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Israel’s parliamentary plot against UK politicians

Update : 08 Jan 2017, 10:32 AM
The Israeli government is in the midst of a brazen trying to influence the campaign in Britain, reports Al Jazeera after a six-month undercover investigation. Each episode of the four-part series called 'The Lobby' will be broadcasted daily on Al Jazeera from January 15 at 22:30 GMT. An undercover reporter, Robin (alias), dissimulated as a graduate activist with strong sympathies towards Israel who was keen to help combat the Boycott for half a year. He became Divestment and Sanctions movement prominent in Britain. Robin met with members of Britain's lobby network that enjoys strong support from the Israeli government by way of the Israeli embassy in London On Sunday Al Jazeera revealed that an Israeli diplomat plotted against a British senior politicians to destroy the careers.

Alan Duncan targeted

Robin secretly filmed the moment at a London brasserie when Shai Masot, senior political officer at the Israeli embassy, asked Maria Strizzolo, who was then chief of staff to MP Robert Halfon, the deputy chairman of the ruling Conservative Party: "Can I give you some MPs that I would suggest you take down?" In response, Strizzolo said: "Well you know, if you look hard enough I'm sure that there is something that they're trying to hide." "Yeah. I have some MPs," Masot replies. "[Strizzolo] knows which MPs I want to take down… The Deputy Foreign Minister." Masot was referring to Sir Alan Duncan, the foreign office minister. Strizzolo later hinted that 'a little scandal' might see Duncan dismissed. Duncan said in 2014 that while he fully supports Israel's right to exist, he believes settlements on occupied Palestinian land represent an "ever-deepening stain on the face of the globe". He also likened the situation in Hebron in the occupied West Bank to apartheid. At the same dinner table conversation, Masot reffered British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson as an 'idiot … without any kind of responsibilities' who is Duncan's boss, referred. Meanwhile Strizzolo said he was 'solid on Israel'.

Shaping foreign policy agenda

Strizzolo, while advising Robin, revealed that she had a strategy of manipulation to ensure Israel remains at the top of the UK's foreign policy agenda. "If at least you can get a small group of MPs that you know you can always rely on, when there is something coming to parliament and you know you brief them, you say: 'you don't have to do anything, we are going to give you the speech, we are going to give you all the information, we are going to do everything for you'," she said. She also advised trying to infiltrate Prime Minster's Questions, a weekly session in which the leader of the country answers questions from MPs. The debate is televised live. "If they already have the question to table for PMQs [Prime Minister's Questions], it's harder to say: 'No, no, no, I won't do it'," she said. Strizzolo then boasted how her own efforts once made an immediate impact on the national debate. While in Israel with the Conservative Friends of Israel parliamentary group in 2014, she persuaded MP Halfon to question the prime minster in public over three missing teenagers believed to have been kidnapped and murdered "to get a response from the government", Strizzolo said. Halfon took the request and called on Cameron to support the Israeli government, which he said should do "everything possible to take out Hamas terrorist networks". In response, Cameron promised that Britain would 'stand by Israel'. After news of Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit's series 'The Lobby' was published by international media, an Israeli embassy spokesman in London tweeted a message saying that Masot would be 'ending his term shortly', adding that Mark Regev, ambassador of Israel to the UK, had apologised to Duncan 'and made clear that the embassy considered the remarks to be completely unacceptable'.
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