Israel’s $150 Million Tech-Driven Propaganda Blitz to Reshape Gaza War Narrative

After the UN confirmed famine in Gaza, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (center) and his wife, Sara (seated to his right), met in late September with US pro-Israel influencers in New York. (Israeli government photo)

DUBAI: A labyrinth of contracts, filed under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), has exposed the vast scale and technological sophistication of a state-backed media campaign funded by Israel to rehabilitate its deteriorating global reputation. The campaign, fueled by an additional $150 million approved last year, reveals a coordinated effort by the Israeli foreign ministry to leverage top-tier public relations firms and cutting-edge digital tools to counter images of devastation from Gaza.

This intensive initiative, known in Hebrew as Hasbara (literally “explaining”), unfolds as Israel’s military operation, launched in response to the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack, faces mounting international condemnation and has been widely branded an act of genocide against the Palestinian people by leading international bodies and human rights organizations. In this high-stakes battle for global public opinion, major PR firms now stand accused of whitewashing Israel’s wartime conduct.

A Coordinated Digital Onslaught

Recent FARA disclosures have peeled back the curtain on a highly coordinated, tech-driven propaganda network operating through the German division of Havas Media Group—one of the world’s largest advertising firms—which acts as a central hub subcontracting a web of politically connected American PR agencies.

The overarching strategy is to saturate the digital ecosystem with content meticulously crafted to reshape the global perception of Israel, particularly among audiences in the US and Europe. This effort runs in direct opposition to the graphic footage of civilian casualties, razed neighborhoods, and a deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza that continues to dominate headlines and social media feeds.

Weaponizing AI and Manipulating Search

The most advanced frontier of this propaganda machine involves the manipulation of artificial intelligence. Clock Tower X, a US firm led by Brad Parscale, former digital campaign chief for President Donald Trump, was hired by Havas in a $6 million contract to create websites specifically designed to influence how AI models like ChatGPT respond to prompts about Israel and the war in Gaza.

This tactic, known as “GPT framing” or “data poisoning,” aims to embed pro-Israel narratives directly into the training data of large language models, thereby shaping the foundational information these AIs use to generate answers for millions of users worldwide.

According to the contract, drafted on Aug. 27, Clock Tower X also plans to produce targeted content for Generation Z audiences across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and podcasts, a direct response to polling that shows a precipitous decline in support for Israel among younger Americans. To maximize its digital footprint, the firm is employing MarketBrew AI, a predictive search engine optimization tool, to artificially boost the visibility and ranking of pro-Israel narratives on platforms like Google and Bing.

Influencers, Polling, and Leaked Strategies

The FARA files detail a multi-pronged approach that extends beyond AI:

• The “Esther Project”: A separate $900,000 influencer campaign, managed by Bridges Partners LLC, pays US-based TikTok and Instagram influencers up to $7,000 per post to promote pro-Israel content. The campaign, involving 14 to 18 influencers, is framed as promoting “cultural interchange.”

• Testing Fear-Based Messaging: Another US firm, Stagwell Global, conducted polling and focus groups to advise the Israeli government on its international messaging. Leaked documents published by Drop Site News revealed that Stagwell, led by longtime Israeli ally Mark Penn, advised that the most effective strategy was to stoke fear of “radical Islam” and religious extremism, a tactic shown to be especially persuasive among conservative audiences.

• AI-Powered Bot Amplification: SKDK, a Stagwell subsidiary, was tasked with running an AI-powered influence campaign, outlined in a $600,000 contract, to “flood the zone” with pro-Israel messages using automated bots on platforms like X, Instagram, and TikTok. While both Stagwell and SKDK have since concluded their work with the Israeli government, their contracts reveal the intended scale of the automated amplification effort.

Industry Outcry and the Ethics of “Atrocity Laundering”

The FARA revelations have ignited a firestorm of criticism within the PR and advertising industry, sparking calls for stronger ethics and regulation.

Industry bodies like the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) have international guidelines requiring agencies to uphold transparency and accuracy. According to Professor Abeer Al-Najjar of the American University of Sharjah, these ethical standards require PR professionals to “avoid spreading misinformation, unverifiable claims or selective framing that could distort public understanding”—principles she argues are critically compromised during a time of conflict.

In direct response to the scandal, the industry nonprofit Ethical Agency Alliance announced it was expanding its commitments to refuse “all contracts that involve manipulating public opinion to obscure, justify or sanitize atrocities — including war crimes, crimes against humanity or other serious breaches of international law.”

Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, was blunt in his assessment, stating it is “very hard to imagine” how a PR firm could work with a state accused of genocide and not violate the cardinal principle to “do no harm.” He warned that for any firm to be seen as assisting a party committing war crimes “should be catastrophic for their reputations.”

A Long-Standing Strategy, Supercharged by Technology

The current campaign is not an isolated incident but represents a significant escalation of Israel’s long-standing Hasbara efforts. Israel has been accused of running coordinated information warfare campaigns during previous major assaults on Gaza. However, its propaganda apparatus has now evolved into a fully digitized operation, leveraging search engine manipulation, paid influencers, AI model training, and potentially deepfake visuals.

Earlier investigations, including one by Qatari media in May 2024, documented the alleged use of AI-powered “superbots” designed to swarm social platforms, target pro-Palestinian content, and amplify Israeli talking points in real-time. The $150 million budget boost, a more than twentyfold increase from its typical messaging budget, signals an urgent push to salvage Israel’s image as it faces unprecedented diplomatic pressure and global isolation.

Professor Al-Najjar warned of the profound long-term damage such state-funded campaigns inflict: they erode public trust, desensitize audiences to atrocity, distort historical understanding, and silence marginalized voices. The result, she said, is “a distorted global understanding of conflict, where ethical debates, accountability, and informed public discourse are compromised.”

As the line between public relations and propaganda blurs, the firms engaged in these campaigns find their own reputations on the line, entangled in accusations of complicity. The warning from Lameya Chaudhury of the Ethical Agency Alliance serves as a stark epitaph for the perceived neutrality of the industry: “Let’s be clear: If you take money to sanitize atrocities, you’re complicit… every time you take a brief, you take a side.”

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