADL Offshoot’s Hidden Influence in US Schools: Project Shema Exposed
Amid heavy opposition, Project Shema’s training at a Massachusetts school raises alarms over the growing presence of pro-Israel lobby groups in shaping American education policy.
On September 3, Massachusetts’ Northampton High School (N.H.S.) was shut down – dramatically, yet without much fanfare. All 900 pupils were given the day off, with every teacher conversely cooped up inside. Meanwhile, swarms of armed police patrolled the grounds. Their purpose was to deter any potential commotion from concerned parents or students who might attend to voice their discontent. N.H.S. was hosting a highly controversial staff instruction delivered by the “training and support organization” Project Shema.
Days earlier, local outlet The Daily Hampshire Gazette reported on how over 500 community members had signed a petition demanding N.H.S. scrap the “professional development training” delivered by Project Shema, which purportedly focuses on “addressing antisemitism” and instead “plan training on anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism.” The petition was launched “by parents of current students and current high school staff” due to their concerns that “Project Shema conflates antisemitic comments with criticism of Israel and support for Palestine.”
They charged that Project Shema closely aligns with the noxious Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a prominent and extremely well-funded Zionist lobby organization. With a sordid history of infiltrating and destabilizing social justice movements, it preaches the perverse gospel that any condemnation of Israel’s genocidal actions against the Palestinian people equates to antisemitism. The petition’s authors allege Project Shema employs similarly disreputable tactics and rhetoric to insulate the Zionist entity’s neverending erasure of Palestine from scrutiny. They further stated:
By using Project Shema as a training resource, N.H.S. will be endorsing a narrative that the colonization, ethnic cleansing, and illegal occupation of Palestinian land and people is legitimate. It will bolster harmful narratives that Palestinians, and Arabs in general, are irrational and inherently antisemitic. N.H.S. will be aligning with those who claim that Israel’s genocide of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza constitutes ‘self defense.’”
For its part, Project Shema contends, “we do not offer education or advocacy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” but simply “help upstanders understand Jewish identity and nurture empathy for Jewish traumas and lived experiences.” Publicly, its operatives and supporters repudiate any connection with the ADL or the League’s disingenuous crusade to neutralize anti-Zionist perspectives under the bogus aegis of combating antisemitism. Yet, as we shall see, there are unambiguous grounds to believe these denials to be brazen lies.
Furthermore, there is significant cause for concern that the N.H.S. training day is no one-off but just the beginning of a wider rollout across all U.S. public schools. If that comes to pass, Project Shema will effectively infiltrate countless classrooms across the nation and, in turn, the hearts and minds of millions of unsuspecting American teenagers – one of the Western world’s fastest-growing anti-Zionist constituencies, among them many Jews. Are we witnessing the latest chapter in Israel’s ceaseless overseas censorship crusade erupt?
Israel's Shadow Over Free Speech: The Truth Behind the TikTok Ban Bill
Kit Klarenberg uncovers how Israel's grip on U.S. policy threatens online expression with the TikTok ban bill, challenging the narrative of Chinese control and highlighting the real danger to free speech.
MintPress News·Kit Klarenberg·Mar 29
‘Hate-Filled Statements’
On September 6, Rabbi David Seidenberg, a self-described “progressive,” authored a guest column for The Daily Hampshire Gazette, offering a scathing rebuttal to the outlet’s reporting on the community petition. He firmly declared anyone claiming Project Shema was at all affiliated with the ADL had “outright lied.” He added that it was “sad” they and those promoting the petition “couldn’t do the few minutes of internet research it would have taken them to find this out”:
Project Shema explicitly rejects the idea that all anti-Zionism is antisemitism, which is the exact opposite of pronouncements by the [ADL]. In fact, Project Shema was founded by progressive Jews to be an alternative to the ADL – exactly the opposite of the claims made by the petition. Project Shema teaches that narratives about antisemitism must not be used to close off feelings of empathy with Palestinians and deny the struggle for justice for Palestinians.”
This would be all well and good – but even the most rudimentary online digging reveals there are, in fact, deeply intimate bonds between Project Shema, its founders and operatives, and the ADL. For one, the pair are formally partnered in many U.S. states, regularly offering joint training programs across the country, where attendees are taught “how to combat anti-Jewish hate.” The organizations have also co-hosted numerous events on topics ranging from antisemitism to “the intersectionality and experiences of LGBTQ+ Jews and Jews of Color.”
Moreover, Project Shema’s founder and training facilitator, Oren Jacobson, has appeared prominently at multiple ADL-led events. In March, he and his organization’s vice president of partnerships, Kiyomi Kowalski, were the main attractions at the League’s annual Never Is Now conference. Jacobson was a lead speaker alongside ADL’s director of Israel affairs, Shaya Lerner, and Karen Milner, a senior figure within several Zionist lobby outfits, at a breakout session – What Does it Really Mean? The Mainstreaming of Anti-Zionism and Anti-Israel Slogans Post-10/7.
During the talk, the trio discussed the “problematic” rise of “anti-Israel” sentiment in “public discourse” following October 7, 2023, including protests, “accusations of Israeli ‘genocide’” and “hate-filled statements about Zionism,” such as the slogan “from the river to the sea.” These are all vile slanders and distortions the ADL has aggressively peddled since Israel’s bloody assault on Gaza began to stifle, if not outright criminalize, Palestine solidarity activists and movements.
Placing the term genocide in inverted commas further underlines the ADL’s malign agenda and Project Shema’s by extension. There is little room for doubt that, based on historical legal precedents, the Israeli Defense Force’s indiscriminate mass murder in Gaza and untold statements and declarations by Israeli political and military chiefs are all indicative of genocidal intent against the Palestinian people. Moreover, International Criminal Court prosecutors are actively seeking arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his Security Minister Yoav Gallant for “crimes against humanity.”
Likewise, “from the river to the sea” is not a murderous antisemitic chant but a clarion call for an end to the West’s settler colonial project in Palestine and a return to harmonious coexistence between Christians, Jews and Muslims there. Followers of all three religions cohabited the land comprising modern-day Israel in peace for millennia. The ADL has long been at the forefront of efforts to demonize, if not outright proscribe, this stirring slogan, including on social media.
Fraudulently conflating legitimate criticism of Israel and anti-Zionism with antisemitism while libeling proponents of those positions as rabid Jew-haters is the ADL’s core raison d’etre. Despite Rabbi Seidenberg’s claims to the contrary, it is indisputably clear Project Shema chief Jacobson shares this objective. In November 2021, he wrote an op-ed for Detroit Jewish News, unsubtly headlined To My Fellow Progressives: Anti-Zionism is Antisemitism. In it, Jacobson proclaimed:
For the average Jew, Zionism has become simply the idea that Israel has the right to exist, rather than an embrace of the policies of its government…That’s why when people attack Zionists, we hear ‘Jews’.”
‘Enraged and Disgusted’
Furthering that fallacious proposition, along the way, Jacobson repeatedly claimed that “80 – 90% of Jews” believe Tel Aviv has a “right to exist.” This mephitic fiction is a central component of “liberal” Zionism, frequently promulgated by Israel’s defenders. After all, if Jews globally support Israel nigh-unanimously, then Israel can claim to represent them, and therefore be the world’s Jewish state. In turn, any condemnation of Israel, by definition, becomes antisemitic.
Any suggestion the vast proportion of international Jewry supports Zionism unconditionally is amply belied by a 2021 survey conducted by the Jewish Electorate Institute. The polling found that 25% of Jews agreed “Israel is an apartheid state,” while 34% believed “Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is similar to racism in the U.S.,” And 22% agreed “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians.” Most strikingly, perhaps, less than a third of respondents deemed these perspectives antisemitic. Those figures may well be even higher today.
Yet Project Shema representatives at the September 3 N.H.S. training repeated the falsehood that “the majority of Jews believe Israel has a right to exist.” The organization’s representatives also endlessly sought to conflate the Jewish people with the state of Israel while framing opposition to Tel Aviv’s actions and political ideology as antisemitic. The phrase “from the river to the sea” was also, predictably, declared to be antisemitic.
In other words, the training’s content was a manipulative patchwork of ADL-endorsed liberal Zionist talking points, presented in a more benign, democratic light than that organization typically would. For example, MintPress News has been informed that Project Shema’s trainers paid lip service to the right of concerned citizens to condemn the actions of the Israeli government – but not the ideology or project of Zionism, which, of course, undergirds the Israeli state, and its slow-motion genocide of the Palestinians in the first place.
Such dishonesty was hardwired into the training before it was even convened. One N.H.S. student’s parent who attended Project Shema’s training told MintPress News, “We were told by people who organized this that it would not include anything about Zionism, Palestine, or Israel when in truth this content was all central to the presentation.” This pledge was reiterated when the talk started on September 3. Before long, though, attendees were being lectured about Israel’s political and cultural virtues.
An anonymous N.H.S. teacher who attended Project Shema’s event bitterly informs this outlet, “I’m just so enraged and disgusted this is assigned training for every public educator in the city. It’s such a harmful choice that could ripple to every child in this area.” A Jewish school staffer suggests, “It was clearly assumed there were no Arabs or Palestinians in the audience.” A Palestinian resident of Northampton fears, “We will never be safe if these trainings and curriculums are being used in schools.”
In a statement provided to MintPress News, Jewish Voice for Peace branded Project Shema’s training a “dangerous” attempt “to silence dissent towards the ongoing daily murder, starvation, and displacement of Palestinians.” The anti-Zionist organization added that the talk “alienated many parents, staff members, and children within the community and mislabelled them as antisemitic” – “a purposeful way of silencing dissent, which is the most dangerous part of this training.”
‘Generational Problem’
The mainstream media has remained entirely silent on the fracas caused by Project Shema’s arrival in Northampton. However, we can surely expect similar local controversies to explode in the months ahead. For one, as mentioned, the organization is already embedded with the ADL in many U.S. states, and Project Shema openly advertises “campus and school” training programs. But the circumstances – one might call it subterfuge – by which the organization infiltrated N.H.S. may also be instructive.
The Daily Hampshire Gazette reports that Project Shema was invited into N.H.S. by its superintendent after a letter was sent to the school in May by concerned Jewish parents, who claimed their children were being subject to antisemitic “bullying and harassment” within and outside of the school. As such, they demanded school authorities summon Project Shema to challenge this purported climate of widespread, rabid hatred.
It is self-evidently of the utmost urgency to condemn and challenge any antisemitic abuse, particularly if the victims are vulnerable Jewish youth. Yet, concrete instances of the phenomenon at N.H.S. cited in the letter were lacking. Pupils “using ‘Zionist’ and ‘Jew’ interchangeably” and indeterminate “hateful stuff posted on social media” were two reported examples. Another was the distribution of a flier that “contained statistics on the violence in Gaza, but framed them using antisemitic rhetoric.”
The nature of that “antisemitic rhetoric” is left to our imaginations. Nonetheless, if we use definitions of antisemitism evangelized by the ADL and Project Shema as a guide – as teachers and pupils at N.H.S. may now be compelled to – this could mean almost anything critical of Israel or Zionism. Perhaps the leaflet contained references to “from the river to the sea”?
ADL Data on Rise of Anti-Semitic Incidents Doesn’t Add Up
A new report from the ADL claims that anti-Semitic incidents across the US have skyrocketed by more than 400%. But as Alan Macleod reveals, the numbers do not add up unless one equates opposition to Israel's bombardment of Gaza with hatred of Jews.
MintPress News·Alan Macleod·Nov 11, 2023
By perpetuating false claims of antisemitism and antisemitic abuse on U.S. university campuses, the ADL has successfully bullied numerous higher education facilities to implement policies cracking down on Palestine solidarity. For instance, the prestigious NYU has introduced new guidelines making “Zionists” and “Zionism” protected categories, effectively outlawing criticism of Israel and Israelis by their students as harassment. There is no question of Palestinians, let alone anti-Zionists of every extraction, being extended the same privilege.
Elsewhere, as MintPress News has exposed, the ADL and other Zionist lobby groups were instrumental in the U.S. government seizing control over TikTok in March. In November 2023, the League’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, was caught on tape despairing how public sympathy for the Palestinian struggle was surging and expressing disgust at how terms such as “Zionist entity” were proliferating. He singled out a specific social media app and demographic as responsible:
“We have a major, major, major generational problem…all the polling I’ve seen, ADL’s polling, ICC’s polling, independent polling, suggests the issue of US support for Israel is not left and right, it is young and old…We really have a TikTok problem, a Gen Z problem.”
No doubt emboldened by its success, it appears U.S. public schools are the next frontier in the ADL’s crusade to fix the “major generational problem” of young Americans embracing the Palestinian cause and exposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Operating as its cutout, Project Shema can extol the League’s perverse teachings under a liberal, “progressive” chimera. The organization’s N.H.S. training going ahead despite such strident opposition from parents and students alike shows the fight is well and truly on.
Feature photo | Illustration by MintPress News
Kit Klarenberg is an investigative journalist and MintPress News contributor exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics and perceptions. His work has previously appeared in The Cradle, Declassified UK, and Grayzone. Follow him on Twitter @KitKlarenberg.
The True History of How Hamas Was Created
Claims that Israel created Hamas oversimplify history. Robert Inlakesh debunks this myth, examining Israel’s dealings with Hamas’s precursor and revealing key misunderstandings about the group’s origins and the Palestinian liberation movement.
Following the October 7 attack, claims began to surface suggesting that Hamas, the Palestinian group behind the attack, was funded by Benjamin Netanyahu to obstruct a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority and that Hamas was, in fact, a creation of Israel. However, Israel did not create Hamas, and this notion represents an exaggerated misinterpretation of historical events. So, where did these claims originate, and is there any basis for them?
To fully understand the origins of these claims, we must look back to 1973 when Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, a Palestinian member of the Muslim Brotherhood, founded the Mujamma al-Islammiyah. This Islamic social organization aimed to promote a conservative interpretation of Sunni Islam within the Gaza Strip.
At the time, Israel maintained a direct occupation of Gaza and was actively working to suppress Palestinian resistance groups aligned with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which was engaged in armed conflict against Israel from its base in Lebanon. As the Mujamma, often referred to as the “Ikhwan” or Brotherhood, focused on building an Islamic civil society and preaching non-violence against the Israeli occupiers, it also positioned itself in opposition to secular-nationalist, socialist, and communist Palestinian factions. Israel, recognizing this divide, saw an opportunity in the Mujamma’s stance.
Israeli Opportunism
According to reports from the Washington Post at the time, Israeli occupation forces showed leniency toward Mujamma activists. Former Israeli Brigadier General Yitzhak Segev claimed that the Israeli government allocated a budget of hundreds of thousands of dollars to support some of the group’s projects. However, most of Mujamma’s funding reportedly came from the Arab Gulf States and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. In 1979, Israel formally recognized the Mujamma as an official organization, allowing it to operate freely without interference from Israeli authorities.
This evidence has frequently been cited as the basis for claims that Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya, or Hamas, was a creation of Israel. A closer examination suggests that this conclusion likely arises from a misinterpretation of historical events. The notion that Israel established, controlled, or still influences Hamas today appears to overlook the complex realities surrounding the group’s formation and development.
In reality, while the Mujamma initially operated under the influence of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, aiming to establish a Palestinian branch to Islamize society and provide essential services, the group encountered significant challenges. These obstacles eventually led to a shift in its strategy, pushing it away from the original goals it had been created to pursue. Over time, this evolution would lead to the emergence of a more militant posture, marking a departure from its earlier focus on social and religious conservatism. This transformation, driven by both internal and external pressures, set the stage for the group’s eventual transition into Hamas.
The Rise of Armed Resistance
The Mujamma found success in building a wide array of social infrastructure, including schools, mosques and libraries, and even playing a pivotal role in founding the Islamic University of Gaza. Along with establishing religious institutions, it operated medical clinics and orphanages and provided essential aid such as food and resources to those in need, garnering a strong base of supporters.
However, in the late 1970s, another organization began to take shape—Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), officially declaring its presence in 1981. Founded by Dr. Fathi Shiqaqi, PIJ drew some inspiration from the Muslim Brotherhood and was heavily influenced by Iran’s Islamic Revolution. Unlike the Mujamma’s initial non-violent approach, PIJ preached armed resistance as the solution to occupation. As the Israeli occupation intensified, culminating in the invasion of Lebanon in 1982, mass protests erupted across Gaza and the West Bank, spurred by Israel’s increasingly brutal tactics in the occupied territories.
Following the PLO’s defeat in Lebanon in 1982, during which Israel’s military actions claimed the lives of approximately 20,000 Lebanese and Palestinians and oversaw atrocities like the massacres at Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, the Palestinian resistance movement faced a significant shift. With the PLO’s fighters having fled to North Africa, many former PLO supporters turned their allegiance to Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
While the Mujamma maintained its stance that uniting Muslims and establishing a perfect Islamic society was a necessary precursor to overthrowing Israeli occupation, PIJ’s message centered on the immediate need for armed resistance. This ideological divide between the two groups led to occasional clashes, as PIJ advocated for a more militant approach to resistance, in contrast to the Mujamma’s focus on social organization and religious unity.
In the mid-1980s, under the leadership of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the Mujamma established a security apparatus known as “al-Majd.” This marked a shift in the group’s activities, as it began moving away from its purely social and religious mission towards a more militant agenda. Al-Majd was involved in smuggling weapons into Gaza, which led to the eventual arrest of Sheikh Yassin and numerous others associated with the operation.
This development signaled a significant transformation within the Mujamma, as the group started to engage in covert military activities alongside its social projects, laying the groundwork for what would later become Hamas.
Israel’s Miscalculations
In 1987, in reaction to Israel’s illegal occupation, the first Intifada erupted across the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This mass uprising, initially characterized by widespread non-violent protests, escalated tensions between Palestinians and Israeli forces. Notably, an armed clash between Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fighters and Israeli forces in Gaza’s Shujaiyeh neighborhood preceded the broader uprising, helping to grow PIJ’s following as the group continued to advocate armed resistance.
Later that same year, a significant shift occurred within the Mujamma. Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, who had previously led the group’s religious and social initiatives, along with others, concluded that the time had come to take up arms. As a result, the Mujamma transformed, and Hamas—Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah, or the Islamic Resistance Movement—was officially born. The group’s leadership embraced armed resistance, marking the beginning of Hamas as a militant and political force in the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation.
The emergence of Hamas in the late 1980s must be understood within a broader historical and political context of widespread disillusionment and shifting ideologies in the Middle East. The group, along with other Islamic resistance movements, rose during a period of profound despair and frustration among Palestinians, similar to the way various Palestinian Marxist movements, like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), had gained prominence after the downfall of Egypt’s President Gamal Abdul-Nasser and the collapse of his vision of Socialist Arab Nationalism.
In the wake of Egypt’s crushing defeat in the June 1967 Six-Day War, during which Israel launched a surprise attack, Nasser’s once-dominant ideology began to lose credibility across the Arab world. This ideological vacuum spurred the growth of alternative revolutionary movements. One such outcome was that George Habbash, who had led the Arab Nationalist Movement, formed the Marxist PFLP, which sought to pursue Palestinian liberation through leftist ideals. Similarly, Hamas emerged from the remnants of the Mujamma at a time when Islamist movements began to resonate more strongly with many Palestinians, offering both religious and armed resistance as an alternative path to achieving independence.
An ideological shift was underway within Palestine after the defeat of 1982 when Israel’s military operations in Lebanon devastated Palestinian resistance forces. In this environment of rising despair and heightened Israeli repression, a social group that had emerged as the Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood seized the opportunity to establish itself as the leading force in a new wave of Islamic resistance movements. This occurred as Israeli brutality was intensifying, and the secular leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was seen as weakened.
The suggestion that Israel created Hamas by exploiting the Mujamma’s activities in the 1970s and 1980s ignores the broader context of Palestinian resistance. This argument diminishes the group’s significance in the national liberation struggle and oversimplifies its emergence as a major force against Israeli occupation. While Hamas’s role as a political entity has been contested within Palestinian society—especially in Gaza—its armed wing enjoys widespread support for its role in resisting Israeli occupation. This support reflects the broader Palestinian desire for autonomy and the right to resist occupation, even amid internal political differences.
Despite Israeli efforts to build localized Palestinian administrative bodies—part of a broader strategy to ease the administrative burden on the occupation and undermine the influence of the PLO—their stance shifted dramatically once weapons entered the equation. Initially, groups like the Mujamma were encouraged to assist in these efforts, but the moment the group began arming itself, the Israeli authorities recognized the threat and responded accordingly. This shift illustrates how Israel’s support was conditional, aimed at weakening the PLO without anticipating the potential for armed resistance from Palestinian factions.
Israel’s miscalculation of the effects of its 1982 war in Lebanon, coupled with the belief that defeating the PLO would lead to the collapse of armed resistance, underpinned their failure to anticipate the rise of groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. This belief was articulated by then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who stated in 1982, “If you take away the Soviet Union and its chief proxy, the PLO, international terrorism would collapse.” However, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon did not lead to the disintegration of resistance but instead created space for groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine to grow and fill the void left by the PLO’s defeat.
This shift demonstrated that resistance movements adapted to the changing geopolitical landscape, with Islamist groups stepping in where leftist and secular-nationalist organizations had previously led the charge. Israel’s initial support of certain Palestinian factions, like the Mujamma, did not account for the emergence of these Islamist resistance movements, which later became powerful actors in the Palestinian struggle against occupation.
The argument that Israel’s stance on Palestinian resistance has remained consistent—simply swapping out “Iran” for “the Soviet Union” and “Hamas” for “the PLO”—underscores a continuity in Israeli rhetoric against armed resistance. This argument suggests that Hamas, like its predecessors, arose as a response to Israeli occupation and aggression, but it also points to the broader reality that Israel’s actions, particularly in suppressing various forms of Palestinian resistance, have inadvertently shaped the emergence of these groups.
However, the story does not end here. Factors such as the Oslo Accords, the waves of suicide bombings, the internal Palestinian civil war, and Israel’s role in shaping these dynamics must also be considered. Additionally, the flow of Qatari aid money into Gaza has played a significant role in the region’s complex power balance. For a deeper exploration into whether Israel actively helped create and sustain Hamas, stay tuned for parts 2 and 3 of this investigation.
Feature photo | Illustration by MintPress News
Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47
Exposed: How Israeli Spies Control Your VPN
A new report uncovers the troubling ties between top VPN services like ExpressVPN and the Israeli security state, raising alarms about how much control Israel’s Unit 8200 has over your online privacy.
An estimated 1.6 billion people rely on VPNs to carry out the most sensitive tasks online, from watching illegal videos to engaging in sexual or political activities. But few people know that a considerable chunk of that market—including three of the six most popular VPNs—is quietly operated by an Israeli-owned company with close connections to that country’s national security state, including the elite Unit 8200 and Duvdevan Units of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
Previous MintPress News investigations into Israel’s growing control over the tech industry have outlined how those units have been involved in many of Israel’s most outrageous hacking, surveillance and assassination programs, acting as spies and death squads. Unit 8200, for example, has been the source of much of the world’s most infamous spying software, including Cellebrite and Pegasus, the program used to snoop on tens of thousands of the world’s top politicians and journalists, including by Saudi Arabia, who used it to help track down and kill Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Given this context, justifiable fears arise that control over a vast VPN empire could add to Israel’s influence over the online information and security world, creating backdoors for Israeli intelligence to carry out a vast kompromat operation on users around the globe.
This investigation is part of a series highlighting and detailing the power of Israel’s growing tech industry to access and control people’s data.
Cellebrite: Israel's Good Cyber Cop is Big Tech's Backdoor to Breaching Your Privacy
Israeli digital forensics company Cellebrite has been quietly providing law enforcement agencies with the tools to retrieve data from any device for years, but they want you to know they're on the right side of the law.
MintPress News·Raul Diego·Jan 29, 2021
A Company Like No Other
Kape Technologies is a major player in the online privacy world, one of the three giants that collectively control the market. It owns many of the world’s top VPNs, including ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, ZenMate, Intego Antivirus, and a host of tech websites that promote its products. Kape brands can be seen sponsoring a wide array of public figures, such as Tucker Carlson, Angry Video Game Nerd, Drew Gooden, Lex Fridman, Cody Ko, Uncle Roger, and Ben Shapiro.
“We are living in an era of tyranny,” Shapiro says in one video endorsing the company, adding:
The Internet is at the frontier of a battle for control. When powerful interests want to push their agenda, they get big government and big tech to silence any voice that doesn’t fit the narrative. Americans are being forced to give up the very thing that makes Americans great: our freedom of speech. Well, I don’t like my voice being censored, I also don’t like being monitored by big Tech and big government, that’s why I use ExpressVPN [and] you should do the same.”
VPN stands for virtual private network and is a service that claims to protect your anonymity online. Instead of giving your information to an internet service provider, you provide it to the VPN company, who will scramble it, allowing users to get around government censorship and carry out activities online that they do not wish to be connected to themselves, such as purchasing banned products, partaking in certain activities, and communicating with others. Therefore, individuals trust VPNs to conceal their most sensitive activities.
Although it is headquartered in London and employs more than 1,000 people worldwide, Kape Technologies maintains a distinctly Israeli flavor. This begins with its owner, Teddy Sagi. Born in Tel Aviv, the tycoon, who previously spent time in prison for financial crimes, is estimated to be worth $6.4 billion, making him among the top ten richest Israelis.
Sagi has a long history of working closely with the IDF and is rumored to be extremely close to Israeli intelligence. In 2019, he donated $3 million to fund hundreds of academic scholarships for discharged Israeli soldiers. “It is a debt of honor for us and for me personally to express gratitude and appreciation that all of Israel’s citizens owe to you,” Sagi said at the Friends of the IDF Gala. He also made a point of finding jobs for former IDF soldiers in his businesses.
Furthermore, at the height of its campaign against Gaza, the billionaire very publicly gave more than a quarter-million dollars to an IDF charity helping transport soldiers to and from the front.
While in Cyprus in 2021, he was the subject of an assassination attempt that Israel accused Iran of masterminding, only fueling further speculation about his proximity to the national security state. (Iran, for its part, has denied the charges.)
Kape Technology’s connections to the Israeli security services do not end there. Indeed, the company is teeming with Israeli intelligence officials.Company co-founder and longtime CEO Koby Menachemi began his tech career as a developer for Unit 8200, while Liron Peer, the company’s current head of accounting, also served three years in the controversial military unit. Meanwhile, Menachemi’s successor as Kape CEO, Ido Erlichman, is a veteran of Unit 217, the Duvdevan Unit, an elite commando group that carries out intelligence operations and assassinations against the local Arab population.
Poacher Turned Online Gamekeepers?
Before 2018, Kape Technologies was known as Crossrider and was often considered a malware company. Crossrider was a platform that allowed its clients to monetize their software by forcing ads in front of users’ eyes. Users’ computers, both PC and Mac, had their browsers hijacked, changing their homepages to a search engine not of their choosing to generate advertising revenue for the company. Although Crossrider did not produce malware or viruses, its platform was notorious for allowing third parties to distribute such malware worldwide.
Thus, few people in the tech community were impressed when it changed its name to Kape Technologies and pivoted towards online privacy and protecting the public from unscrupulous actors. Erlichman told a local Israeli outlet that the name change and rebranding were necessary due to the “strong association to the past activities of the company.” In other words, the group had built up such a bad reputation that a complete facelift was necessary.
In 2017, Crossrider/Kape purchased its first VPN—CyberGhost—for $10 million. It then went on a shopping spree, acquiring several well-known companies, including ZenMate in 2018 for $5.5 million, Private Internet Access in 2019 for $126 million, and ExpressVPN in 2021 for a reported $936 million—by far the world’s most costly VPN acquisition to date.
It also bought a host of VPN review sites, such as vpnMentor and Wizcase – platforms that purport to supply readers with expert information about which VPN would be best for them. vpnMentor insists that this considerable conflict of interest does not affect their ratings. “Everything we do at vpnMentor is centered around providing value through honesty, transparency, and dedication,” they write. It is a remarkable coincidence that their award for the best three VPNs overall went to ExpressVPN, CyberGhost and Private Internet Access – all Kape Technologies products. In fact, ExpressVPN, CyberGhost and Private Internet swept the medal positions in every category: best VPN for torrents, for Windows, for Android, for Mac, for iOS, and for American users. Wizcase’s 2024 top 3 VPN recommendations also went to ExpressVPN, CyberGhost and Private Internet Access. Indeed, when visiting the website ranking page, users are met with a gigantic popup ad for a special deal on an ExpressVPN subscription.
Express VPN Executive, a Former Spy
When using a VPN service, users place a large amount of trust in the VPN company itself. They must trust that it is effectively encrypting users’ traffic, securing their data and the server network infrastructure, and not doing anything else with the vast amount of sensitive information they are given. As noted previously, individuals and organizations use VPNs to carry out all manner of highly compromising activities online.
Unfortunately, Daniel Gericke, ExpressVPN’s chief technology officer (CTO) from 2019-2023, was deeply involved in such questionable practices. A Reuters investigation series revealed that Gericke was a key member of a team of spies that hacked the devices of human rights activists, journalists and government officials, stealing their data and passing it on to the government of the United Arab Emirates. The UAE used this data to track down dissidents and torture them, according to the investigation.
ExpressVPN hired Gericke (a former manager for weapons firm Lockheed Martin) after the Reuters exposé and continued to back him, even after the U.S. Department of Justice fined him $335,000 for his role in the clandestine operation. “Our trust in Daniel remains strong,” the company said in a statement. Gericke left ExpressVPN last summer after nearly four years with the company.
Both the Gericke hire and its sale to an Anglo-Israeli corporation with a more than questionable past led to an exodus of staff at ExpressVPN and raises many questions about what exactly this cyber-mercenary, who was under investigation by the U.S. government for stealing sensitive data from tens of millions of people and passing it on to a foreign government, was doing as an executive at ExpressVPN for all that time, especially with the company’s user data. “If you’re an ExpressVPN customer, you shouldn’t be,” concluded whistleblower Edward Snowden.
A Unit Like No Other
With his background as a former spy, Gericke likely fits well with many of the other top Kape Technologies leaders. Ido Erlichman, Kape CEO between 2016 and 2023, is a veteran of the Duvdevan, an elite Israeli commando unit. Described by Middle East news outlet Electronic Intifada as Israel’s “death squad,” members are given special training to disguise themselves as Palestinians in order to infiltrate enemy groups and carry out extrajudicial killings. Both the selection process and the training are exceptionally rigorous, and Duvdevan commandos often spend months or even years undercover before being assigned a mission.
The life and work of Duvdevan agents were explored and promoted in the Netflix series Fauda.
Unit 8200, meanwhile, is no less prestigious. Described as Israel’s Harvard, parents spend fortunes on extra classes for their children, who know that selection into the unit will unlock a wealth of doors in Israel’s burgeoning hi-tech industry.
But Unit 8200 is also the centerpiece of the country’s repressive state apparatus. It has created a gigantic digital dragnet that is used to constantly monitor, surveil and harass the Palestinian population, whose calls, emails and every move are clocked by the group.
Unit 8200 uses this data to compile gigantic dossiers of information on Palestinians under their control, including their medical history, sex lives, and search histories, so that it could be used later for extortion. If a particular individual needs to travel across checkpoints for crucial medical treatment, permission can be suspended until they comply with Israeli requests for dirt on their peers. Information, such as if a person was cheating on their spouse or was homosexual, is also used as bait for blackmail. One former Unit 8200 soldier said that as part of his training, he was assigned to memorize different Arabic words for “gay” so that he could listen out for them in conversations.
In 2014, 43 Unit 8200 reservists went public, revealing that the unit makes no distinction between ordinary Palestinians and those engaged in violence and that Palestinians as a whole are considered enemies of the state. They also claimed that their intelligence was passed on to powerful local politicians, who used it as they saw fit.
More recently, Unit 8200’s new project, Lavender, uses artificial intelligence to select targets for the Israeli military’s bombing campaign in Gaza. A “conservative estimate” published by the medical journal The Lancet suggested that 186,000 people have died since October 7 due to Israeli bombing. Some two million more people have been displaced.
Unit 8200 agents have gone on to produce many of the world’s most downloaded apps, including the maps service Waze and the communications platform Viber. Perhaps the most consequential, however, is the spying software Pegasus.
Pegasus was used to spy on more than 50,000 prominent individuals around the world, including politicians such as President Emmanuel Macron of France, Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan, and President Barham Salih of Iraq. Journalists, human rights defenders and members of royal families were also targeted for surveillance. The Unit 8200 veterans sold Pegasus to some of the world’s most authoritarian governments. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, for example, used the software to dig up dirt on his political opponents, while other members of his government hacked the phone of a woman who accused the Chief Justice of India of raping her.
Known purchasers of the software include the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, as well as the governments of the UAE, Panama, and Saudi Arabia, who used the software to surveil Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi before he was assassinated by Saudi agents in Türkiye. All sales of Pegasus had to be approved by the Israeli government, who ostensibly had access to the data Pegasus’ foreign customers were accruing.
Unit 8200 veterans have even created spyware VPNs before. In 2013, Facebook purchased Onavo Protect and later heavily promoted its product to its billions of users. However, Those who downloaded it were unaware that, far from being a privacy app, Onavo was being used to surveil them to help Facebook understand the market and crush its competitors. After the scandal was made public, Facebook removed Onavo from the app store, and, as of 2019, the product is defunct.
The Spies Controlling Your Social Media
Facebook’s collaboration with Unit 8200 goes far deeper, however. This author’s 2022 MintPress News investigation found that a vast number of Unit 8200 veterans had gone on to work in senior positions at Meta, Facebook’s parent company.
Chief among these is Emi Palmor, a longtime IDF veteran and former Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Justice. Palmor is one of 21 individuals sitting on Meta’s Oversight Board, the panel that ultimately controls the political direction of Facebook, Instagram and Threads, deciding what content is appropriate and what is unacceptable and should be suppressed. As such, a Unit 8200 veteran is influencing what content billions of users see – and don’t see – online, including, presumably, on Israel’s assault on Gaza, an issue on which Facebook has consistently favored Israel and silenced Palestinian voices.
The same investigation found at least 99 former Unit 8200 agents working at Google. These included Google’s head of strategy and operations, Gavriel Goidel; its head of insights, data and management, Jonathan Cohen; and Google Waze’s head of global self-service, Ori Daniel.
Microsoft, meanwhile, hired at least 166 Unit 8200 veterans to fill its ranks, including many that went straight from the military into the company, suggesting that it is actively recruiting from the regiment.
These numbers are certainly a serious underestimate, as, under Israeli law, revealing one’s current or previous affiliation to Unit 8200 is an offense. Therefore, those found were the ones brazen enough to defy Israeli law.
Revealed: The Former Israeli Spies Working in Top Jobs at Google, Facebook and Microsoft
Hundreds of agents from Israeli spying organization Unit 8200 are now employed in top roles at Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon.
MintPress News·Alan Macleod·Nov 1, 2022
Is Your Identity Safe?
Internet secrecy is a serious business. Over a billion individuals trust VPNs to hide their identities online. However, the background of Kape Technologies, from its beginnings as an adware company spamming users with advertisements to its key figures’ close connections to Israeli intelligence, raises serious concerns about its clients’ privacy.
At best, a worrying set of conflicts of interest arises when giving your data to a company with such an ethical background. But given that many of the key figures highlighted here have close connections to groups such as the Duvdevan and Unit 8200, both of which carry out wide-scale spying operations, and ExpressVPN’s former CTO reportedly working to spy on users and pass that information on to foreign governments, one cannot rule out the possibility that this is a gigantic sting operation to gather data on vast amounts of individuals, akin to what Unit 8200 is already known to do.
While ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, ZenMate and other Kape Technologies products may well be safe to use, activists and revolutionaries—particularly those who work on issues such as Palestine—should at least know the company’s history before reflexively trusting it.
Feature photo | Illustration by MintPress News
Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams.
Meet the UK Political Prisoners for Palestine
While suspending arms licenses to Israel, the UK government pursues legal actions against outspoken critics of its foreign policy, including journalists and activists who face terrorism charges.
The UK government’s recent suspension of 30 arms export licenses to Israel marks a significant acknowledgment of the potential for British-supplied weapons to be used in war crimes. However, while the Labour administration takes tentative steps in recognizing these risks, it continues a parallel crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists and journalists.
Amidst accusations of terrorism under vague legal pretexts, prominent figures like Richard Medhurst, Sarah Wilkinson, and members of Palestine Action face arrests and convictions in what appears to be a broad campaign to silence opposition to Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
On September 2, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced the suspension of 30 out of 350 arms export licenses to Israel, citing concerns that the equipment could be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law. While some have criticized the decision as insufficient and delayed, it indicates that the UK government acknowledges the potential for British-supplied weapons to be used in war crimes, a significant admission by the Labour government.
Despite documented human rights violations that have been condemned by various United Nations bodies and leading human rights organizations, the British government has chosen to intensify its actions against opponents of Israel’s military operations in Gaza while maintaining its support for the Israeli government.
Richard Medhurst
Richard Medhurst is a well-known journalist and political commentator who has consistently opposed Britain’s support for Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip, which he views as war crimes.
In August, upon arriving at Heathrow Airport in London, he was immediately arrested by six police officers. They informed him that the arrest was made under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act.
Medhurst noted that he was accused of expressing an opinion or belief in support of a proscribed terrorist organization. However, he said the authorities “wouldn’t explain what this meant.”
“I was placed in solitary confinement, in a cold cell that smelt like urine. There was no light, and the bed—if you can even call it a bed—was simply a small concrete ledge with a paper-thin mattress,” Medhurst explained in a 9-minute video where he shared his side of the story.
He categorically rejected any claims of involvement in terrorism, emphasizing that he is a journalist raised to be anti-war. He noted that both of his parents were Nobel Peace Prize recipients for their work as United Nations peacekeepers.
“Counterterrorism laws should be used to fight actual terrorism, not journalism,” Medhurst continued. He added that he was not informed of the specific comments that had been construed as supporting a terrorist group. He speculated that the accusation likely stemmed from his coverage of the ongoing conflict in occupied Palestine.
Medhurst also expressed concern that the arrest and the requirement to check in with authorities in three months have restricted his free speech. He now fears that his words could be twisted and used against him.
Palestine Action
Since the onset of the war on Gaza, Palestine Action, an organization active since 2020, has intensified its campaign to dismantle weapons manufacturers like Elbit Systems in the United Kingdom and obstruct the transfer of arms components to the Israeli military.
Activists have employed tactics such as occupying facilities and sabotaging equipment belonging to these manufacturers, with the goal of disrupting the arms supply chain from British soil to Israel.
Most notably, Richard Barnard, co-founder of Palestine Action, has been charged under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000 for “expressing an opinion that is supportive of a proscribed organization.” He also faces two additional charges of encouraging or intending to encourage criminal damage.
Although the specific grounds for the charge of supporting a terrorist organization have not been clearly defined, it is alleged that Barnard expressed support for Hamas. However, no public evidence has yet been presented to substantiate these claims.
In England, 11 members of Palestine Action have been imprisoned for their involvement in direct actions against weapons manufacturers. Among them are the “Filton 10,” a group that includes Ian Sanders, Zoe Rogers, Hannah Davidson, William Plastow, Madeleine Norman, Samuel Corner, Fatema Rajwani, Charlotte Head, Jordan Devlin, and Leona Kamio.
Initially detained for a week under the Terrorism Act without charge, they were later charged with non-terror-related offenses and subsequently remanded to prison.
Additionally, activist Francesca Nadin took direct action against the Teledyne weapons factory in Shipley, effectively halting the production of parts for Israel’s missiles and fighter jets. Following this, she was remanded to prison after being charged with “conspiracy to commit criminal damage” targeting two banks in Leeds, both of which are known to invest in Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems.
In Scotland, five activists — Ayesha, 23; Calum, 24; Eva, 26; Stuart, 26; and Sumo, 22 — were imprisoned on July 20, 2024, for occupying the Thales weapons factory in Glasgow, resulting in more than £1 million in losses. Two of the activists were convicted of “breach of the peace” and “malicious mischief” for destroying weapons components at the factory, leading to custodial sentences of 14 and 16 months. The remaining three were convicted of “breach of the peace” and handed 12-month custodial sentences.
All five are expected to serve at least half of their sentences in prison. According to the judge, the harsh punishment was intended to set an example.
Sarah Wilkinson
Twelve anti-terrorism police officers, described by her son as “balaclava-clad thugs,” arrested 61-year-old activist Sarah Wilkinson after raiding her home in late August and seizing her electronic devices.
She was later released under the condition that she refrain from using electronic devices. Since then, she has been unable to continue her popular social media coverage of the war in Gaza.
Wilkinson has been a long-standing peace activist. She participated in an initiative in Jordan to airdrop humanitarian aid to the people of northern Gaza, who were suffering from starvation. She was also scheduled to join a humanitarian aid flotilla that aimed to sail to the besieged coastal enclave in an effort to break the Israeli siege.
Perhaps most recognized for her online activism, Wilkinson regularly engages with her 300,000 followers on X.
She stands accused of “posting content online,” although it remains unclear which specific posts are in question or whether she faces additional charges under the Terrorism Act.
In response to her arrest, Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters released a video statement claiming she was arrested “for standing up for human rights and campaigning against genocide.” He added, “If you allow this to stand, the arrest of Sarah Wilkinson and the persecution of my friend Craig Murray, among others, then you have absolutely accepted that England is now a fascist state. 1984 has arrived and is alive and well in the United Kingdom. Over my dead body,” he concluded.
Although the recent wave of arrests marks an escalation in the British government’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists and journalists, this is not the first time such actions have been taken.
For example, Heba Alhayek, Pauline Ankunda, and Noimutu Olayinka Taiwo were each given a 12-month conditional discharge for displaying images of paragliders on their backpacks during a pro-Palestine protest in Central London in October. While the women were not explicitly showing support for Hamas, they had used paraglider images—symbolizing one of the methods Palestinian fighters employed to breach the Israeli security fence on October 7.
In this case, Deputy Senior District Judge Tan Ikram told the three women, “You crossed the line, but it would be fair to say that emotions ran very high on this issue. Your lesson has been well learned.” Although Ikram acknowledged that the women did not intend to support Hamas, they were still convicted of a terror-related offense.
In contrast, Israeli soldiers who directly participated in the Gaza ground invasion—an action the International Court of Justice (ICJ) considers to potentially constitute genocide—have been permitted to participate in speaking events in London.
In all these cases—both arrests and convictions—it appears that British authorities have sought to make examples of these individuals, aiming to silence them and intimidate others from engaging in similar activities.
The crackdown comes at a time when Israel is accused of committing serious crimes against civilians, which has been the root cause driving much of the activism and journalism mentioned.
Feature photo | A protester is seen with glue tape on her mouth and written ‘FREE SPEECH’ during a demonstration outside the Royal Court of Justice in London. Krisztian Elek | AP
Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47
Exposed: The US and Canadian Funding Behind Israeli Soldiers Accused of Rape
MintPress uncovers the troubling role of US and Canadian donors in backing Israeli soldiers accused of raping and torturing Palestinian detainees, spotlighting the international reach of financial support for human rights violations.
Cuffed and blindfolded 24 hours a day. Confined to animal pens. Attacked by dogs. This is reportedly the treatment of Palestinian detainees at Sde Teiman, an Israeli military base in the Naqab desert. While claims of torture and abuse at the facility began circulating in December, the Israeli military did not open an investigation into the allegations until July 29, when 10 Israeli soldiers were detained on suspicion of sexually abusing a detainee.
In response to the soldiers’ detention, a mob of right-wing extremists stormed Sde Teiman and later broke into the Beit Lid military base, where the detained soldiers were being held. Among those detained were soldiers from the Force 100 unit, which was resurrected at the onset of the war and has been responsible for guarding the detainees at Sde Teiman. Masked soldiers, wearing black shirts emblazoned with the unit’s logo—a snake inside the Jewish Star of David—were seen participating in the protests.
Several Israeli lawmakers took part in the riots, including Otzma Yehudit’s (Jewish Power) Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, Religious Zionism member of parliament, Zvi Sukkot, and parliamentary members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, Nissim Vaturi and Tally Gotliv.
Protests have continued to erupt in support of the soldiers, including, most recently, outside an Israeli High Court hearing on the case on August 7, 2024.
As allegations of torture and sexual abuse at Israel’s Sde Teiman detention facility escalate and Israeli Military Police prepare to conclude their investigation and file indictments against the suspects, MintPress uncovers the financial and political infrastructure, including from the U.S. and Canada, backing these soldiers through tax-exempt organizations and crowdfunding platforms. This marks a disturbing shift in global support for human rights violations, now extending even to those implicated in the Israeli military’s acts of sexual violence.
Donors and supporters of Sde Teiman suspects
The Israeli soldiers at the center of the investigation are suspected of sodomizing a detainee, a Hamas police officer, with an object. After the alleged abuse, the man was rushed to the hospital, where he was found to have signs of rape, including a ruptured bowel and broken ribs.
The case has deeply divided Israeli society, with many, including political leaders, defending the accused soldiers. Notably, much of this defense does not dispute the sexual abuse allegations but argues that the soldiers should be granted immunity.
“It doesn’t matter what happened,” Tally Gotliv said during the riots. “The moment it is about the soldiers and fighters who are guarding the Nukhba terrorists, no one may arrest them.”
During a parliamentary discussion on the case, Likud MP Hanoch Milwidsky remarked, “When it comes to a Nukhba terrorist, every deed is legitimate.”
The detainee was initially believed to be a member of the Nukhba forces, a unit of Hamas’ military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, but this was later proven false. He reportedly did not participate in Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel either.
In addition to Israeli lawmakers, several right-wing organizations have joined recent protests in support of the accused soldiers. Soldiers from Force 100, the unit to which the detained reservists belong, have also protested their detention. Formed during the First Intifada in the 1990s to guard the influx of military prisoners, Force 100 was disbanded in the early 2000s when the responsibility for military prisoners was transferred to the Israel Prison Service (IPS). However, the unit was re-established following the October 7 attacks to manage the mass arrests of Palestinians suspected of terrorism.
Israeli right-wing non-profit Btsalmo, along with pro-military activist groups “Victory Generation” Reserves Movement and “Guarding the Soldiers,” have actively participated in the demonstrations. According to the Israeli fact-checking organization FakeReporter, the settler-run Telegram channel “Fighting for Life” called on its followers to protest at Sde Teiman.
Additionally, activists from the pro-military group “Until Victory” joined the August 7, 2024, protest, which disrupted a Supreme Court hearing on petitions submitted by human rights groups regarding the abuse at the Sde Teiman facility.
While Btsalmo, the Victory Generation Reserves Movement, and Until Victory all accept tax-deductible donations within Israel, MintPress News found no connections between these groups and organizations outside of Israel. Similarly, Guarding the Soldiers and Fighting for Life do not appear to have any international links.
However, other protest groups involved in the demonstrations are affiliated with organizations based in the U.S. and Canada.
Video footage of the protests shows demonstrators wearing shirts from Im Tirtzu and Torat Lechima, and according to The Times of Israel, the anti-assimilation Jewish supremacist group Lehava is also involved in the movement. Honenu, a Zionist legal aid organization, is providing legal defense for the accused soldiers. All four groups receive backing from entities outside of Israel.
Both Im Tirtzu and Honenu receive donations from the Central Fund of Israel (CFI), a U.S. tax-exempt nonprofit. One of CFI’s largest donors is the foundation of the late American billionaire Irving I. Moskowitz. Along with Torat Lechima, Im Tirtzu and Honenu also accept donations from the U.S., U.K., and Canada via JGive, a U.S.-Israeli crowdfunding platform. Im Tirtzu further links to the Zionist group Mizrachi Organization of Canada for tax-deductible donations in Canada. Other notable donors to Im Tirtzu include the Kingjay Foundation Trust and The Snider Foundation.
Shmuel Meidad, the founder of Honenu, is also involved with the Tikva Forum, a right-wing alternative to Israel’s main hostage advocacy group, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum. In December 2023, Meidad participated in an internal Zoom call organized by the Tikva Forum. The Tikva Forum is further connected to Israeli Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, one of the protesters supporting the Sde Teiman suspects, through the Association of Community Rabbis—a nonprofit founded by Eliyahu and headed by his brother, Rabbi Ariel Eliyahu. The association funnels money to the Tikva Forum and is also fundraising on JGive, where it has raised just over NIS 12,700 (approximately $3,440) for the forum.
The Associated Press revealed in July that Torat Lechima raised funds for the Mother’s March, one of the groups blocking aid to Gaza. The campaign, which has since ended, raised NIS 48,242 (nearly $13,000) on JGive. Torat Lechima also sponsored a Gaza resettlement conference held earlier this year in Jerusalem. Im Tirtzu has similarly been involved in blocking aid trucks to Gaza and has advocated for banning the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the only UN agency solely dedicated to Palestinian refugees, from operating in Israeli territory.
In recent months, the U.S., European Union, and the U.K. have all sanctioned Lehava for its violent activities against Palestinians. As a result, Lehava can no longer accept donations through its nonprofit, the Foundation for the Salvation of the People of Israel, or HaKeren LeHazalat Am Israel (HLAI) in Hebrew. As previously reported by MintPress News, the organization is run by Ben Tzion Gopstein, a notorious follower of Meir Kahane, whose extremist, anti-Arab ideology became known as Kahanism. Additionally, Kahanist lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir’s spouse, Ayala Ben Gvir, is also listed as a founder of HLAI.
A Name-Change Gets Kahane Chai Off US Terror List as US Charitable Donations Keep Flowing
The US removed Kahane Chai from its list of terrorist organizations, but as Jessica Buxbaum reveals, the Jewish terror group still receives funding from US charities
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Lehava appears to be supported by the American tax-exempt organization Tomchei Tzedaka. Lehava’s U.S. wing links to Tomchei Tzedaka’s website through its donation button. When contacted by MintPress News regarding its relationship with Lehava and why its website links to the sanctioned group, Tomchei Tzedaka stated that they “don’t have any connection to them.” However, when asked to clarify why their organization is linked to Lehava online, Tomchei Tzedaka did not respond.
Not just Sde Teiman
After months of reports detailing the torture and inhumane treatment of detainees at Sde Teiman, a coalition of human rights groups petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court to permanently shut down the facility. While approximately 700 detainees were previously held at Sde Teiman, they have since been transferred to other prisons. Currently, the facility is holding 28 detainees.
“According to all testimonies, these detainees regularly endure severe violence, resulting in fractures, internal bleeding, and even death,” wrote the Israeli NGO Physicians for Human Rights in Israel (PHRI) in its report on Sde Teiman. PHRI, one of the organizations petitioning the Supreme Court for the facility’s closure, has called for immediate action to end the abuse.
Speaking to MintPress News, Naji Abbas, director of the prisoners and detainees department at Physicians for Human Rights in Israel (PHRI), described the harsh conditions faced by detainees at Sde Teiman:
We understand that all the detainees in this facility are being cuffed the whole time — 24 hours — for weeks and for months. In a lot of cases, these cuffs caused injuries and infections and forced the medical staff to cut people’s hands and legs because of the infection. Their eyes were covered the whole time — 24 hours — for weeks and months. The field hospital is providing treatment just to people who got injured through combat. But if someone gets arrested and he’s a patient with a chronic disease, he won’t get treatment.”
In December 2023, PHRI submitted a request to the Israeli military seeking information on the number of detainees who had died in their custody. The military finally responded in July, stating that 44 Palestinians had died in custody but did not specify where the deaths occurred.
“They refused to say if all of them died at Sde Teiman, but we believe most of them did,” Abbas told MintPress.
The soldiers at Sde Teiman are accused of sexually abusing a detainee by inserting an object into his rectum, but according to Naji Abbas, this is not an isolated incident. In August, PHRI spoke with a doctor from Gaza who had been detained at Sde Teiman for three months.
“The doctor told our lawyer that he met at least ten other [detainees] — before the current allegations were made public — who had experienced sexual assault in the same way,” Abbas said.
Furthermore, Abbas noted that accusations of sexual assault are not limited to detainees in military custody but are also emerging from prisons across Israel. In July, PHRI sent a letter to the director of the Israel Prison Service (IPS) regarding the abuse occurring within Israeli prisons. The letter included 15 testimonies, one of which described a similar instance of sexual assault to the one alleged at Sde Teiman. PHRI has yet to receive a response from the IPS. Right-wing lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir, who currently heads the Ministry of National Security, oversees Israel’s prison system.
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In August, the Israeli rights group B’Tselem published a report on the treatment of Palestinians incarcerated in Israeli prisons and detention centers since October 7, 2023. The report, titled “Welcome to Hell,” contains testimonies from residents of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, and Israel, who were interviewed by B’Tselem after their release. The vast majority of these detainees were held in administrative detention, meaning they were incarcerated without trial.
The testimonies detailed “[f]requent acts of severe, arbitrary violence; sexual assault; humiliation and degradation; deliberate starvation; forced unhygienic conditions; prohibition of, and punitive measures for, religious worship; confiscation of communal and personal belongings; and denial of adequate medical treatment.”
Several accounts mentioned sexual violence by prison guards and soldiers, with one testimony describing an attempted anal rape using a foreign object by prison guards.
In its report, B’Tselem concluded that Israel is committing acts of torture amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“When we got off the bus, a soldier said to us, ‘Welcome to hell,’” recounted Fouad Hassan, a 45-year-old Nablus resident who was held in Megiddo Prison, in his testimony to B’Tselem.
Allegations of abuse and torture of Palestinians in Israeli prisons are not new. The Palestinian prisoner rights group Addameer has long documented these issues. However, the situation escalated after October 7.
“While the policy of violence has been ongoing,” Addameer wrote in a press release, “the Prison Service launched an unprecedented attack on prisoners in all Israeli prisons after October 7, implementing several policies that turned prisons into death traps for Palestinian prisoners.”
Feature photo | This undated photo from Winter 2023 provided by Breaking The Silence, a whistleblower group of former Israeli soldiers, shows Palestinian prisoners captured in the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces at a detention facility on the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel. Photo | Breaking The Silence via AP
Jessica Buxbaum is a Jerusalem-based journalist for MintPress News covering Palestine, Israel, and Syria. Her work has been featured in Middle East Eye, The New Arab and Gulf News.
From Fight the Power to Work for It: Chuck D, Public Enemy and How the CIA Neutralized Rap
Chuck D has made a full transition from “Fight the Power” to “work with the power.” MintPress News explores this new venture that fuses together YouTube, popular musicians, and the U.S. national security state.
Surprising many, legendary rapper and activist Chuck D appeared at the White House earlier this summer, announcing that he was joining forces with YouTube and Antony Blinken’s State Department to become one of Washington’s “global music ambassadors” – a role directly modeled on Washington’s Cold War-era efforts to use the arts to inspire U.S.-backed regime change in Eastern Europe, and to use musical tours as covers that the CIA could use to assassinate foreign leaders.
Among a crowd of artists that included Herbie Hancock, Armani White, BRELAND, Denyce Graves, Grace Bowers, Jelly Roll, Justin Tranter, Kane Brown, Lainey Wilson, and Teddy Swims, the Public Enemy frontman was centerstage, standing directly on Blinken’s right-hand side, and was the first artist in the room mentioned by the Secretary of State, earning a round of applause from the journalists and dignitaries assembled. “I would like to thank everybody in the U.S. State Department and also YouTube for having me being invited to being a United States global music ambassador,” he said.
All this is a far cry from Chuck D.’s beginnings and outward image. The rapper and writer of such songs as “Fight the Power” and “Rebel Without a Cause” used both the aesthetics and message of the Black Panther Party in his performances and was seen as Malcolm X with a microphone. He lists the Panthers and Malcolm X as influences during his formative years. “I was in the Black Panther lunch program,” he told the Historic.ly podcast. Thus, for an artist to go from unapologetically demanding black power to now enthusiastically supporting state power is a bitter pill to swallow for his millions of fans.
The Cultural Cold War
Although the State Department was careful to frame its new venture as one designed to support peace, the program’s history and the United States’ foreign policy moves strongly undermine that claim.
Throughout the press conference announcing the project’s inauguration, both Blinken and YouTube’s global music head, Lyor Cohen, constantly mentioned the CIA’s secret Cold War program to use music and the arts as weapons for regime change. Referencing sending Louis Armstrong to play behind the Iron Curtain, Blinken stated, “America’s secret weapon is a blue note and a minor chord. Music is such a powerful diplomatic force because, I think, it taps into something fundamental, universal.” “In Berlin, just before the wall came down, Bruce Springsteen played to the adoration of countless fans,” he added.
Cohen explained that YouTube was teaming up with the U.S. State Department to help them “leverage global events.” “We will utilize major international gatherings to inspire action,” he said. What kind of “actions” the State Department is interested in fomenting was not stated but is not difficult to ascertain.
Throughout the Cold War, the United States flooded enemy nations with propaganda. But it often found that a more subtle approach was far more effective. To that end, it spent vast sums sending famous artists such as Nina Simone, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald overseas, to the point where jazz became synonymous with individualism and democracy. U.S. media networks like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty bombarded Eastern Europe with music which Soviet authorities banned. It was thus transformed into a subversive, countercultural weapon. Voice of America – another U.S.-funded network targeted at Communist countries – called its jazz radio show the “Hour of Freedom.”
The CIA deliberately chose to front the campaign with black musicians, helping to soften America’s image and promote a (false) message of racial harmony to counter well-founded Russian criticism of the United States as a structurally racist society.
In the wake of World War II, the Soviet Union engendered massive worldwide goodwill. Primarily responsible for defeating European fascism, millions around the world saw Communism as the way out of poverty and considered it far more supportive of high culture and the arts than capitalism.
Knowing they had to do something quickly to win the war for the planet’s future, the CIA almost immediately established the Congress for Cultural Freedom – a worldwide group of intellectuals and artists dedicated to opposing Communism, some of whom were completely unaware that this was not an organic, grassroots movement.
The goal was clear: destroy Communism and initiate regime change worldwide, installing pro-U.S. puppets wherever possible. “Give me a hundred million dollars and a thousand dedicated people, and I will guarantee to generate such a wave of democratic unrest among the masses, yes, even among the soldiers of Stalin’s own empire, that all his problems for a long period of time, to come will be internal. I can find the people,” anti-communist philosopher Sidney Hook begged the CIA.
Hook got what he wanted, and the CIA became a principal driver of both high and low culture across the globe. Operating through its front organization, the Congress for Cultural Freedom, the CIA funded and promoted artists, writers, musicians and intellectuals who advanced U.S. government interests in dozens of countries worldwide. It received help for these activities from organizations such as the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), whose former executive director, Thomas Braden, was a CIA employee. Institutions like MOMA acted as front groups for CIA schemes, ensuring a veneer of plausibility and respectability to events.
At the height of its influence, the CIA published highly influential magazines, built up a book publishing empire promoting anti-Communist literature, raised money for the production of hit movies, started academic journals, and sponsored conferences the world over.
The CIA promoted the work of George Orwell, pushing his books, and even funded the 1954 film adaptation of “Animal Farm.” Thus, the author, who is most closely synonymous with propaganda and government control over society, in an ironic twist, owed his massive popularity in no small part to a giant decades-long CIA propaganda campaign.
Dissident Russian authors like Boris Pasternak also owed their notoriety to the Congress on Cultural Freedom’s work. Anti-communist epic book, “Dr. Zhivago” was translated and circulated widely, both inside and outside the Communist bloc, by the CIA front group. Thus, much of what we in the West consider the classic and fundamental tomes of modern society are, in fact, partly a product of CIA activities.
The Congress on Cultural Freedom made pains to appear as if it was actually a leftist organization, preferring not to support overtly conservative or reactionary art or content. It was careful to woo more radical-sounding intellectuals to its cause as long as they were willing to attack the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, or other U.S. foes, thereby helping with American efforts at regime change. This included Hook himself, who was a former Communist. The congress set up a wide range of faux-radical groups, which were designed to defame the worldwide Communist movement, promote the idea that the U.S. and Western Europe tolerated leftist dissent, and tie up and confuse would-be radicals at home into pointless organizations that would do nothing to truly challenge power.
It was not only high culture, however, that the U.S. attempted to hijack. The CIA also published astrology magazines and gossip rags, all with subtle (and often not-so-subtle) anti-Communist undertones to them.
The project continued until the successful overthrow of Communism and Eastern Europe – events in which the U.S. government played a significant role. There have long been extremely strong rumors that the CIA wrote and promoted the Scorpions’ hit song “Winds of Change” as regime change propaganda. Meanwhile, David Hasselhoff – the American singer who has long been inexplicably popular in Germany – has strongly insinuated that he worked with the agency to bring down the Berlin Wall. His song, “Looking for Freedom,” became the unofficial anthem of the wall’s destruction, and he played it to a huge Berlin crowd in 1989.
By his own admission, Chuck D and Public Enemy were also involved in the destruction of the Berlin Wall. The group traveled to the German city and played concerts there. Seeing their counterparts in West Berlin enjoying hip-hop gigs, the rapper explained, contributed to their sense of frustration with the system they lived under. “The Eastern [Berlin] fans can’t get there, and the closer they get to the wall, they ain’t thinking about hip hop at that wall,” he said.
Selling a Fantasy
The message of freedom the U.S. projected was a total fabrication. In reality, the black stars it sent around the world to promote the idea that the U.S. was the home of liberty and tolerance were not even allowed to enter many music halls in their home states, let alone play in them. Genuine leftists were being ruthlessly purged from public life in the anti-communist McCarthyist witch hunts.
This included many of America’s finest talents. Singer Paul Robeson and actor Charlie Chaplain had their lives destroyed for supporting socialism, the latter spending the last 25 years of his life unable to return to the United States under fear of arrest for his political views. Scientist Albert Einstein was mistrusted by authorities and blocked from influential positions because of his socialist organizing. Playwright Arthur Miller and his actress wife Marilyn Monroe were constantly hounded for their political leanings.
But their treatment was nothing compared to how U.S. authorities attacked black leaders, such as Malcolm X and the Black Panthers – groups that served as inspiration for Chuck D’s career. In 1969, police carried out the murder of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in Chicago, while in 1985, Philadelphia police carried out an airstrike against black liberation organization MOVE, destroying an entire residential neighborhood block and killing 11 people.
Perhaps even more notable, however, is how the CIA used these “goodwill” tours of black artists as cover to get close to African leaders in order to carry out assassinations. A case in point is Louis Armstrong’s 1960 tour of the Congo. The newly independent country had just elected Patrice Lumumba as president. Young and charismatic, Lumumba was a radical who believed that his nation’s immense resources should be used to build a democratic, egalitarian society. This, for CIA director Allen Dulles, who described him as an “African [Fidel] Castro,” signed his death warrant.
The CIA attached itself to the jazz legend’s tour, accompanying him around the country and gathering crucial information on Lumumba’s whereabouts and security to carry out an assassination. Lumumba was killed a few months later. The killer’s identity remains debated, but what is clear is that, after his death, Congo went into a 60-year tailspin of dictatorships and civil war, from which it has not recovered. Throughout the violence, Western corporations continue to control the nation’s vast mineral resources.
In 1962, the CIA passed information to the apartheid government in South Africa that led to the arrest and imprisonment of Nelson Mandela for 27 years, while an investigation by Seymour Hersh for the New York Times found that the agency was involved in the overthrow of Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah, widely considered one of the finest leaders the continent has ever produced.
Nonsensical Responses
Chuck D is aware of the history of the CIA using this program to overthrow countries and assassinate foreign leaders, referencing it in his interview with Historic.ly. Nevertheless, he insisted that, “I ain’t got nothing to do with fucking government. Their language is blood, bombs and bullets.”
He offered a unique justification for working with the power he claimed to be fighting, arguing that the modern world has transcended governments to the point where the nation-state is no longer relevant. Hence, it was acceptable to work with any and all governments to push agendas. As he said:
I was accused of being with the State Department of the United States, I am basically telling people: get them symbols and them titles out your fucking head. That shit is no longer applicable. There are really no such thing as fucking countries and nations. It is technology that has become that. My only thing, and my only ulterior motive is hip hop music, rap, art culture, that’s it! That’s my fucking religion and fucking nation at this point. I trust no governments. They are all the same.”
When asked whether it hurt his credibility to be associated with a regime change operation, he insisted that times have changed. “It was 75 years ago! The jazz ambassadorships, when they talk about Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, that’s 1952 in the Cold War. What the fuck has that got to do with 2025?!” he retorted. He also noted that he is not receiving any financial compensation for the partnership.
The Tall Israeli Running Rap
Standing next to Chuck D at the White House was Lyor Cohen, a man he has long described as his “mentor.” Cohen has long been one of the most powerful men in the rap business, but with his 2016 appointment as global head of music at YouTube, he became arguably the most important person in the music industry.
Cohen was born in New York City to Israeli parents with deep ties to the Zionist paramilitary group, the Haganah. His father, Elisha, was a member of the infamous Harel Brigade during the 1948 Nakba. The Harel Brigade played a pivotal role in the killings of thousands of Palestinians and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands more. This included carrying out biological warfare against the indigenous population. After the 1948 war, he became an officer in the Israeli Defense Forces.
Lyor’s formative years included living in Kfar Haim in Israel, at a settlement named after Haim Arlosoroff, a Zionist negotiator who worked with Nazi Germany in the 1930s, transferring German Jews and their assets to historic Palestine.
He got his start in hip hop in the 1980s at Russell Simmons’ Rush Management, working with the likes of Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys before becoming president of Def Jam Records, an iconic label associated with many of the industry’s biggest names.
He began working with Public Enemy in the 1980s and immediately began attempting to clean up its image. Cohen successfully lobbied Chuck D to fire Professor Griff from Public Enemy after the latter made anti-Semitic comments. While at Warner Music, he reportedly obstructed the promotion and release of an album by Lupe Fiasco, an artist known for his radical politics and committed support for Palestinian liberation. More recently, in November of last year, at the height of interest in Israel’s attack on Gaza, some have connected him with YouTube’s decision to remove the song “Terrorist” by MintPress’ Lowkey from the platform, after almost 14 years and 5.5 million views.
While Cohen’s power is legendary, he prefers to stay out of the limelight. “The Rape Over,” a song by Yasinn Bey (formerly known as Mos Def) about how corporate forces have taken over hip hop, described Cohen as the “tall Israeli [who] is running this rap shit.” The song, and more specifically, this particular lyric, was condemned as anti-Semitic and was removed from the rapper’s back catalog, the track having been essentially banned.
The incident is a microcosm of how a once politically conscious, revolutionary, and entirely non-politically correct art form has been defanged and reshaped by corporate forces to make it more palatable to those at the top of society. Chuck D is far from the first old rap legend accused of selling out. Ice-T found fame by releasing tracks like “Cop Killer”, but eventually went on to play one on “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.” Ice Cube, meanwhile, went from “Fuck the Police” and “Arrest the President” to allying himself with Donald Trump.
(Counter)Revolutionary Rhythm
Despite the official end of the Cold War, the United States has never stopped using music and musicians to foment unrest and spark regime change. In 2021, it sponsored, promoted and attempted a counter-revolution in Cuba, led by hip-hop artists that it had been funding and promoting for years.
Chief amongst those artists is Yotuel, whose song “Patria y Vida” became the anthem of the failed movement. The song was publicly promoted by all manner of U.S. officials, up to and including President Biden himself. The song and the anti-government hip-hop movement were given glowing write-ups in establishment media such as NPR and The New York Times.
But what all failed to inform the public was that Cuban rappers like Yotuel were recruited and nurtured by the U.S. government to sow discontent and spark regime change on the island.
The 2021 grants publication database of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)—an organization established by the Reagan administration as a front group for the CIA—lists several such projects.
For instance, one project, entitled “Empowering Cuban Hip-Hop Artists as Leaders in Society,” states that its goal is to “promote citizen participation and social change” and to “raise awareness about the role hip-hop artists have in strengthening democracy in the region.” Another, called “Promoting Freedom of Expression in Cuba through the Arts,” claims it is helping local artists on projects related to “democracy, human rights, and historical memory” and to help “increase awareness about the Cuban reality.
Meanwhile, during the Cuban protests, the NED’s sister organization, USAID, offered $2 million worth of funding to groups that use culture to bring about social change in Cuba. The announcement itself references Yotuel’s song, suggesting to applicants that they want more content in this vein. “Artists and musicians have taken to the streets to protest government repression, producing anthems such as ‘Patria y Vida,’ which has not only brought greater global awareness to the plight of the Cuban people but also served as a rallying cry for change on the island,” it notes.
In Venezuela, the NED funded and supported rock bands producing music aimed at destabilizing and overthrowing the socialist government. In 2011, for example, it was involved in approximately two dozen agreements for funding the performance and distribution of such music. It helped fund a national music contest, with the winners playing in Caracas. The documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, note that the project aimed to “promote greater reflection among Venezuelan youth about freedom of expression, their connection with democracy, and the state of democracy in the country.”
Such is the reactionary nature of the anti-government opposition in Venezuela, however, that the contest’s local organizers chose the song “Primates” as the national winner – a track that compared the (primarily black and mixed race) government and its supporters as subhuman monkeys and gorillas – perhaps a little too on-the-nose for the likes of Antony Blinken and the State Department to support as it did with “Patria y Vida.”
Blinken himself has personally used music to advance a political agenda. In May of this year, he played a cover of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” in front of a host of TV cameras in a Kyiv bar. The message he was trying to project was that America stands with Ukraine and for freedom against the authoritarian dictatorship in the Kremlin. What Blinken either forgot or did not care about, however, is that “Rockin’ in the Free World” is a satirical protest song, mocking how politicians sing odes to “freedom” in the U.S. while its people go hungry and sleep on the streets.
Big Tech and Big Brother
The partnership between YouTube and the State Department will see the platform push pro-U.S. music and messaging across the world, supposedly to promote “peace.” However, the United States has been at war for 229 of its 248-year history. Its military spending rivals that of all other countries combined, and it operates a network of around 1,000 military bases around the globe, including nearly 400 encircling China. It has, by its own estimation, launched 251 foreign military interventions between 1991 and 2022 alone and is currently supporting a genocide in Gaza. Thus, the idea that it will use this new initiative to push peace is at least as dubious as its previous claims of sponsoring “freedom” during the Cold War.
However, this is far from YouTube’s only connection to the U.S. national security state. Its parent company, Google, is essentially a creation of the CIA. Both the CIA and the NSA bankrolled the Ph.D. research of Google founder Sergey Brin, and senior CIA officials oversaw the evolution of Google during its pre-launch phase. As late as 2005, the CIA was still a major shareholder in Google. These shares resulted from Google’s acquisition of Keyhole, Inc., a CIA-backed surveillance firm whose software eventually became Google Earth – the civilian offshoot of a spying software the U.S. government uses to surveil and target its friends and enemies. Since then, Google has become a major CIA contractor, securing a cloud services contract worth tens of billions of dollars.
Perhaps most alarmingly, a MintPress News investigation found a network of dozens of former CIA agents and officials now working in senior positions at Google and YouTube. Among them include Jacqueline Lopour, Google’s senior intelligence collection and trust and safety manager, who spent more than ten years as a CIA analyst; Ryan Fugit, who left the CIA in 2019 to become a senior global trust and safety manager for Google; and Bryan Weisbard, a former CIA intelligence officer and State Department official, who, in 2021, became director of YouTube Trust and Safety.
Other MintPress News investigations have found similar networks of ex-CIA agents working in top jobs at Facebook, TikTok and other platforms.
These individuals were not being appointed to politically neutral areas, such as sales or customer service, but were instead parachuted into positions where they affected what billions of people see, read and hear every day in their newsfeeds, usually with little to no relevant expertise in that field except their longtime careers as spies and spooks.
That individuals like this are in charge of defining real from fake news is deeply problematic, given the CIA’s long history of being the source of false information. John Stockwell, former head of a CIA task force, explained on camera how his organization infiltrated media departments the world over, created fake newspapers and news agencies, and planted false news about Washington’s enemies. “I had propagandists all over the world,” he said, adding,
We pumped dozens of stories about Cuban atrocities, Cuban rapists [to the media]… We ran [faked] photographs that made almost every newspaper in the country… We didn’t know of one single atrocity committed by the Cubans. It was pure, raw, false propaganda to create an illusion of communists eating babies for breakfast.”
The U.S. national security state is also intimately involved in producing pop culture. The military has produced or co-produced thousands of TV shows and Hollywood movies, including many of the biggest blockbuster franchises, such as Iron Man, The Avengers, Jurassic Park, and Top Gun.
The CIA, meanwhile, was deeply involved in the production of films as diverse as Mission: Impossible, Borat, and Salt. And video game mega-franchises like Call of Duty are produced by ex-CIA chiefs. Brian Bulatao, the chief administration officer for Call of Duty producer Activision Blizzard, was formerly chief operating officer for the CIA, placing him third in command of the agency.
A MintPress investigation into the connections between Call of Duty and the national security state found that Air Force leaders were also deeply involved in game production, flying Activision Blizzard staff out to military bases to “showcase” their hardware to them and to make the industry more “credible advocates” for the U.S. war machine.
Cold War 2.0
It is little secret that the United States is embarking on a new Cold War against both Russia and China. China’s economic rise poses a threat to American dominance of the globe. In addition to the hundreds of military bases encircling the two nations, this new war is being fought economically, digitally and culturally. War planners are already describing how the United States is trying to “kick China under the table,” such as commissioning “Taiwanese Tom Clancy” novels intended to demonize China and demoralize its citizens. Chinese-linked apps such as TikTok are under threat of possible deletion. YouTube stars collaborate with the military to promote the military-industrial complex to their tens of millions of impressionable, young fans. And President Biden briefs influencers on how best to explain the Ukraine War to their followers.
It is in this vein that we should see the State Department’s recent announcement to partner with musicians to push pro-U.S. propaganda throughout the world. That they are doing this should be no surprise. What is remarkable, however, is how a musician with such widespread respect as a radical, anti-establishment figure would decide to join forces with the very institution he has railed against for decades.
At the White House press conference, Blinken unironically celebrated Chuck D, introducing him as “a legendary rapper from Flushing, Queens, who inspired us to fight the power.” Does Blinken not realize that he is the very power Public Enemy was rapping about? By choosing to team up with Blinken and join a project openly being pitched as a psychological operation aimed at regime change, Chuck D has, lamentably, gone from fighting the power to working for the power.
Feature photo | Illustration by MintPress News
Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams.
Tommy Robinson and the Zionist Agenda: The Hidden Forces Behind the UK Race Riots
The UK’s violent unrest has deeper roots than economic despair—Zionist interests, working through far-right leaders like Tommy Robinson, are stoking the fires of hatred.
Ever since July 29, Britain has been plunged into crisis, with incendiary far-riot rights sending towns and cities across the country spiraling into states of emergency. Vast mobs of armed, angry thugs, motivated by racist, Islamophobic animus, have vandalized homes, property and places of worship, violently clashed with police, and targeted hotels housing refugees with arson attacks in apparent stabs at mass murder. Hundreds of arrests have been made, and counter-protesters have taken to the streets in profusion to counter the upsurge of hatred.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged those responsible will face the “full force of the law” for their actions, and several perpetrators have already been sentenced to years in prison. Still, the situation remains gravely tense. Furthermore, in keeping with so many prior explosive, unanticipated episodes in modern British history, a vicious mainstream blame game has erupted, with ultimate responsibility for the upheaval being apportioned to a wide range of domestic and foreign actors and causes.
The unrest’s actual, and perhaps most apparent, sources have been mysteriously overlooked. For one, average Britons remain gripped by an ever-worsening economic cataclysm, in which the cost of essentials ever rises while living standards precipitously decline. The newly-elected Labour government has not only practically pledged to do nothing to alleviate the misery – by maintaining if not intensifying self-destructive austerity policies – but already exacerbated the dire situation significantly by slashing winter fuel payments, leaving millions facing life-threateningly freezing cold, without state support.
History shows that this milieu is invariably a fertile breeding ground for fascism to take root. With no mainstream alternative to the neoliberal status quo, desperate, disillusioned and dispossessed working-class Britons look to “outsiders” and extremists like Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson for salvation in ever-greater numbers. And their remedy, as always, is to blame migrants, refugees and “the other” for all of society’s ills and their own personal deprivation rather than ruling elites.
Even more ominously, though, there are unambiguous indications the anti-Muslim fervor that has torn through Britain in August is being stirred up by unseen spectral actors in service of the Zionist entity’s ideological, political, and military interests.
‘Get Them Gone’
For all the flurry of claims and counter-claims about how and why the riots started, there is no dispute they ignited on July 29 following a savage knife attack at a children’s yoga and dance workshop. Three children were killed and eight others injured, with five still in critical condition. Two adults present were also severely harmed. News of the shocking event rapidly spread far and wide, promptly followed by wildly incorrect conjecture and disinformation about the suspect’s identity.
Within mere hours, a popular anti-lockdown account posted on ‘X’ that the attacker was named “Ali al Shakati” – “an asylum seeker who came to the UK by boat last year…on an MI6 watch list.” While this false information was deleted within an hour, the damage was thoroughly done. Multiple far-right influencers instantly leaped upon these claims, adding further groundless, incriminating details of their own to the mix. Among them was Robinson – aka Stephen Yaxley Lennon – a notorious fascist activist of some standing.
He declared the Southport knife attacker was an “alleged Muslim,” adding, “They always target women.” The next day, an aggressive crowd gathered outside Southport Mosque, chanting Robinson’s name, along with the offensive Islamophobic slogan, “Who the fuck is Allah?” – a common fixture at far-right demonstrations. Attendant law enforcement officers were attacked, objects were hurled at the mosque, and police vehicles were set on fire. This malign spark produced copycat events and incidents across Britain, leading us to where we are now.
In almost every instance, police were quick to identify the rioters as members of the English Defence League (EDL), a now-defunct far-right organization comprised of hardcore anti-Islam agitators and football hooligans. Robinson, the League’s former leader, rubbished these allegations via X on the grounds that “there’s has [sic] been no EDL for over a decade.” Nonetheless, in a video published while the Southport riot was ongoing, he seemingly traced the violence back to the group he once headed and the streetfighting dogma it espoused:
Before people…condemn the ‘angry men’, that anger is justified. I’m surprised it’s took [sic] this long…you’ve actually encouraged the scenes you see tonight. You’ve done this, your government has done this, the police have done this…You care more for Afghanis, Somalis, Eritreans, Syrians, Pakistanis. They’re a danger to us. Stop the f***ing boats! Get them out of them [sic] hotels! Get them gone! Send them back! They shouldn’t be here ! Men will rise up, they were always going to rise up, they have to rise up, to defend their families!”
On August 8, intelligence-adjacent “independent” outlet Byline Times published a lengthy probe into “the real UK race riot instigators,” mapping “the key players and Transatlantic network” around Robinson. It argued he may have instigated the recent British upheaval at the behest of a sinister nexus of wealthy far-right figures in Europe and North America, including wealthy Donald Trump supporter Patrick Michael Byrne. Markedly, not once were Israel or Zionists mentioned – far more plausible candidates for directing Robinson’s incitation to Islamophobic violence.
‘Foreign Pressure’
The EDL burst onto British streets in June 2009. Describing itself as a “human rights organization” and touting the slogan “not racist, not violent, just no longer silent,” Robinson and his confederates consistently claimed to be simply standing up for white working-class citizens and raising legitimate concerns about extremist Islam. However, the behavior and chants of its members on regular EDL marches through British towns and cities told a very different story.
Still, the League was ever-keen to flaunt its non-racist, diverse credentials. From its inception, the EDL had dedicated divisions for its Cypriot, Greek, Hindu, Jewish, LGBT and Pakistani Christian supporters and other minority groups present on marches besides. The League’s “Jewish” wing was always the movement’s most visible, even if barely acknowledged by the mainstream media. The profusion of Israel flags routinely found in EDL protests also went largely unremarked upon during the group’s five-year existence.
Yet, indications that the EDL’s activities served quite another nation’s interests were always unambiguously hidden in plain sight. The League never operated as a charity or political party in Britain, but two separate commercial entities were registered under its name. In June 2011, Robinson’s compatriots launched a company, the English Defence League. A month later, this was updated to the English and Jewish Defence League. Meanwhile, a firm known as EDL English Defence League LTD was registered in December 2010.
Two years later, the company’s name became the Jewish Defence League and one of its directors, Roberta Moore, a belligerent Zionist, established links with Jewish Task Force, a far-right U.S. organization. Founded by Victor Vancier, it espouses a hardcore, fundamentalist Zionism. Despite raising money for illegal settlements in the West Bank and avowedly seeking to “save” Israel, Vancier was banned from entering Tel Aviv for his involvement in 18 bombings in New York and Washington, protesting Soviet treatment of Jews during the 1980s.
This connection was reportedly too “extreme” for EDL higherups, who subsequently distanced themselves from Moore and their “Jewish” wing. However, this is difficult to rationalize with Robinson’s own views. In February 2019, a leaked video depicted the former League chief declaring his love for Israel and discussing how, on some occasions, he is forced to “get [his] Zionist card out, which says that [he is] a Zionist.” The clip ended with him proudly declaring:
Palestine?! F*** Palestine. Why would you support Palestine? If there was a war tomorrow, which probably there would be, I would be there on the front line fighting for Israel”.
Five months later, Robinson was jailed for 13 months for contempt of court after he exposed the protected identities of accused sexual groomers while they were on trial in May the previous year. Once imprisoned, notorious hardline Zionist lobby think tank Middle East Forum announced it had not only helped fund his legal expenses but financed and organized 25,000-strong solidarity protests in his honor. An accompanying statement revealed:
MEF is helping Mr. Robinson in his moment of danger…[MEF] is aiding Mr. Robinson…diplomatically, by bringing foreign pressure on the UK government to ensure [his] safety and eventual release.
The statement was signed by MEF Director Gregg Roman, who previously worked in the Zionist entity’s Defence and foreign ministries. There are no prizes for guessing from which country the “foreign pressure” to release Robinson emanated.
‘Going Undercover’
In the EDL, Robinson and Moore were not alone in having deep and cohering ties to Israel and a pronounced affinity for Zionism. One of the group’s key founders, “Paul Ray,” whose blogging on race was cited in the manifesto of Norwegian Islamophobic mass murderer Anders Breivik, had a highly dubious history indeed as an infiltrator of Palestine solidarity movements in Britain. Whether he was a volunteer or state agent remains unclear today, but he evidently inflicted enormous damage on his targets.
In September 2006, Islamophobic U.S. website FrontPageMag published an “exposeé” on how one of its British “volunteers” had infiltrated the International Solidarity Movement’s London wing a year prior. ISM is a pro-Palestinian campaign group dedicated to nonviolent protests, with chapters around the world. It trains and dispatches volunteers to the Occupied Territories to assist with nonviolent protest activities. Despite this, in 2003, two ISM activists – Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall – were killed by Israeli Occupation Forces.
Investigative journalist Asa Winstanley, a veteran Palestine solidarity activist, has revealed that British intelligence has long penetrated ISM. Ray—real name Paul Cinato—was among the spies who infiltrated the Movement. As the FrontPageMag article reported, he “had prior experience going undercover for the police in the UK” before targeting ISM. The outlet added, “Photos and intelligence [Cinato] brought back are proving invaluable to intelligence agencies watching ISM and [are] in official hands.”
Again, there are few prizes for guessing the location of the “intelligence agencies watching ISM” that benefited from Cinato’s activities. Other British spies who infiltrated the Movement very clearly passed what they learned on to Zionist entity authorities. By 2008, Tel Aviv had obtained such precise intelligence on the group that its volunteers were either deported after entering Israel or blocked from entering altogether. As ISM’s primary raison d’etre was to get people into the Occupied Territories, its value and impact were significantly curtailed.
It must not be forgotten either that the deranged “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory was a core precept of the EDL during its five-year-long lifespan and remains promulgated by Robinson and Britain’s fascist rioters in the present day. This narrative posits that Western elites are covertly engaged in a dastardly connivance to flood Europe with Muslims and destroy local culture in service of creating “Eurabia,” an Islamized mega-continent and caliphate.
The originator of this profoundly racist, fantastical drivel was “Bat Ye’or” – the nom de plume of former Mossad operative Gisèle Littman. In 1961, she and her British husband David led Operation Mural, a sickening Zionist operation to kidnap Jewish children from Morocco to become settler colonists in Israel. She spent three months in Rabat posing as a Christian aid worker, gaining the trust of young targets to assist with their unwilling extraction.
The pair went on to be involved in a variety of Zionist organizations and leading lights in the Islamophobic Counterjihad movement. Despite their sordid personal and professional history being well-documented, Gisèle Littman’s obscenely hypocritical “Great Replacement” theory quickly became popular with right-wingers in Europe and North America. As a 2019 Guardian long-read put it:
Once an obscure idea confined to the darker corners of the internet, the anti-Islam ideology is now visible in the everyday politics of the West.”
Littman’s “theory” is just one way in which the Zionist entity has over decades normalized and legitimized everyday discrimination and xenophobia towards Muslims while dehumanizing and demonizing them in pursuit of its putrid, genocidal settler colonial project. Having insidiously poisoned Western information spaces with surging Islamophobic hatred via assets such as Tommy Robinson, it appears the pot is finally boiling over in Britain.
That there is a mainstream omerta on these fundamental truths indicates Europe and North America’s media and political class are determined to let the Zionist entity get away with it.
Feature photo | Illustration by MintPress News
Kit Klarenberg is an investigative journalist and MintPress News contributor exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics and perceptions. His work has previously appeared in The Cradle, Declassified UK, and Grayzone. Follow him on Twitter @KitKlarenberg.
Zionism Observer vs IDF: The Battle to Shut Down Israel’s Toxic Website Extorting Gaza’s Civilians
Zionism Observer’s relentless efforts reveal the IDF’s use of Alkasheff Gaza to spread fear and disunity among Palestinians as the site resurfaces despite repeated shutdowns. Kit Klarenberg investigates.
On July 18, independent media outlet Mondoweiss reported that an anonymous collective of tech professionals, known as Zionism Observer, had successfully led a campaign to shut down a horrific “extortion” website managed by Israeli Defense Forces for the third time since its April launch. In a remarkable and inspiring example of effective grassroots anti-Zionist activism, multiple major online hosting, domain registration and software companies were publicly pressured into purging the monstrous resource from the web. But today, it’s operational once more.
Known as Alkasheff Gaza, the website hosts a searchable database of Palestinians, along with their names, government identification numbers, addresses, places of worship, and more. It is claimed that the individuals listed spied for Hamas. This information is drawn from local municipal police files seized by IDF operatives. The resource burst into public view in May when Israeli forces rained down leaflets on Gazans featuring pictures and names of 130 purported spies and a QR code for visiting their contactable Telegram channel.
Even more sinisterly, these leaflets threatened that the IDF would publish damaging details on even more Gazans if they didn’t first call the IDF on a number included on the leaflet.
Hundreds of thousands of reports on you, the people of Gaza, have been collected…Do you want to know if you were spied on and reported? Go to the website, enter your ID number, and find out who reported you.
A “military source” told Israeli publication Haaretz that the IDF had “legal permission to engage in this extortion.”
“Collaborator with [Hamas] General Security! Have you found out if your ID number is on the website? We will soon reveal your details to everyone. You can still save yourself – call us,” the pamphlet warned. Adjacent, the photo and name of a Palestinian man featured, along with the caption, “today’s snitch.” He allegedly provided information to Hamas on an individual who frequently visited Egypt to have sexual relations with a married woman whose husband spent extended periods away from home in the Gulf States.
Such disclosures starkly contrast to the declarations of a nameless IDF official, who, in defending the leaflet drop, told Haaretz that Israel’s military “didn’t put personal stories there” or “provide details about what these people knew or collected.” The same source also dismissed suggestions that Alkasheff Gaza was a “means of extortion.” Instead, they claimed the intention was to “awaken the public there, showing it what Hamas has done.”
People whose photos we’ve published were carefully selected by Hamas, which recruited them for spying and extorting people. These are people from clans which are identified with Hamas. It’s part of the way Hamas uses people. We propose to all civilians and people who’ve had similar experiences to give us information.”
Gravely undermining this benign explanation, some of the “informants and collaborators” pictured on the IDF’s leaflets were just children, some of whom looked no older than 10, while others appeared younger than five. In addition to allegations that individuals featured on the leaflets had spied for Hamas, they featured an ominous threat to reveal deeply damaging personal information on targets, including criminal records, extramarital affairs and sexual proclivities. These were accompanied by requests for intelligence on Hamas and the location of remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza.
Mental coercion of civilians in war zones is a brazen violation of established laws of war and the Genocide Convention. Yet, these tactics have been a core component of IDF operations since October 2023. Israel has bombarded Palestinians with leaflets demanding “surrender now or you will die” or simply mocking their impossibly bleak situation. One airdrop in December even featured a Quranic quote about the fate of “wrongdoers.”
In reality, it appears the purpose of Alkasheff Gaza is psychological torture – to spread distrust, disunity, and disillusionment among the area’s already embattled population, who live under the daily threat of total annihilation. As monstrous as this effort might be, there are substantial grounds to believe its repeated respawning is reflective of the IDF’s broader catastrophic failure in Gaza. And, in turn, yet another harbinger of Israel’s impending, inevitable extinction.
‘Very Sloppy’
A Zionism Observer activist – a software developer who wishes to remain anonymous – tells MintPress News that the ease and speed with which their activist group initially succeeded in purging Alkasheff Gaza from the internet “felt like a substantial victory.” But then, the IDF completely rebuilt the online database using new tools and hosts. The second time around, the website featured a note stating without irony: “Suspicious people are trying to keep us from exposing Hamas.” Zionism Observer promptly added “suspicious people” to their X bio.
The software developer suspects that the website’s earlier, “scarier” incarnation was a significant factor in compelling NameCheap, Webflow, and Twitter/X to deplatform Alkasheff Gaza within a matter of days in May. Zionism Observer and many named and unnamed online activists bombarded these companies with requests to remove the site, and they acquiesced. In addition to photos and biographical information on innocent children, “the site had a timer, along with a warning that when the timer expired, damaging information would be released on average citizens without delay.”
Zionism Observer was very surprised by the third relaunch, on May 25, which they then took down in the days. The fourth led to its current iteration, which remains extant as of July 31 and can be accessed via .com, .info and .net domains. For a variety of reasons, Zionism Observer is at a loss as to why the IDF persists in maintaining the site, let alone relaunching it whenever it’s taken down:
The database became useless after the 12th evacuation order, if not before. It lists information on locals, where they are, and where they pray, but do the mosques listed even exist anymore? Israel has been shoving people all over the place. Despite facial recognition cameras throughout Gaza, I don’t think the IDF has any clue where people are. This could just be psychological warfare, intended to make the population not trust each other and terrify individual citizens into believing the Zionists have dirt on them somehow.”
Mossad has a lengthy, deplorable history of blackmailing LGBT Palestinians, threatening them with public exposure if they refuse to turn agent and spy on their families, friends, and local communities. “This would be doing that at scale,” Zionism Observer’s software developer tells MintPress News. Although, they aren’t entirely convinced of that explanation. They are also confused by the site’s unsophisticated construction. Despite apparently being a formal IDF project, it isn’t built using the same tools as the Forces’ official websites:
They’re using ‘no/low-code’ tools that help people who aren’t programmers build software. If professional developers created the site instead, there is a good chance that I wouldn’t even be able to figure out what tools were used to build and power the site, and there certainly wouldn’t be abuse-reporting forms and e-mails to direct people to. This could have been running on a server in an IDF datacenter, completely opaque to researchers. Perhaps someone unqualified to do this kind of thing got the contract, did it in a very sloppy way, and they’re now desperately trying to keep it going?”
Another mystery for Zionism Observer is whether the database is working from the IDF’s perspective and, if not, whether it ever did. What “working” would entail is likewise opaque. Have any scared Palestinians reached out to the IDF? That was clearly a core founding objective of Alkasheff Gaza, given that accompanying Telegram accounts were registered and leaflet recipients and website visitors were directed to contact the Forces anonymously through these resources.
Eerily, what’s clear is that Alkasheff Gaza was intended to gather information on all its visitors. Among the back-end revelations, Zionism Observer identified was that the site’s searchable database of entries forwarded not only any terms entered to the IDF but also a visitor’s IP address, latitude, longitude, and city and region of residence.
This would, of course, harvest a wealth of deeply sensitive intelligence on both Palestinians and foreign citizens. The software developer speculates:
Perhaps that is the site’s value, and why they refuse to give up. Or, is the IDF as technologically incompetent as they are militarily? Maybe all they’re really good at is spying on people, and the operatives spying on people are spending more time jerking off to webcams than they are doing their actual jobs?”