Exclusive: Pro-Israel influencers targeted by activist posing as Zionist lobby group

"An hour later, I received a call from an American phone number with an AIPAC logo on WhatsApp. He said his name was Levy from AIPAC and he told me 'we are doing this campaign'.”

Her suspicions were first aroused by the fact that Levy has a British accent, but said he would simply ask her some questions to ‘make sure your values align’ with AIPAC’s.

"His first question was ‘What are your thoughts on the war?’,” she recalled, to which she replied that, in her opinion, the war in Gaza was “just”.

But “Levy’s” questions soon turned darker.

"He asked me if we should just get rid of all the Palestinians. I replied, 'That is [very] extreme', and told him I disagreed.

"He said 'well when someone tries to wipe you out, you have to wipe them out'.”

To this, Yablonka replied that the Palestinians are Israel's "Arab neighbours" and condemned Hamas’ October 7 attacks, which she said "set the peace process back 20 years".

After further questions, she realised that the man was not really from AIPAC and called him out, at which point he immediately hung up.

"He was trying to trip me up and say something bad. He was trying to get me to agree that Israel was doing something,” she said.

"He wanted me to 'admit' that Israel is the one doing propaganda and we are tricking and deceiving people into supporting Israel and everything Israel is saying is a lie."

Travel vlogger and Israel advocate Mona Molayem shared a similar story with the JC, saying: "I’ve worked with AIPAC in the past, so I didn’t think twice when they contacted me."

This time the culprit, who again gave his name as Levy and had a British accent, called from a Canadian number, which immediately piqued her suspicion, given that AIPAC is a US-based organisation.

She went on: "He started talking about how [AIPAC] has been following my work for a while and ‘to be blunt, you are pretty and pretty sells. People will listen to you’.

"I thought that was odd, and asked him what he was looking for in this collaboration - a social media post?

"He said no, it is deeper than that. We essentially pay people just for being pro-Israel."

“Levy” then proceeded to test Molayem on her knowledge of Israel's goals in the war with Hamas, which she stated as “To free the hostages, make sure Hamas is no longer a threat, and to end the war.
"He then asked ‘do you really think Israel’s goal is to free the hostages?'.

"I said yes, he answered 'what about the rest of the citizens of Gaza?' [and] Israel’s plan to remove all citizens of Gaza?’"

“I replied 'I don’t know about removing all the citizens... there is no plan of taking over Gaza'."

Molayem said he then questioned her on “the plan of permanently destroying all civilians”, at which point she asked for his surname and he hung up.

"I think he is trying to get people to admit Israel is attempting to do something more sinister when they are not,” she told the JC.

"Perhaps he is trying to gather recordings to publish them somewhere.

"I’m really not sure but it did feel like he was just trying to get me to agree with him that Israel is trying to kill Gaza civilians when they aren’t."

Since speaking to the JC, Molayem has received further contact from a man who she believes is the same person, calling and messaging from a different number.

The JC approached the suspected hoaxer on both numbers, but he did not respond to requests for comment.

AIPAC has been contacted for comment.