Google involved in $45M deal with Netanyahu's office to advertise Israeli hasbara — report

Google is in the middle of a six-month $45 million contract with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office to promote government messages and downplay the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, according to a report by Drop Site News.

The contract, signed in late June, describes Google as a "key entity" in supporting Netanyahu's public relations strategy, the outlet reported on Wednesday.

The campaign began days after Israel blocked food, medicine, fuel and other humanitarian supplies from entering Gaza on March 2. Lawmakers questioned officials about whether the government had prepared for the public relations fallout.

A spokesperson for the Israeli army said at the time that authorities could launch a digital campaign "to explain that there is no hunger and present the data."

Since then, government ads denying starvation in Gaza have run widely, including a YouTube video from Israel's Foreign Ministry that declared "there is food in Gaza. Any other claim is a lie." The clip has been viewed more than 6 million times, much of it boosted through paid promotion.

According to the report, the ads are managed through YouTube and Google's Display & Video 360 platform and are characterised in government documents as "hasbara" — a Hebrew term often translated as "propaganda."

Records show that Israel also spent $3 million on ads with the US social media company X and $2.1 million with the French-Israeli platform Outbrain/Teads.

Similar tactics

Other Israeli Google ads attempting to discredit the UN and Gaza authorities were reported last year by WIRED.

An Israeli Government Advertising Agency ad on Google Ads Transparency Center from July attempted to accuse the UN of "deliberate sabotage" of aid delivery in Gaza and promoted the controversial US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which was established to bypass the UN humanitarian work and was accused of being a "death trap."

Another ad from June on Google's Ads Transparency Center shows the same.

The Gaza Health Ministry said on Tuesday that 185 people, including 12 children, died of starvation in August, the highest monthly figure recorded since Israel’s war on the enclave began nearly two years ago.

The ministry said 70 of the deaths occurred after the UN-backed hunger monitoring system Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) formally declared Gaza a famine zone last month.

Health officials reported that more than 43,000 children aged under 5 are suffering from malnutrition alongside 55,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women.

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Source: TRT