PRO-ISRAELI ORGANISATIONS in Britain would see their influence increase if the Conservatives win the next election, a film scrutinising the activities of a powerful but little-known lobby warned yesterday.
At least half of the shadow cabinet are members of the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI), according to a Dispatchesprogramme being screened on Channel 4. The programme-makers describe the CFI as "beyond doubt the most well-connected and probably the best funded of all Westminster lobbying groups".
Inside Britain's Israel Lobbyclaims that donations to the Conservative Party "from all CFI members and their businesses add up to well over £10 million (€11.2 million) over the last eight years". CFI has disputed the figure and called the film "deeply flawed".
The programme also describes how David Cameron allegedly accepted a £15,000 (€16,793) donation from Poju Zabludowicz, a Finnish billionaire who chairs Bicom (the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre). Mr Zabludowicz, the film reveals, has business interests in an illegal West Bank settlement. He also gave £50,000 (€55,979) to Conservative Central Office. Mr Zabludowicz says his contributions “are a matter of public record”.
William Hague allegedly accepted personal donations from CFI board members totalling tens of thousands of pounds after being appointed shadow foreign secretary.
More than £30,000 from CFI supporters went to the campaign funds of members of Mr Cameron’s team who were first elected in 2005, the film claims, using publicly available information. The programme-makers say that while this is legal, it is not well known.
Two years ago a controversial study by American academics Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer explored the influence of the Israel lobby over US foreign policy. But Britain’s pro-Israel organisations have been subjected to far less scrutiny. “The pro-Israel lobby . . . is the most powerful political lobby,” Michael Mates, a Conservative MP and privy councillor, told the film-makers. “There’s nothing to touch them.”
Mr Hague fell out with CFI after describing Israel’s 2006 attack on Lebanon – in retaliation for a Hizbullah raid – as “disproportionate”.