"Squad" Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) targets one audience more than any other for her campaign's Facebook ads: fans of the Qatari-backed website Al Jazeera.
Tlaib's campaign has spent over $81,000 on ads in the last 90 days, largely to draw attention to her anti- Israel positions and fundraise for her fellow progressive Squad members in the House, according to data from Facebook's ad database. The Michigan Democrat has used detailed targeting to gear her content mostly to users interested in Al Jazeera, followed by "Palestine," the " Gaza Strip ," and the "top 10% of ZIP codes" in the United States ordered by household income, data show.
It's no surprise Tlaib targets readers of Al Jazeera, according to Republican Jewish Coalition spokesman Sam Markstein, who said Tlaib is "hell-bent" on opposing Israel. Al Jazeera was banned in Israel this year over national security concerns and frequently promotes pro-Hamas propaganda . The website is funded by Qatar, a gas-rich country that has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the Hamas-run Gaza Strip since 2007.
"It would be out of character for Tlaib not to," Markstein told the Washington Examiner.
Tlaib's ad targeting is a window into the types of supporters she seeks to court as the Democrat accuses Israel of genocide and apartheid for retaliating against Hamas over its Oct. 7 attack last year. Tlaib has notably been part of a secret Facebook group whose users have expressed support for Hamas after Oct. 7 — which saw 1,200 Israelis murdered in the Jewish state. Tlaib also co-founded an anti-Israel group called Black for Palestine that pledged "solidarity" in 2016 with Palestinian terrorists, the Washington Examiner reported .
Al Jazeera, the readers of which Tlaib targets through ads, was reportedly required by the Justice Department in 2020 to register as a foreign agent over its Qatari ties. Tlaib's active ads, launched in August on Facebook, include one calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "genocidal" and others asking for a ceasefire in the Middle East.
In recent years, Republicans on Capitol Hill have demanded answers from the DOJ due to its failure to enforce the Foreign Agents Registration Act, including for Al Jazeera and other foreign-linked entities.
"Given Al Jazeera’s and TikTok’s public prominence in the U.S., mounting evidence of their use to advance foreign agendas, and the Biden administration’s own national security concerns with the two companies, the committee is puzzled that the department appears to have either ceased or paused enforcement of FARA registration requirements for the companies without explanation," House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) wrote in a letter in February to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Al Jazeera's financier, Qatar, shelters top Hamas leaders, three of whom have enjoyed a life of luxury in Qatar's capital of Doha. Ex-Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, whom Israel assassinated in Iran this summer, used to split his time between luxury hotels in Qatar and Turkey. He was previously photographed attending international sports games, flying in private jets, and enjoying fine dining.
One Al Jazeera journalist, Ismail Abu Omar, reportedly accompanied Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 into Israel and praised them in footage inside an Israeli kibbutz, saying, “The friends have progressed, may God bless." The Israeli military said in February that Omar "held the position of deputy commander of a company in the eastern Khan Yunis Battalion of the terrorist organization Hamas."
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Khalil Dweeb, another Al Jazeera journalist, was found in April by Israeli terrorism analyst Eitan Fischberger to self-identify as a Hamas member. The Palestinian Authority reportedly arrested Dweeb for weapons possession.
Tlaib's campaign did not return a request for comment.
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