[Opinion] Palestinian Propaganda in Space
[Excerpts]
This disinformation campaign was led by a well-financed US-based non-government organization (NGO) known as Al Shabaka. Zena Agha, the author of the tendentious Foreign Policy opinion piece, is employed by Al Shabaka, and has a long list of publications that promote anti-Israeli disinformation. (According to the NGO’s website, “Her areas of expertise include Israeli settlement-building in the occupied Palestinian territory with a special focus on Jerusalem, modern Middle Eastern history, and spatial practices.”) Her triumphalist propaganda piece on satellite imaging and censorship was also pushed intensively on Al Shabaka’s social media accounts.
Al Shabaka has an annual budget of over $500,000 – a mid-sized member in the long list of NGOs dedicated to demonizing Israel. Their 2018 donors include the governments of Switzerland and Germany (through one of the country’s taxpayer funded left-wing and anti-Israel “political foundations”), as well as the US-based Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Open Society Foundation. The donors all claim to be promoting peace, transparency, and democratic values, but in reality, the funds they provide fuel ongoing and ideological warfare and specious “victories”.
Surely there are better ways to spend the money.