Catherine Perez-Shakdam is a French-born journalist, political analyst, and commentator whose complex personal and professional journey has sparked significant controversy, particularly surrounding allegations of her involvement with Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency.
Born into a secular Jewish family, Perez-Shakdam’s life story is marked by cultural and religious transformations, high-profile interactions with Iranian leadership, and a public shift in her ideological stance. Her alleged ties to Mossad have fueled debates across media outlets, with some labeling her an Israeli spy while she vehemently denies these claims.
Early Life and Personal Transformations
Catherine Perez-Shakdam was born in France to a secular Jewish family with a rich and tumultuous history. Her paternal grandfather was a Holocaust survivor, enduring internment in a Nazi concentration camp in Tunisia, while her maternal grandfather fought against the Nazis as part of the French Resistance during World War II.
This heritage shaped her early understanding of Jewish identity, though she grew up in a secular environment where her father, Isidro Perez, reportedly harbored self-hatred toward his Jewish roots due to the trauma inherited from his family’s experiences. Her mother, a teacher who died when Catherine was young, was more comfortable with her secular Jewish identity, creating a complex dynamic in her upbringing.
Perez-Shakdam pursued higher education at the University of London, earning a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and two master’s degrees in finance and communications. It was during her time at the university that her life took a significant turn. She met a Muslim man from Yemen, whom she married in 2000 at the age of 19. To navigate her new life with her husband’s family, she converted to Sunni Islam and later, during her time in Yemen, adopted Shia Islam.
Read : Hezbollah Fires Missile at Israeli Spy Agency Mossad, Israeli Strikes Back
This period of her life was marked by immersion in Middle Eastern culture, particularly after moving to Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, with her husband. She described the experience as a “culture shock,” likening it to living in the Middle Ages, and faced challenges, including antisemitism from her in-laws, which strained her marriage. The couple had two children before divorcing in 2014, after which Catherine Perez-Shakdam retained custody and returned to London.
Read : China Has Developed Multiple Spy Bases in Cuba
Her religious and cultural journey did not end there. By November 2021, Catherine Perez-Shakdam publicly declared in a blog post for The Times of Israel that she was no longer a Muslim and had re-embraced her Jewish identity, identifying as a Zionist. This shift was a pivotal moment, as it coincided with revelations about her interactions with Iranian leadership, sparking speculation about her motives and affiliations.
Professional Career and Infiltration Allegations
Catherine Perez-Shakdam’s professional career is as varied as her personal life. Before becoming a full-time journalist, she worked for seven years at Wikistrat, an Israeli geostrategic analysis firm founded in 2010 and later based in Washington, D.C. Wikistrat’s leadership includes former Israeli intelligence officers, which has fueled speculation about her early connections to Israeli intelligence. However, no definitive evidence confirms that her role at Wikistrat involved espionage.
Her journalism career saw her contribute to a wide range of outlets, including The Guardian, HuffPost, RT (Russia Today), Tehran Times, Press TV, MintPress News, and the American Herald Tribune, among others. She also wrote for Iranian media, including Mashregh News, Tasnim News, Mehr News, and even Khamenei.ir, the official website of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, between 2015 and 2017.
Her articles often focused on Middle Eastern affairs, Islamic radicalization, and antisemitism, and she gained prominence as a commentator on outlets like BBC Arabic, BBC Persia, Al Jazeera, and The Jerusalem Post. Her work as a consultant for the United Nations Security Council on Yemen’s war economy further established her as an expert on the region.
The allegations of her connection to Mossad stem primarily from her interactions with high-ranking Iranian officials, including a 2017 interview with then-presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi and meetings with figures like General Qassem Soleimani and Ayatollah Khamenei. Perez-Shakdam gained access to Iran’s elite through her work with RT and her cultivated persona as a Shia Muslim.
She claims that her French nationality and marriage to a Yemeni man helped her gain the trust of Iranian authorities, facilitated by Nader Talebzadeh, an Iranian propagandist. Her ability to move within Iran’s inner circles, including private meetings with Khamenei and Soleimani, raised suspicions when she later revealed her Jewish background and Zionist stance.
In a series of blog posts for The Times of Israel in November 2021, Perez-Shakdam detailed her experiences in Iran, describing how she “walked into the belly of the beast” by blending in and listening without revealing her true motivations. These posts triggered a firestorm in Iranian media, with outlets like Press TV and Tehran Times swiftly removing her articles and Khamenei.ir disavowing her contributions.
A Telegram channel linked to former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed in February 2022 that she was part of an Israeli infiltration operation, escalating the narrative that she was a Mossad spy. Iranian hardliner media, such as Kayhan, surprisingly defended her, suggesting she was not a spy but a journalist misled by the regime’s propaganda.
Perez-Shakdam has consistently denied these espionage allegations, calling them “nonsense” in interviews with The Times of Israel and Iran International. She argues that it is unlikely Mossad would recruit a non-Farsi-speaking French citizen for operations in Iran. Instead, she attributes her access to her journalistic work and her ability to navigate cultural and religious identities. However, her critics point to her work with Wikistrat and her meetings with Iranian officials as evidence of deeper motives, though no concrete proof of Mossad involvement has emerged.
Denials and Current Role
The allegations of Perez-Shakdam’s Mossad connections remain speculative, driven by her own disclosures and the Iranian regime’s reaction to her revelations. In a 2022 interview with Iran International, she clarified that she had no direct line to Khamenei’s office and expressed regret for the Times of Israel article that sparked the controversy.
She maintained that her writings for Iranian media were initially driven by a desire to counter what she saw as misportrayals of Iran in Western media, though she later recognized she was “used” by the regime due to her naivety about geopolitics. Her detractors, including MintPress News editor Alan MacLeod, have expressed distrust, noting that her work for anti-imperialist outlets like MintPress gave her credibility to infiltrate Iran’s anti-war and resistance movements.
MacLeod reported that sources close to Perez-Shakdam claimed she offered significant sums of money for photographs and videos of specific Middle Eastern locations, raising further suspicions about her intentions. Despite these claims, no verifiable evidence confirms her as a Mossad agent, and her denials emphasize her role as a journalist navigating complex political landscapes.
Currently, Perez-Shakdam serves as the Executive Director of We Believe in Israel, a UK-based advocacy group, a position she took in 2024 following Luke Akehurst’s election as a Labour MP. She is also the Director of Forward Strategy and an associate scholar at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.
Her work focuses on advocating for Israel, combating antisemitism, and calling for the proscription of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization. Her public persona now centers on her Jewish identity and Zionist beliefs, a stark contrast to her earlier role as a commentator for Iranian state media.
In her writings, Perez-Shakdam has addressed the historical expulsion of Jews from Arab lands, emphasizing the need for recognition of this “forgotten exodus.” Her personal experiences, including the antisemitism she faced in Yemen and Iran, have shaped her advocacy, which she frames as a response to systemic hatred and radical ideologies. Her 2017 meetings with Iranian leaders, including Khamenei’s alleged discussions about targeting Jewish figures globally, have informed her warnings about Iran’s influence and intentions, particularly in the West.
Catherine Perez-Shakdam’s life is a tapestry of cultural shifts, professional achievements, and geopolitical intrigue. From her secular Jewish upbringing in France to her immersion in Islamic culture and subsequent return to her Jewish roots, her journey reflects a search for identity amid complex global dynamics.
The allegations of her Mossad connections, while sensational, lack definitive evidence and are largely fueled by her own revelations about infiltrating Iran’s elite circles. Her denials, coupled with her current advocacy for Israel, suggest a narrative of personal evolution rather than espionage.
However, the controversy surrounding her underscores the challenges of navigating identity and trust in the volatile world of international journalism and politics. As she continues to shape discourse on Iran, Israel, and antisemitism, Perez-Shakdam remains a polarizing figure whose story raises more questions than answers.