{"id":43695,"date":"2025-09-05T13:13:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T20:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=43695"},"modified":"2025-09-05T13:13:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T20:13:21","slug":"googles-45-million-contract-with-netanyahus-office-to-spread-israeli-propaganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/09\/05\/googles-45-million-contract-with-netanyahus-office-to-spread-israeli-propaganda\/","title":{"rendered":"Google\u2019s $45 Million Contract With Netanyahu’s Office to Spread Israeli Propaganda"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Google is in the middle of a six-month, $45 million contract to amplify propaganda with Netanyahu\u2019s office. The contract describes Google as a \u201ckey entity\u201d supporting the prime minister\u2019s messaging.<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>JACK POULSON<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 AND <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LEE FANG<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEP 03, 2025 (dropsitenews.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have a commitment to ensuring that our journalism is not locked behind a paywall. But the only way we can sustain this is through the voluntary support of our community of readers. If you are a free subscriber and you support our work, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription<\/a> or gifting one<\/a> to a friend or family member. You can also make a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible donation<\/a> to support our work. If you do not have the means to support our work financially, you can do your part by sharing our work on social media and by forwarding this email to your network of contacts.<\/em>Subscribe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a press conference at the Prime minister’s office in Jerusalem on August 10, 2025. Photo by ABIR SULTAN\/POOL\/AFP via Getty Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On March 2, 2025, hours after the Israeli government announced<\/a> the blockade of all food, medicine, fuel, and other humanitarian supplies from entering Gaza, lawmakers in Jerusalem demanded answers\u2014not on the devastating human toll of such a decision, but on how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s office was preparing to handle the public relations fallout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI began with the example of the cessation of humanitarian aid\u2014did you prepare for this thing this morning?\u201d asked Knesset member Moshe Tur-Paz, the chair of a subcommittee on Foreign Affairs in Israel\u2019s parliament.

Avichai Edrei, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces who was asked the same question later in the hearing, assured the legislators work was underway, stating, \u201cWe could also decide to launch a digital campaign in this context, to explain that there is no hunger and present the data.\u201dSubscribe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publicly available government contracts show that Israel\u2019s advertising bureau, which reports to the prime minister\u2019s office, has since embarked on a mass advertising and public messaging effort to conceal the hunger crisis. The push includes the use of American influencers<\/a> widely reported on last month. It also includes a high-dollar spending spree on paid advertising, yielding tens of millions for Google, YouTube, X, Meta, and other tech platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is food in Gaza. Any other claim is a lie,\u201d asserted a propaganda video published<\/a> by Israel\u2019s foreign ministry to Google\u2019s YouTube video sharing platform in late August and viewed more than 6 million times. Much of the video\u2019s reach results from an ad<\/a> placed during an ongoing and previously unreported $45 million<\/a> (NIS 150 million) advertising campaign initiated between Google and Netanyahu\u2019s office in late June. The contract\u2014which is with both YouTube and Google’s advertising campaign management platform, Display & Video 360\u2014explicitly characterizes the ad campaign as hasbara<\/em>, a Hebrew word whose meaning is somewhere between public relations and propaganda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Israeli ad promoted on YouTube making the claim that there is no shortage of food in Gaza. Screenshot: YouTube.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Records show that the Israeli government similarly spent $3 million (NIS 10 million) for an advertising campaign with X. The French and Israeli advertising platform Outbrain\/Teads<\/a> is also set to receive roughly $2.1 million (NIS 7 million).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ads have aired in response to increasing global outcry over the deteriorating situation in Gaza. In August, the UN formally declared a famine in Gaza governorate, which includes Gaza City. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the leading global authority on food security, projected the threshold for famine would be crossed in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis in the coming weeks, stating “this Famine is entirely man-made, it can be halted and reversed.\u201d The UN aid coordination office OCHA further warned<\/a> on Friday of \u201ca descent into a massive famine\u201d in the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least 367 Palestinians, including 131 children, have died as a result of hunger and malnutrition since the war began, according to the health ministry in Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The existence of an Israeli Google ads campaign to discredit the UN\u2019s primary aid agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, was similarly reported<\/a> by WIRED last year. Hadas Maimon, head of public awareness for Israel\u2019s diaspora ministry, stated during the March 2 Knesset hearing that, \u201cFor almost a year now, we have been leading a major campaign on the issue of UNRWA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other Israeli government ads on Google\u2019s platforms accused<\/a> the United Nations of \u201cdeliberate sabotage\u201d of aid delivery into Gaza and promoted<\/a> the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is backed by Israel, the U.S., and unnamed European countries. One campaign promoted<\/a> prosecution of the militant group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, for debunked allegations of mass sexual violence as a result of a controversial report<\/a> published by the Israeli advocacy group Dinah Project.

Despite the denial about the famine, prominent Israeli government voices have championed the effort to cut off food and water to Gazans as a strategy for inducing mass migration out of the territory. \u201cIn my opinion, you can besiege them,\u201d said Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli Finance Ministry and a coalition partner to Netantayu\u2019s government, according to Channel 12. \u201cNo water, no electricity, they can die of hunger or surrender,\u201d Smotrich said<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amichay Eliyahu, the Knesset member who leads the Heritage Ministry in Netanyahu’s government, has similarly called<\/a> for starving the Palestinian population of Gaza. “There is no nation that feeds its enemies,\u201d Eliyahu said during a radio interview in July. In May, the minister argued the Palestinians “need to starve” and added<\/a>, “If there are civilians who fear for their lives, they should go through the emigration plan.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another campaign<\/a> has attempted to discredit the pro-Palestinian lawfare organization known as the Hind Rajab Foundation<\/a>, which accumulates evidence of apparent Israeli war crimes and advocates for international prosecution. Several ads link to an Israeli government report<\/a> entitled \u201cUnmasking the Hind Rajab Foundation,\u201d which characterizes the organization as having \u201cdeep connections to extremist ideologies and terrorist organisations, raising serious concerns about its true motives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Israeli ad accusing UN of sabotage. Screenshot: YouTube.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In response to a June report<\/a> from UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese which concluded that Google had profited from the \u201cgenocide in Gaza,\u201d the centibillionaire Google co-founder Sergey Brin reportedly<\/a> described the UN as a \u201ctransparently antisemitic\u201d organization on an internal company forum on July 5. Albanese\u2019s criticism of Google centered around the company joining Amazon in 2021 on a major cloud computing contract with the Israeli government\u2014including the military<\/a>\u2014known as Project Nimbus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Israeli Prime Minister\u2019s Office ads referring to famine in Gaza as a \u201clie\u201d were placed through the Israeli Government Advertising Agency, known by its Hebrew acronym, Lapam, which began waging its six-month hasbara campaign<\/a> through Google and X ads in June, according to government disclosures. The contracts were initially centered around a propaganda surge attempting to persuade international audiences to support the Israeli military\u2019s twelve days of air strikes against Iran, known as Operation Rising Lion. One bullet point in the published contract clarified that \u201cthe request is for campaigns following Operation \u2018Rising Lion\u2019 as well as for ongoing activities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to an estimate<\/a> from the U.S.-based nonprofit Human Rights Activists in Iran, at least 436 Iranian civilians were killed by the Israeli airstrikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A screenshot from the Israeli government disclosure<\/a> of the roughly $45 million contract between Israel\u2019s government advertising bureau (Lapam) and Google\u2019s Display & Video and YouTube advertising platforms. Both campaigns are listed as spanning June 17 to December 31, 2025.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince the opening of Operation \u2018Rising Lion,\u2019 Lapam has been working with all of its employees and suppliers in a full emergency format, in order to conduct a wide-ranging outreach activity for all government ministries and security bodies, including the Home Front Command, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Publicity Division, the Ministry of Diaspora, and more,\u201d reads the underlying June contract.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe suppliers with whom the contract is being sought are among the key entities with which Lapam works on an ongoing basis, both during routine periods and in times of emergency, and they possess the infrastructure and knowledge required to carry out the necessary information tasks,\u201d continues the Israeli government document, in reference to the central role contracts with Google and X play in amplifying the spread of Netanyahu\u2019s propaganda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An editorial<\/a> published in early August by the Arab fact-checking organization Misbar reported that information disclosed in Google and Meta\u2019s ad transparency portals amounted to a \u201clarge-scale Israeli propaganda campaign\u201d operating during Operation Rising Lion. Misbar characterized the Israeli government\u2019s ad campaigns as having \u201cused disinformation to justify the strikes, presenting them as essential for the security of Israel and Western countries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google, Outbrain\/Teads, and the Israeli Government Advertising Agency did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leave a comment<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Share<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Correction: The English translation of the Hebrew acronym for the Israeli Government Advertising Agency was fixed in two quotes.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/td>A guest post byJack Poulson<\/a>I am an independent journalist focused on the intersection of technology and national security; I also run techinquiry.org on a volunteer basis. Send me tips on Signal at @poulson.01.Subscribe to Jack<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/td>A guest post byLee Fang<\/a>Investigative reporter<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Google is in the middle of a six-month, $45 million contract to amplify propaganda with Netanyahu\u2019s office. The contract describes Google as a \u201ckey entity\u201d supporting the prime minister\u2019s messaging. JACK POULSON  AND  LEE FANG SEP 03, 2025 (dropsitenews.com) We have a commitment to ensuring that our journalism is not… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43695"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43696,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43695\/revisions\/43696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}