LONDON: Israel received legal advice on how to circumvent US laws regulating foreign lobbying campaigns, The Guardian reported.

The Foreign Agents Registration Act requires officials working for foreign governments to register with the U.S. Department of Justice and provide regular updates on lobbying campaigns.

A hack of Israel’s Justice Ministry in April yielded leaked emails and legal memos that revealed hundreds of documents discussing the law, which was seen as an obstacle to Israel’s lobbying efforts in the United States.

The files were published by a group called Anonymous for Justice and reviewed by the Guardian.

Around 2018, concerns about FARA arose within the Israeli government.

Then-US President Donald Trump, who had a close relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, faced criticism that same year after members of his administration were subjected to FARA enforcement measures because of Russian lobbying.

The leaked emails show that Israel is concerned about future FARA actions against the Israel Lobby, one of the largest and most influential foreign lobbying campaigns in the United States.

To circumvent the law, Israeli officials proposed establishing a US nonprofit organization.

A 2018 legal memorandum from the Israeli Ministry of Justice warned that compliance with the FARA law would damage the “reputation” of U.S. groups that received direct funding and contracts from Israel.

By creating a national body that could be overseen from abroad, senior Israeli officials hoped to circumvent the law while maintaining Tel Aviv’s powerful influence in Washington.

Liat Glazer, then legal adviser to Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs, explained the strategy in an email.

“We will have means of oversight and administration,” he said, adding that grants and “informal coordination mechanisms,” including “verbal meetings and updates,” would continue to ensure control over the U.S. lobby organization.

Officials also proposed and eventually set up a “public relations commando unit” dedicated to improving Israel’s image in the United States.

Originally known as “Kela Shlomo” or “Solomon’s Sling,” the group was renamed “Concert” in 2018 and “Voices of Israel” in 2021, The Guardian reported.

Their mission was to damage the reputation of the international boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign that was exerting pressure on Israel through consumer behavior.

The Guardian reported earlier this year that the group was re-formed after October 7 to attack US college students who were organizing nationwide protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.

Prior to the group’s recent re-establishment, Israeli officials hired the renowned election and campaign law firm Sandler Reiff on a fee basis to address FARA-related concerns.

A former Israeli intelligence officer and former chief censor of the Israeli army was instrumental in the launch of Kela Shlomo, documents show.

Brigadier General Sima Vaknin-Gill is now a board member of the US-based Combat Antisemitism Movement.

CAM was launched a year after Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs, headed by Vaknin-Gill, proposed the creation of a US-based lobby group.

The nonprofit organization has repeatedly refused to disclose its funding sources to journalists.

In a statement to The Guardian, CAM claimed to be a “global interfaith coalition uniting over 850 partner organizations” and that it was “neither founded nor influenced by the Israeli government.”

Craig Holman, an expert on lobby reform and government ethics, warned of possible FARA violations due to the leaked documents.

“If Israeli government officials deliberately attempted to influence American policy and/or public opinion on foreign policy issues,” he said, “it would be a violation of FARA, not only by U.S. agents in the service of the Israeli government, but also by any person or nonprofit organization in the United States knowingly engaging in such an effort.”