Jewish Labour group may take legal action against Al Jazeera over undercover filming
One of the organizations targeted in an undercover Al Jazeera investigation, exposing Israeli influence in British politics, is considering legal action against the broadcaster.
The Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) has seen cause to consider a legal complaint against Al Jazeera after its series ‘The Lobby’ recorded the group’s director, Ella Rose, in tears after an encounter with former Momentum organizer Jackie Walker.
Walker, who appears in the documentary series defending her position, has been suspended from Labour, accused of bringing the party into disrepute.*
In the second episode of the series, the undercover reporter, who went by the name of Robin Harrow, filmed himself approaching a very distressed Rose.
“It’s been a tough week,” she’s heard saying. “Essentially [pro-Palestinian news website] Electronic Intifada released that I worked at the [Israeli] embassy for JLM, and Jackie Walker has been slamming me online all week. I just had to stand in front of her; it was really hard.”
Now the group, which organizes Jewish Labour Party members, believes that Harrow’s journalism was unethical and are considering making a formal complaint.
“There are other elements of Harrow’s behavior towards [Rose] whilst undercover that we have not been able to speak about publicly as, pending advice, we hope they will become the subject of a legal complaint,” a senior JLM source told the Jewish Chronicle.
A further source said to be close to both the JLM and the Israeli embassy was quoted in the Jewish News saying: “While this country has a fine tradition of investigative journalism, in this case Al Jazeera’s employee appears to have overstepped the mark, behaving unethically and used the cloak of anonymity to seek footage that can be presented out of its original context in order to incite venom and hatred against Israel’s supporters in the UK.
“Despite spending six months compiling his undercover footage, individuals and organizations targeted were given a shockingly short amount of time to respond to anonymized emails over the holiday period.”
To build his fake persona it is understood Harrow created a Twitter account promoting Zionist policies and posting several pro-Israel messages. He described himself as German-born and as having taken part in Israeli exchange programs in school.
He also blogged for the Times of Israel and argued that anti-Zionist activists were “effectively saying that Israel should not exist.”
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In another article he wrote: “If the Labour Party loses its path, leaves the progressive camp and sanctions terrorist groups like Hamas, we lose more than legitimacy and electability in the minds of the electorate. The Labour Party will lose its soul and open the door to a new wave of anti-Semitism.”
The reports have led to the resignation of Israeli embassy official Shai Masot, who was also exposed by Al Jazeera conspiring to “take down” pro-Palestinian MPs.
* This article has been edited after it was brought to RT's attention by Walker that her suspension was not linked to accusations of anti-Semitic comments, as previously reported.
