Image from Israeli government's $150 million ad campaign.

By Alison Weir

Following Israel’s recent mass slaughter of Gazans, many of them children, Israel is launching a new propaganda campaign.

Jewish News Service (JNS) reports that “Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism announced this past week the launch of a new online campaign.”

“Videos and banners are being posted on a variety of platforms, including ‘significant news websites and social media, in the United States and Europe,” JNS reports. The videos accompanying the campaign were produced in English and translated into Arabic, French, Russian, German and Spanish.

The campaign is being “platformed by such news outlets as CNN, The New York Times and Fox News, along with Le Monde, BFMTV and Bild. They will also be promoted on YouTube and X and through Google’s search engine,” JNS says.

$150 million to counter Israel’s “battered” reputation

The campaign appears to have massive funding. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported in December: “Israel has spent millions trying to win hearts and minds abroad. It’s about to spend 20 times more.”

According to JTA, Israel’s Foreign Ministry will receive $150 million on top of what it’s already given for “hasbara” – Israel advocacy, or, as many define it, propaganda. Some of this tax money may come from American taxpayers, since US politicians pandering to the Israel lobby gave Israel over $18 billion in 2024.

JTA reports: “The dramatic expenditure is the result of a political deal that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck last month to shore up his governing coalition. Politician Gideon Saar and his New Hope party agreed to rejoin the coalition in return for the funding and the appointment of Saar as Israel’s foreign minister. “

According to JTA: “The news comes as public opinion about Israel in the United States and elsewhere around the world has been intensely battered as a result of a war that has left the neighboring Gaza Strip in ruins with much of its population facing displacement, disease, and hunger.”

In the past 15 months, Israeli forces have killed well over 61,000 people* (most of them women and children, as well as journalists and doctors); leveled most of Gaza; damaged or destroyed 90 percent of housing units; intentionally starved the population; and raped and tortured numerous people.

A woman walks along a path through rubble with her children in northern Gaza, on January 28, 2025, in Gaza, Palestine. (Ramez Habboub / GocherImagery / Future Publishing via Getty Images)

While lethal assaults on Palestinians have been ongoing for many years, Americans are often minimally informed about them since US news reports are routinely Israel-centric, such as this recent report.

“Propaganda war” to be waged “in cooperation with American Jewish groups”

“Saar doesn’t have a detailed plan for how to spend the money yet, but at the time he signed the coalition agreement with Netanyahu, his office released a statement saying it would be used to influence sentiment in the foreign press and on social media,” JTA reported.

“Saar’s statement also said he foresees a focus on American college campuses, which have been rocked by pro-Palestinian protests since the war broke out when Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023. The statement noted that its activity will be carried out in cooperation with American Jewish groups and alongside similar efforts by the Diaspora Affairs Ministry.”

Saar said: “I am determined to make a change. Every shekel devoted to this cause is an investment, not an expense, and will strengthen Israel and its standing in the world.”

JTA reports: “Saar and his team have been holding brainstorming sessions with a wide array of individuals and groups who are involved in pro-Israel advocacy around the world, Jewish Insider reported. Participants include social media influencers, cultural figures, professional hasbara advocates and representatives of various Jewish groups.”

According to JNS, Hadas Maimon, head of international campaigns at the Diaspora ministry, wrote that the targeted advertising on central websites and leading digital platforms would “bring the facts to the attention of international public opinion.”

“The propaganda war is a daily war and is critical to the State of Israel in terms of its legitimacy in the world,” he stated.

How the Israeli ads mislead

The video ad produced by the Israeli government uses 90 seconds of a few select items allegedly about the Palestinian Authority’s education system, without mentioning the studies that have shown the system to be largely non-problematic. They also omit the fact that the Israeli educational system itself has been shown to be laced with pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian ideology. (Also see this.)

A banner ad claims that the Palestinian Authority “is raising the next generation of terrorists.”

The ads endeavor to cover up the real cause of Palestinians’ hostility to Israel. Below are some of the essential facts the ads omit:

Palestinians have been living under an extremely harsh military occupation for over half a century in which they experience Israeli violence daily;
Both the West Bank and Gaza are virtual prisons in which armed Israeli soldiers control exits and entrances;
Israeli soldiers invade the West Bank daily, often beating and killing inhabitants, and destroying crops and orchards;
A large portion of the inhabitants are from families who had been ethnically cleansed by Israel, their homes, land and businesses stolen by Israel;
Israel continues to appropriate even more Palestinian land and homes for Jewish-only colonies;
There are armed Israeli checkpoints throughout the West Bank, often preventing people from going to work, school, the hospital, visit family, etc. At these checkpoints, Palestinian men, women, and children are frequently mistreated by Israeli soldiers. People of all ages are strip searched at will.
When Palestinians try to use nonviolent, unarmed protests to resist this situation, they are beaten and sometimes killed, while US media almost never report on their actions.

The following video gives an idea of what life is like for Palestinians.

This video was made four years ago, before Israel’s ramped up violence over the past year, in which Israeli forces have killed over 17,000 children since October 2023. (It is especially odd that the ads particularly demonize the Palestinian authority, since the PA has often functioned as Israel’s enforcer, especially recently.)

While Israel and its advocates repeatedly claim that Palestinian schools and textbooks “teach students to hate,” in reality, it is Israel that has been teaching this quite effectively year after year after year.