Rights Groups Demand Biden Give Answers on Israel’s Secret Influence Campaign on Congress

Ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial address to Congress, a coalition of more than 30 human rights and faith-based advocacy groups sent a letter on Wednesday urging the U.S. government to investigate several media reports that the Israeli government has been operating a social media influence scheme to sway American lawmakers toward pro-Israeli policies.  

The letter, addressed to President Joe Biden, references reporting from the New York Times, The Guardian, and Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which, in separate investigations, uncovered an Israeli influence campaign that used fake accounts to pose as Americans in order to disparage pro-Palestinian groups with “deeply Islamophobic and anti-immigrant content,” target student groups and human rights organizations who were critical of Israel, and post pro-Israel content online. The campaign was designed to persuade lawmakers to continue providing military aid to Israel for its war on Gaza, and focused on Black Democratic members of Congress.

“What this letter asks for is very simple: that President Biden and his administration treat reports of inappropriate Israeli influence operations with the same seriousness that it has allegations of Russian and Iranian influence campaigns.” said Jamal Abdi, head of the National Iranian American Council, referring to separate efforts to interrupt American democracy by Iran and Russia ahead of the 2016 and 2020 elections and earlier this year. “Unfortunately, what has been reported thus far could just be the tip of the iceberg.”

The letter, also addressed to the departments of Justice, State and Homeland Security, arrived hours before Netanyahu is expected to address Congress in a joint session, which has drawn a wave of criticism. Signatories include the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, the Sikh Coalition, and a number of American Quaker groups.

Raed Jarrar — advocacy director at Democracy for the Arab World Now, a letter signee and human rights group founded by slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi — called on the Biden administration to protect democracy and to “end its policy of exceptionalism towards Israel and hold all nations to the same standards.”

Vice President Kamala Harris has said she will not preside over the address but will meet with Netanyahu at a later time during his visit to Washington, which began Monday. Hundreds of demonstrators with Jewish Voice for Peace filled the Capitol rotunda on Tuesday, in protest of Netanyahu’s visit, chanting “Let Gaza Live!” until Capitol police arrested the crowd.

A growing number of lawmakers are boycotting the far-right prime minster’s address, including senior Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin, Patty Murray, Bernie Sanders, and Chris Van Hollen, along with progressive members of the House of Representatives. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, has been the most pointed in her attacks on the address, referring to Netanyahu as “a war criminal committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” in a statement Tuesday, in which she called for his arrest and deportation to the International Criminal Court. She also referred to the event as “a celebration of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians” and criticized continued U.S. military aid to Israel.

Last week, a separate letter signed by 230 Senate and House staffers from 122 Democratic and Republican congressional offices called on lawmakers to boycott the address, referring to the ICC war crimes case against Netanyahu. “This is not an issue of politics, but an issue of morality,” the staffers’ letter read.  

The ICC’s prosecutor requested arrest warrants in May for Netanyahu and his cabinet member and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant on a series of war crimes, including starvation of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the targeting of civilians in its military attacks. The ICC has yet to approve the warrants. Last Friday, the International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ top court, ruled that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem is illegal, rife with war crime violations, and amounts to apartheid. A separate ICJ case is considering whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Since the start of Israel’s campaign in Gaza, the Biden administration has been criticized for its handling of the conflict and its deference toward Israel, which many critics and international law observers see as a double standard in foreign policy. Despite Biden’s public denunciations of civilian deaths, Israel has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children. Bombardments have intensified in recent weeks with civilian death tolls mounting, even as Israel is engaged in ceasefire talks. The U.S. has continued to send billions in military aid throughout the conflict, with a few temporary exceptions, and has repeatedly upheld Israel’s right to defend itself from Hamas.

Letter signers pointed to recent sanctions by the Treasury Department earlier this year against Russian hackers over a similar campaign influence scheme, and asked Biden for Israel’s program to be treated the same. 

Israel’s influence campaign received $2 million in government funding and was commissioned by its Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, which fosters relationships between Jews across the globe with Israel, according to the New York Times. Both their report and Haaretz’s reporting linked the campaign to Stoic, a Tel-Aviv-based political marketing firm. Stoic created and ran various social media accounts that spread Islamophobic material. One posted that Muslim immigrants posed a threat to Canada and were calling for a Sharia state. Another account highlighted the history of Arab slave traders in Africa, in an effort to sway Black American lawmakers, Haaretz reported.

“As an Administration that has defined itself as defenders of American democracy against threats from both domestic and foreign state actors, the news of the Israeli government’s attacks on our democracy must be addressed,” the letter urged.

Wednesday’s letter also outlined previous communications between signatories and State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. Miller declined to comment on the facts around Israel’s social media scheme highlighted in media reports, and instead stated that “we have very clear laws on the books in the United States about foreign influence campaigns. We enforce those laws vigorously and we expect everyone to comply with them.” He did not give any indication that the State Department would investigate the allegations further. 

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.