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