“This isn’t just about me. It’s about showing every Jew, every supporter of Israel, that we don’t have to take it,” Hamra said in an exclusive interview with World Israel News.
By Linda Sadacka
When Al Jazeera thought it could smear a Jewish lawyer with lies, it picked the wrong target.
Abraham Hamra, a Syrian Jewish refugee turned respected New York attorney, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Qatari propaganda network for defamation. And he is making it clear this battle is about more than his name. It is about Jewish survival in the face of malicious media incitement.
On August 25, Al Jazeera’s English-language Instagram account, followed by over 6.4 million people worldwide, posted a video falsely claiming Hamra was one of several “influencers reportedly paid” by Israel to tour Gaza aid sites.
The insinuation was unmistakable: that Hamra was a foreign agent violating the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a serious felony that carries prison time.
But the claim was a lie. Hamra never received a dime. He paid for his own airfare, his own hotel, and even his own cab fare. “They didn’t even buy me a sandwich,” he said with a wry laugh. Yet there was nothing funny about the smear.
The post quickly went viral, sparking tens of thousands of engagements and, in the comments, what Hamra calls “a digital lynch mob.” Strangers tried to dig up details about his family, his children, his whereabouts — just like mobs in the Arab world once targeted Jews after a slander spread in the press.
“This was the same tactic used against Jews in Arab lands,” Hamra told me. “Back then, the slander turned into mobs burning homes and killing Jews. Now it’s digital mobs, doxxing families online. But the outcome they want is the same: to silence us. The difference? This time, we fight back.”
‘Reckless and baseless’
GS2Law, the firm representing Hamra, minced no words in its press release. “Al Jazeera’s reckless and baseless smear against Mr. Hamra is not only false but also emblematic of their long-documented history of antisemitic commentary, anti-Zionist bias, and ties to terrorist organizations like Hamas,” said Robert Garson, the chair of GS2Law.
The lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of New York, accuses Al Jazeera of acting with actual malice, knowingly spreading a defamatory lie that has caused Hamra reputational damage, professional loss and emotional distress. The suit seeks at least $1 million in compensatory damages plus punitive damages, legal fees and a jury trial.
But for Hamra, the dollar figure is secondary. “This isn’t about money,” he said. “This is about setting the record straight and making sure lies have consequences. Al Jazeera wants to ignite mobs against Jews. They need to learn that in America, that comes at a price.”
A pattern of malice
This is no isolated slip-up. The lawsuit meticulously documents Al Jazeera’s long track record of bias and bigotry:
- In 2017, its English account retweeted an antisemitic meme.
- In 2019, its AJ+ channel produced a Holocaust-minimizing video that claimed the number of Jewish victims was exaggerated to benefit Israel. Only after international outrage did they delete it.
- In 2008, Al Jazeera aired a birthday party for a convicted terrorist who murdered Israeli civilians.
- Israeli intelligence has repeatedly exposed Al Jazeera “journalists” moonlighting as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives.
Hamra sees a pattern. “They knew it was false,” he said. “They didn’t even bother to fact-check. This is their propaganda machine at work. And this time, they dragged my name into it. I will not let that stand.”
From Damascus to New York
The smear cut deeper because of who Hamra is and where he comes from. Born in Damascus, he fled Syria with his parents and siblings in 1994 at age eight, after the Assad regime partially eased restrictions on Jewish emigration.
For decades, Syrian Jews were treated as prisoners in their own land, forbidden from leaving and subjected to systemic discrimination, secret police surveillance and periodic violence.
Hamra’s own family tree bears scars of Jewish exile and persecution: the Farhud pogrom in Baghdad in 1941, where more than 180 Jews were murdered in a Nazi-inspired riot; the Aleppo riots of 1947, which destroyed synagogues and killed scores of Jews; and the mass expulsions of nearly a million Jews from Arab countries between 1948 and the 1970s.
“My parents rebuilt from nothing,” Hamra told me. “So why would I sit by while antisemites and privileged Western liberals in kafiyas threaten my children’s future in this country? I could have stayed behind a desk as a lawyer. I could have kept quiet. But I won’t. It costs me in the short term, but in the long run, this fight is for my children.”
Faith and Hishtadlut
For Hamra, this is more than legal combat. It is a religious duty. “Hashem protects us, but we must do our hishtadlut (Hebrew for “personal effort”),” he said. “If I don’t use the legal system that God gave us to fight back, then I’m rejecting His gift. This lawsuit is my hishtadlut.”
His philosophy is blunt. “If someone slanders us, defames us, assaults us or discriminates against us, we fight back. In court, on social media, wherever the fight comes, we meet it with twice the force. That’s how we survive. That’s how Am Yisrael (the Hebrew nation) survives.”
It’s not just rhetoric. His complaint describes how the Al Jazeera post triggered a wave of hostility online, echoing the mob mentality of old. Only now, the battlefield is digital, and the weapon is defamation masquerading as news.
The broader campaign
Hamra’s case is also being seen in the context of a larger, coordinated media war. Recently leaked documents from RSF (Reporters Without Borders) and Avaaz revealed a campaign directing outlets worldwide to push a narrative of Israel systematically killing journalists in Gaza.
The materials included pre-scripted blacked-out front pages, broadcast scripts, and hashtags like #ProtectJournalistsInGaza, all designed to delegitimize Israel and whitewash Hamas.
Hamra sees Al Jazeera’s smear as part of that same effort. “It’s not random,” he said. “It’s a strategy. They want to delegitimize Israel, and anyone who speaks for Israel becomes a target.”
The stakes
The legal battle now underway in New York could set a precedent. If Hamra prevails, it will be the first real reckoning for a media empire that has long trafficked in Jew-hatred while hiding behind press credentials.
“This isn’t just about me,” Hamra said. “It’s about showing every Jew, every supporter of Israel, that we don’t have to take it. The days of being silent, of being bullied, of being slandered without recourse — those days are over.”
The kicker
For decades, Al Jazeera has played the role of Hamas’s megaphone, poisoning the West with slickly produced propaganda dressed up as journalism. Now, for the first time, they are being dragged into a U.S. courtroom and forced to answer for their lies.
“They thought they could bully us like in the old days, when Jews had no rights,” Hamra told me. “They’re about to find out those days are over.”
Author’s Note:
As someone whose own family comes from Lebanon, Egypt and Syria, I cannot help but feel the weight of Abraham Hamra’s story in a deeply personal way. My family too has known exile, the insecurity of being a minority in lands that turned hostile and the struggle to rebuild from nothing in a new country.
Hamra’s journey — from a Jewish child in Damascus to a lawyer in New York — is not just his story. It is the story of countless Middle Eastern Jewish families who carried their faith and dignity through fire. His refusal to remain silent in the face of defamation resonates with me because it echoes the choices my own family had to make: to speak the truth, to hold our heads high and to fight for our children’s future.
That is why this case matters. It is not only a lawsuit against a media giant. It is a statement of survival from those of us whose families endured persecution in Arab lands, who found refuge in the West and who refuse to let lies once again become weapons against our people.
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