Israel lobby is UK's most powerful, a new documentary 

Published today (updated) 18/11/2009 19:32

Bethlehem – Ma’an –

A new documentary on the UK’s Channel 4 television looks into the reach and influence of what the filmmakers say is Britain’s most powerful political interest: the Israel lobby.

Documentarians Peter Osborne and James Jones uncovered obscure funding patterns of British members of parliament by members of pro-Israel groups and also revealed the pressure the lobby exerts on the media. The show first aired on Monday evening.

In a pamphlet published on the website OpenDemocracy Osborne explained that the concept was born out of a marked silence in the British media when exploring the extent of Israel’s influence on Westminster, noting that, oftentimes, those who broche the subject or criticize Israel are accused of anti-Semitism.

“Whether as a result of these pressures or for some other reason, mainstream political publishing in Britain tends simply to ignore Israeli influence … However, many people just don’t want to speak out about the Israel lobby. So making our film at times felt like an impossible task.”

When approaching MPs and senior journalists, Osborne and Jones were met with reservation and fears, with few offering to speak on the record. One willing interviewee, Michael Mates, a member of the Intelligence and Security Committee and former Northern Ireland minister remarked that “the pro-Israel lobby in our body politic is the most powerful political lobby. There’s nothing to touch them,” adding, “I think their lobbying is done very discreetly, in very high places, which may be why it is so effective.”

First in funding

The exposé revealed that approximately half of the members of the shadow cabinet are members of the Conservative Friends of Israel (CIF), “probably the best funded of all Westminster lobbying groups,” which has made a number of donations to conservative constituency offices, often through company names allowing the sums to appear relatively unconnected to the organization itself. The program further discovered that 80% of Conservative MPs are members of the CIF, adding that several candidates who won seats in the parliament had funds donated to them by the CIF.

The Labor Friends of Israel (LFI), "a Westminster based lobby group working within the British Labor Party to promote the State of Israel" fostered close ties with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who joined the society upon his premiership. Notably, his ties with Baron Michael Levy, a firm LFI supporter and formerly head fundraiser for a number of Jewish charities, led to the prime minister’s entanglement with the "cash for peerages" scandal in 2006, for which Levy was detained and questioned. Levy raised approximately 15 million British pounds for Blair until the scandal ended his fundraising career.

Britain’s most prominent Israel lobby, the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM), the equivalent of the US AIPAC, has given over two million British Pounds in donations directly from the organization’s chairman, Finnish gambling tycoon Poju Zabludowicz, according to the program’s findings.

Most significantly, however, Zabludowicz’s father made his money through Israeli arms manufacturers Soltam Systems, a company that recently provided the Israeli army with artillery for Operation Cast Led in Gaza last winter. It was further discovered that Zabludowicz owns property in the illegal Jerusalem settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, where he has stakes in a shopping centre. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband recently described such settlements as “illegal” and “an obstacle to peace.”

Media war

The connection between BICOM and the Israeli army's artillery acquirement became ever more suspect when Osborn and Jones probed the lobby's sway over British media, and in particular, over the BBC's decision not to broadcast an advertisement appealing for funds for Gaza by Disasters Emergency Committee.

While the investigation could not find conclusive evidence to support any lobby's interference in the matter, their interview with the BBC's Charlie Becket revealed that "If there was no pro-Israel lobby in this country then I don't think [screening the appeal] would have been politically problematic. I don't think it would be a serious political issue and concern for them if they didn't have that pressure from an extraordinarily active, sophisticated, and persuasive lobby sticking up for the Israeli viewpoint."

BICOM has further sponsored expense-paid trips for journalists to Israel, Osborne and Jones noting that the organization sent six journalists to Gaza two months after Operation Cast Led to meet with the Israeli Defense Minister and to conclude that "more attention be paid to Iran than the Palestinians."

The Israel lobbies have also been instrumental in ensuring that journalists who criticize Israel "who have been subject to ceaseless pressure and at times harassment from the Israeli government and pressure groups," citing the examples of The Guardian's Suzanne Goldberg whose line of reporting on the Israel-Palestine conflict led to her transfer to Washington, and Chris McGreal who fell victim to a smear campaign after he published an article likening Israel to an apartheid South Africa.

Additionally, the BBC's Jeremy Bowen faced "powerful attacks" after he published an online article marking the 40th anniversary of the Arab-Israel War. Two members from respective pressure groups The Zionist Federation and CAMERA launched a campaign accusing Bowen of accuracy and impartiality breaches and calling for his resignation. Bowen had published a similar article, including the contested lines, a few months before in the Jewish Chronicle which met with no complaint or opposition.

So what do Osborne and Jones make of their findings? Both asserted that all donations accepted by MPs are “entirely legal,” but “emphatically not transparent,” concluding that “Israel … has a profound right to exist. But this moral legitimacy does not mean that the foreign and internal policies of Israel should be exempt from the same kind of probing criticism that any independent state must expect. Nor does it mean that the rights of Palestinians to their own state can be ignored.”

The program does not suggested that a curb be placed on the lobbies' influence in parliament, all the while referring to probable contraventions to guidelines set out by the British the Committee on Standards in Public Life. The revelations appear timidly alarming, refraining from accusations of anything more than financial support that lack transparency. While refreshing and informative, one can't help but feel that perhaps the pressure that has caused many to shy away from the issue of Israel's influence on Westminster- the very instigator for the program - has limited Osborne from probing further into the possible far-reaching effects the lobbies have on British foreign policy.

Dispatches: Inside Britain's Israel Lobby was broadcast on Channel on Monday and will be shown again on Friday.