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AJ Plus
AJ Plus (AJ+) is an online news channel run by Al Jazeera Media Network (Al Jazeera) that produces videos and content in English, Arabic, Spanish and French, which it distributes across various social media platforms.
As of November 2020, the channel’s Twitter bio described itself as “a unique digital news and storytelling project promoting human rights and equality, holding power to account, and amplifying the voices of the powerless.”
The channel's founder, senior employees and executives have spread a wide variety of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hatred and shown support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
In its content and on social media, AJ+ has spread anti-Semitism, whitewashed terrorists and defended violent protesters. It has also promoted incitement and attempted to leverage intersectional politics to demonize Israel.
The channel has also spread hatred of Israel and promoted the BDS movement.
Al Jazeera founded AJ+ in 2014, initially based in San Francisco. As of 2020, AJ+ maintained offices in Washington, D.C and Doha, Qatar.
Al Jazeera is owned by the government of Qatar and has been repeatedly accused of slanting news reports to support and promote the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.
AJ+ English was reportedly created to reach “viewers between 18 and 34 years old,” with a focus on breaking into the American market.
On September 20, 2017, AJ+ executive producer Sakhr Al-Makhadhi said [00:08:48] in an interview for the International Journalism Festival: “We at AJ+ English target a young American audience.” Al-Makhadhi also said [00:06:48] “Al Jazeera had been trying to crack the American market for a long time, and AJ+ was an experiment…”
In the same interview, Al-Makhadhi also addressed the differences between AJ+ Arabic and AJ+ English, saying [00:08:26] that AJ+ Arabic targets “a young Middle East and North African-based audience. AJ+ English targets a young American audience. We were very clear that every story we produce had to be produced distinctly.”
In June 2015, Variety reported that AJ+ became the second-largest news video publisher on Facebook. In October 2015, Digital TV Europe reported that the channel had reached over one billion video views across its platforms.
As of November 2020, the English Facebook page of AJ+ showed over 11.5 million followers for its English Facebook page. As of December 2020, the AJ+ Arabic Facebook page said it had over 11.1 million followers.
1. Riyaad Minty is the founder of AJ+. He has defended Hamas, spread incitement, demonized Israel and promoted BDS.
2. Dima Khatib, AJ+ managing director since September 2015, has spread anti-Semitism, defended Hamas and whitewashed Hezbollah. She has also glorified a terrorist and demonized Israel. Khatib is a supporter of BDS.
3. Danna Fakhoury has been an AJ+ senior social content producer since November 2019 and a “global engager” from 2014 to 2019. Fakhoury has equated Zionism with Nazism, spread hatred of Israel and supported BDS.
4. Dena Takruri, an AJ+ host and producer since 2013, has spread incitement, demonized Israel and promoted an anti-Israel agitator.
5. Moeed Ahmad, the head of AJ+ English since 2018, has demonized Israel, promoted anti-Israel agitators and is a supporter of BDS.
6. Sakhr Al-Makhadhi, AJ+ executive producer since 2017 and Middle East editor since 2015, has spread hatred of Israel, supported an anti-Israel agitator and is a supporter of BDS.
7. Sana Saeed, an AJ+ senior producer since 2018 and host since 2014, has spread hatred of Israel, demonized Zionism and promoted BDS.
8. Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, a senior AJ+ correspondent from June 2016 to January 2020, has promoted incitement and promoted BDS.
In September 2020, CNN reported that the U.S. Department of Justice ordered AJ+ to register as “an agent of the Government of Qatar” under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), because “AJ+ has about 80 employees in the U.S. whose salaries ‘are paid by funds originating with the Government of Qatar’ and whose work is carried out ‘at the direction and control’ of Qatari leadership.”
On May 18, 2019, the AJ+ Arabic channel tweeted a video that was captioned in Arabic: “The gas chambers killed millions of Jews…So the story says. How true is the #Holocaust and how did the Zionists benefit from it?”
On May 20, 2019, The Forward reported that AJ+ took down the video and suspended the journalists who produced it. The video already had 1.1 million views on Facebook and Twitter.
The Forward reported that the video said: “In all, the Nazis killed 20 million people during the Holocaust and the Final Solution, and the Jews were just a part of that. Then why does the world focus so much on Jews?” The video alleged that the Holocaust death toll “statistics were inflated by the Zionist movement to help them establish Israel.”
The video also reportedly claimed: “But Israel – who benefitted the most from the Holocaust – uses the same pretexts as the Nazis to commit ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians and eliminate them.”
On January 24, 2020, Middle East Online summarized the video, writing that it “suggested Jews had exploited their supposed control of media, financial and academic institutions to exaggerate the extent of the Holocaust.”
On November 17, 2020, AJ+ Arabic posted to Instagram a video that suggested the history of the Jewish Temple on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount was an “allegation,” promoting what is known as “Temple Denial.”
The AJ+ video criticized a United Arab Emirates (UAE) airline’s Instagram video promoting new flights to Israel after both countries normalized relations.
“Temple Denial” is a part of a broader political effort to deny Jewish history in Israel, in order to delegitimize restored Jewish sovereignty, attack Israel’s legitimacy and portray Jews as foreign to the Land of Israel. It is also a form of historical revisionism that has been compared to Holocaust denial.
Temple Denial reportedly began in the 1990’s with Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat, but its roots trace back to actions taken by the Islamic Waqf in 1948, the year the modern State of Israel was founded.
On April 29, 2017, AJ+ tweeted: “This #SaltWaterChallenge is showing solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike.” The tweet featured a two-minute AJ+ video that showcased [00:00:16] Aarab Marwan Barghouti, the son of terrorist leader Marwan Barghouti, and promoted the Saltwater Challenge.
The AJ+ video referred [00:00:49] to Marwan Barghouti only as a “politician.”
The “Saltwater Challenge” was held in solidarity with Palestinian inmates who were on a hunger strike in Israeli prisons.
The strike was initiated by Marwan Barghouti, who was serving five consecutive life sentences for his role in suicide bombings and shooting attacks that killed five Israelis during the second intifada. Barghouti led the Palestinian Authority (PA) terrorist Tanzim force and founded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
Barghouti also financed the guitar-case bomb used in the Sbarro Cafe massacre, where 15 civilians were killed and 130 were injured. More than 1,000 other Palestinian prisoners participated in the hunger strike, most of whom were also convicted for acts of terrorism. Aarab Barghouti, the son of Marwan Barghouti, was credited with starting the “Saltwater Challenge.”
On August 18, 2017, AJ+ tweeted: “Israel doesn't just arrest Palestinians, it demolishes their family homes too as collective punishment.” The tweet featured an AJ+-produced video about Israel demolishing the home of Omar al-Abed, describing him only as a “20-year-old Palestinian.”
On July 21, 2017, al-Abed stabbed four Israelis, killing three, after he jumped over a fence and broke into the home as the family observed the Jewish Sabbath.
Hours before committing the murder, al-Abed wrote “his final words” on Facebook, saying: “Muslims, wrap me with the flags of God's prophet, wrap my head with the headband of al-Qassam [Hamas’s military wing al-Qassam Brigades], and wrap my chest with Yasser Arafat’s headband and leave them with me in the grave."
Al-Abed’s mother and father, two brothers, and an uncle were later convicted for failing to prevent the attack by sharing their knowledge of al-Abed’s deadly plans with Israeli law enforcement. Al-Abed’s mother was reportedly arrested for "aggravated incitement," after she said she was proud of her son in a social media video that went viral.
On July 13, 2017, AJ+ tweeted: “Palestinian politician and human rights activist, Khalida Jarrar, has been sentenced to 6 months in prison without trial or charge.”
Khalida Jarrar is a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization. In 2015, an Israeli military court sentenced Jarrar to 15 months in prison for calling to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Israel arrested Jarrar again in 2017 “on suspicion of involvement with terrorist activities and violent public disturbances.”
In 2019, Jarrar was arrested by Israel, along with other PFLP operatives, following a deadly 2018 bombing attack that targeted an Israeli family. Jarrar was reportedly the head of the PFLP in the West Bank since 2016 and the cell was reportedly “planning additional attacks.” Guns and bomb-making equipment were seized during the arrests.
On May 3, 2017, AJ+ tweeted a video that claimed [00:00:01]: “Hamas officially dropped its call to destroy Israel.” The video was about a document published on Hamas’s English language website, titled “Document of General Principles and Policies,” which stated [paragraph 20]: “Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.”
The AJ+ video claimed [00:00:24] Hamas “now says it would accept a compromise for the borders of a future Palestinian state.”
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” is a chant calling to dismantle the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state.
On April 13, 2016, AJ+ tweeted: “Dima hasn't even finished seventh grade yet, but she's already behind bars in Israel.” The tweet featured an AJ+- produced video about Dima Al-Wawi, which featured her mother claiming [00:00:27] Al-Wawi posed no threat to anyone at any time and was incapable of a stabbing attack.
12-year-old Al-Wawi was imprisoned for attempting to stab a security guard at the Israeli community of Karmei Tzur. Al-Wawi later claimed that she intended to kill the security guard and hoped she would be killed in the process. “I was dreaming that I was going to be martyred,” she said.
On October 5, 2015, AJ+ posted to YouTube a video titled: “4 Palestinians, 4 Israelis Killed – Start Of The Third Intifada?”
The video claimed [00:00:10]: “Four Palestinian teenagers have been shot dead by Israeli authorities,” glossing over the circumstances of the four deaths. The video framed [00:00:24] reports of the stabbing attacks carried out by Fadi Alloon and Muhannad Halabi as allegations by Israeli police and authorities.
Fadi Aloon was shot by Israeli security forces after he stabbed a 15-year-old Israeli boy. Several hours before the attack, Aloon posted “Either martyrdom or victory” on his Facebook page.
On October 3, 2015, 19-year-old Mohanad Halabi murdered two Israeli rabbis in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem’s Old City. Aharon Banita-Bennett, 22 and Old City resident Nehemia Lavi, 41, were killed. Banita-Bennett’s wife and child were also injured. The victims had gone to pray at the Old City’s Western Wall.
One day earlier, Halabi, a member of the terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), had reportedly posted on his Facebook page that “the [t]he third Intifada is here" and also wrote "[w]ake up from your slumber and save al-Aqsa. Let the revolution erupt.”
October 2015 saw an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings — known as the “Knife Intifada” — saw young Palestinians throughout the country stabbing and attempting to stab Israeli civilians. The attacks were sparked and fueled by Palestinian leaders propagating the libel that Israel intended to desecrate the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
On July 12, 2015, AJ+ tweeted: “Palestinian activist Khader Adnan who was on a 56-day hunger strike has been released from an Israeli jail:”
Khader Adnan is a senior member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist organization. A 2007 YouTube video showed Adnan praising and encouraging suicide bombings: "Who among you will carry the next explosive belt? Who among you will fire the next bullets? Who among you will have his body parts blown all over?
On March 13, 2015, AJ+ tweeted: “Hamas jumped on the #Twitter bandwagon with their #AskHamas campaign – Here's how it turned out:”
The tweet included a video about the #AskHamas campaign that featured [00:00:31] Huda Naim, the “Secretary of the Hamas Bloc at the Palestinian Legislative Council.”
In Naim’s responses to different tweets, she justified [00:01:04] suicide bombings, saying [00:00:44]: “We will not disarm until the occupation ends and justice prevails.” She also tweeted [00:00:55]: “It never occurred that resistance launched rocket from hospitals. Israeli says this to get pretext to target hospitals.”
Hamas fired rockets from Shifa Hospital (Shifa) at Israeli population centers during Operation Protective Edge. Hamas misfires also struck Shifa and the nearby al-Shati refugee camp. Hamas cleanup crews then concealed the evidence of the misfires, as was confirmed by Amnesty International and an independent Italian journalist.
During OPE, the IDF targeted sections of Gaza’s Al-Wafa hospital, which Hamas used as a command center.
On November 19, 2014, AJ+ tweeted a video about Israel demolishing the home of Abdel Rahman Al-Shaludi. The video showcased the sister of Al-Shaludi, who called him a “martyr.”
In October 2014, Abdel Rahman Al-Shaludi, a reported supporter of Hamas, drove his car into a crowd of pedestrians in Jerusalem, killing an adult and a 3-month-old baby, before he was shot dead.
Text in the AJ+ video said [00:00:17] the Israeli police shot Al-Shaludi dead “after the incident, which they described as a terror attack.” The text of AJ+’s tweet said: “‘At 4am we heard a horrific explosion…all the kids started to cry’ — Palestinian teen on her home being destroyed.”
On May 14, 2018, AJ+ tweeted: “In Jerusalem, White House adviser Ivanka Trump celebrates the opening of the U.S. embassy. In Gaza, at least 43 Palestinians were killed and nearly 2,000 injured by the Israeli army for peacefully protesting during the #GreatMarchOfReturn.”
In May 2018, violent riots, instigated by Hamas on the Israeli-Gaza border, saw thousands of rioters attempting numerous breaches of Israel’s border fence, with participants declaring their intention to harm Jews across the border.
Media reports confirmed [00:00:20] the March of Return protesters’ breaches and attempted breaches of Israel’s border fence, some by armed Palestinians. On May 15, 2018, senior Hamas official, Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, said that the Gaza protests were under the pretext of “peaceful resistance.”
On May 16, 2018, a Hamas senior official, Salah al-Bardawil, stated that 50 out of 62 protesters killed during the May 14 Gaza border protest were Hamas operatives. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also claimed that three of its members were killed at the same protest.
On April 27, 2018, AJ+ tweeted: “Israeli forces have killed at least 40 Palestinians and wounded a total of 5,000 as the ‘March of Return’ demonstrations continue at the Gaza border fence with Israel.”
March participants sent scores of kites bearing explosive devices across Israel’s border to burn Israeli crops and homes. Participants also attempted to breach the border fence, which caused the Israeli Defense Forces to respond with live fire.
Agitators threw Molotov cocktails, firebombs, shot firearms and threw rocks under the cover of smoke from burning tires.
On July 27, 2017, AJ+ posted to YouTube a video by Ahmad Shihab-Eldin, titled: “Why Is Israel Restricting Access To Al-Aqsa?” The video suggested [00:03:18] that Israel’s installation of metal detectors on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount was part [00:03:06] of an Israeli plan to eventually seize the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Terrorists murdered two Israeli police officers on July 14, 2017, outside the entrance to the Al Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Israel responded by installing metal detectors and security checks at the entrance to the holy site. The terrorists reportedly feared that “Al Aqsa is in danger.” Following rioting and further violence, the Israeli government removed the metal detectors on July 25, 2017.
In the AJ+ video, Shihab-Eldin said [00:04:17]: “Israel styles itself as the state of the Jewish people. So you can understand why many Palestinians and Muslims around the world fear that this holy site is under threat.”
The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been a traditional pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before the existence of the modern Jewish state. Such propaganda served as the excuse for an upsurge in Palestinian violence that flared in the fall of 2015 and incited Palestinians to attempt mass casualty attacks on Israeli civilians in July 2016.
On September 15, 2015, AJ+ tweeted a video and wrote: “Israeli police have stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Occupied East Jerusalem three times in as many days.”
On September 14, 2015, AJ+ tweeted: “Israeli forces have again stormed the Al Aqsa Mosque. Why do situations in Jerusalem frequently get violent?”
On September 13, 2015 masked Palestinian rioters barricaded themselves inside the Al Aqsa Mosque. They set off fireworks — which started a small fire — and threw stones and debris stored inside at Israeli police. The police later found pipe bombs the rioters had prepared to launch at Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount plaza.
On September 2, 2020, AJ+ posted to Instagram: “An Israeli soldier kneeled on a Palestinian protester's neck. The 65-year-old man survived, but the incident is drawing comparisons to the death of George Floyd.”
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a black man, was arrested and killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
On July 2, 2020, AJ+ posted to Instagram a video implying [00:05:55] that Israel shared responsibility for Floyd’s death. The video invoked [00:02:45] the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) “Deadly Exchange” campaign and featured a JVP leader who claimed [00:03:50] that Israel and America were “both rooted in racism and state violence” and that both shared a “natural attraction and a desire to trade[policing] tactics.”
In 2017, JVP launched the “Deadly Exchange” campaign that accused American Jewish organizations of promoting human rights abuses.
JVP also released a video that blamed [00:04:04] US-based Jewish organizations for violence that occurs against Black and Brown communities, immigrants and activists in the U.S.
The video accused mainstream Jewish organizations in the United States of coordinating exchange programs between American and Israeli security personnel, to advance “worst practices” and “racist policies.”
The campaign page claimed that these “policies” included: “extrajudicial executions, shoot-to-kill policies, police murders, racial profiling, massive spying and surveillance, deportation and detention.”
On May 16, 2018, AJ+ tweeted an Al Jazeera video about the “Nakba” that described [00:00:21] Israel as “a state founded at the expense of Palestinian blood and diaspora,” and went on to accuse [00:00:38] Israel of “an operation of ethnic cleansing,” as well as “a deliberate eradication of culture and identity.”
Nakba is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.
On August 11, 2016, AJ+ tweeted: “Israel is characterized as an ’apartheid state’ in one section of the new BLM [Black Lives Matter] platform. More on the BDS movement:” The tweet’s video suggested that BDS could be more effective than peace negotiations.
In August 2016, the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) activist group authored its Policy Platform, which accused Israel of “genocide” and “apartheid.” Black Lives Matter (BLM) was part of M4BL when it issued its platform statement.
On December 16, 2015, AJ+ tweeted a video and wrote: “Security or apartheid? We take a look at Israel's separation wall.” The video introduced [00:00:02] Israel’s security fence as “one of the most infamous man-made structures in the world” and described [00:00:05] it in some places “twice as high as the Berlin Wall.” The video suggested [00:00:55] that the security barrier provided no security value and, instead served [00:03:36] only to destroy neighborhoods, strangle the economy and illegally grab land.
The video’s presenter, Dena Takruri, characterized [00:00:07] Israel’s security fence — 97% of which is a low chain link barrier — as an 8-meter-high wall running 280 miles. Takuri also insinuated [00:00:12] that a non-binding advisory opinion on the security fence issued by the International Court of Justice is binding international law.
On July 30, 2015, AJ+ posted to Facebook a video that accused [00:00:40] Israel of deliberately targeting civilians and attacking [00:00:56] first responders, ambulances and hospitals during Operation Protective Edge (OPE).
Israel commenced OPE in July 2014 to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
Throughout the summer of 2014 — during Operation Protective Edge (OPE) — Hamas's deployment of human shields was extensively documented and publicized. Hamas encouraged Gazans to act as human shields to frustrate Israeli efforts to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza.
On August 6, 2014, AJ+ posted to YouTube a video promoting BDS that showed [00:01:30] a tweet that said: “#BoycottGarnier because genocide is never pretty… #BoycottIsrael #BDS #GazaUnderAttack.”
On August 8, 2014, AJ+ tweeted: “Are you boycotting #Israel? @buycottapp helps you know which products to avoid when shopping:
http://trib.al/ccEpMpO
#ajplus #BDS.” The tweet linked to an AJ+ YouTube video promoting the app, which showed [00:00:26] a tweet that said: “Don’t want to fund genocidal squatters. There’s an App for that!”On the same day, AJ+ social media editor Danna Fakhoury tweeted in response to another AJ+ tweet featuring the same video about the BDS app. Fakhoury wrote: “Hop on the #BDS train! ‘@ajplus: Why are people boycotting McDonald's, SodaStream & HP? We explain the BDS movement. https://trib.al/QozZUh7”
On November 8, 2017, AJ+ tweeted a video interview with BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti, who opposed [00:05:40] “normalization” between Israel and Arab countries. Barghouti also insinuated [00:07:07] that Israel was a “rapist” and the Palestinians were like a “rape victim.”
