Episode 52: Pulled up by the Roots

First aired on 21 January 2023

Friends of Roots UK is another Zionist normalization project targeting young people in Britain. The organization was originally founded in 2014 inside occupied Palestine with the aim of bringing Palestinians and settlers who dispossess them together in friendship.

The founding of the organization took place at the initiative of apparent human rights lawyer Jean-Marc Liling. In 2005, Jean-Marc had been an advisor to the Israeli Prime Minister's office. Before that, he worked for the Israeli Ministry of Justice for 5 years.

Mehra Beit and her husband were enamored with Jean Marc's ideas. He was made a board member of their Geneva-based organization B8 (pronounced Bayt) of Hope, and they backed the Friends of Roots campaign inside Palestine.

B8 of Hope partners with the Alliance for Middle East Peace, which encompasses the One Voice organization and its normalization project Solutions Not Sides in British schools. Another organization that Birth of Hope partners with is Jerusalem NY, which also seeks to bring together Palestinians and settlers.

The Roots organization inside Palestine was headed by former Israeli military officer Raz Kones as coordinator of the youth division. Now, the organization is in Britain and targeting young people for the same normalization push. The board of the UK branch contains several figures of interest.

Stephen Longden, who is also the founding chair of the normalization project, The Forum for the Discussion of Israel and Palestine, previously worked for Medical Aid for Palestinians. He is now the chair of trustees at Friends of Roots.

Leon Pain is a board member of North London Friends of Israel and is described as the "Zionism advisor" to the Muslim Friends of Israel Facebook group.

Ruth Jacobs has worked with Solutions Not Sides in the past and is the founder and chair of West Midlands Friends of Israel. She is also a founder member of Nisa Nashim West Midlands, which I previously exposed as a Zionist normalization operation.

Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger describes himself as a "passionate Zionist settler." He was a founder of the branch in occupied Palestine and is now the Director of International Relations for the UK branch. This is who is seeking to misguide children and young people toward normalization with settlers.