{"id":302581,"date":"2025-09-08T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T11:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=302581"},"modified":"2025-09-08T13:12:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T12:12:18","slug":"google-under-fire-for-45m-deal-with-netanyahus-office-to-spread-gaza-genocide-propaganda-fake-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/09\/google-under-fire-for-45m-deal-with-netanyahus-office-to-spread-gaza-genocide-propaganda-fake-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Google under Fire for $45m Deal with Netanyahu\u2019s Office to Spread Gaza Genocide Propaganda\/Fake News"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_302582\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/google.webp\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-302582\" class=\"wp-image-302582\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/google.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/google.webp 920w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/google-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/google-768x512.webp 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-302582\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">View of Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California on 16 Apr 2024.\u00a0 [Tayfun Co\u015fkun \u2013 Anadolu Agency]<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>4 Sep 2025\u00a0<\/em>&#8211; Google signed a $45 million contract with the Israeli prime minister\u2019s office to run a global digital advertising campaign promoting Israeli state messaging during its ongoing genocide in Gaza. The contract, first reported by <i>Drop Site News<\/i>, includes advertisements placed on YouTube and through Google\u2019s Display &amp; Video 360 platform, explicitly described in government documents as part of Israel\u2019s propaganda war.<\/p>\n<div class=\"memo-single-news-content 0\">\n<p>Signed in June 2025, the contract with Google\u2014covering YouTube and Display &amp; Video 360, the company\u2019s digital ad service\u2014authorised an extensive propaganda campaign labelled explicitly as hasbara, a Hebrew term denoting state-backed propaganda, often deployed to whitewash Israeli military actions.<\/p>\n<p>The campaign was launched as international condemnation grew over Israel\u2019s decision to cut off all food, fuel and humanitarian supplies to Gaza on 2 March, triggering what UN agencies describe as a man-made famine.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most widely viewed outputs of the campaign was a YouTube video by Israel\u2019s foreign ministry, falsely claiming, \u201cThere is food in Gaza. Any other claim is a lie.\u201d The ad was viewed over 6 million times, heavily boosted through paid promotion under the government contract.<\/p>\n<p>According to internal Israeli records, the initiative was coordinated through the Israeli Government Advertising Agency (Lapam), a department reporting directly to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the broader campaign, Israel also spent:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">$3 million on advertising with X (formerly Twitter)<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">$2.1 million with French-Israeli platform Outbrain\/Teads<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">An undisclosed amount promoting Israeli-aligned content across Meta\u2019s platforms<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Other ads published under the contract targeted international institutions and NGOs. Several attempted to delegitimise United Nations Relief and Works Agency, accusing the UN\u2019s Palestinian refugee agency of \u201cdeliberate sabotage\u201d of aid delivery.<\/p>\n<p>Others aimed to smear pro-Palestine legal advocacy groups such as the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.middleeastmonitor.com\/20250715-hind-rajab-foundation-files-criminal-complaint-in-portugal-against-israeli-soldier\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" >Hind Rajab Foundation<\/a>, portraying them as linked to \u201cextremist ideologies\u201d\u2014an allegation unsupported by credible evidence.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, UN agencies have sounded the alarm about famine conditions throughout Gaza. <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.middleeastmonitor.com\/20250822-ipc-formally-declares-famine-in-gaza-governorate-marks-1st-in-middle-east\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" >The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification<\/a> (IPC) declared a famine in northern Gaza in August, warning it would soon spread to other regions. As of this month, at least 367 Palestinians, including 131 children, have died of hunger and malnutrition, according to Gaza\u2019s health ministry.<\/p>\n<p>Despite this, Google continued to run Israeli state ads denying the existence of hunger. In a March 2025 hearing in the Knesset, senior Israeli officials were pressed not on humanitarian grounds, but on their preparedness to manage the PR fallout. \u201cWe could also decide to launch a digital campaign\u2026 to explain that there is no hunger,\u201d Avichai Edrei, a spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces is reported saying.<\/p>\n<p>A separate campaign targeted critics of Israeli military operations in Iran, following Israel\u2019s 12-day aerial bombardment campaign known as <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.middleeastmonitor.com\/20250613-israel-carries-out-strike-on-iranian-military-and-nuclear-sites\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" >Operation Rising Lion<\/a>, which killed at least 436 Iranian civilians. Documents show that the Netanyahu government\u2019s hasbara campaign was designed to promote the strikes as necessary for the security of \u201cIsrael and the West\u201d, with digital content placed across Google and X platforms.<\/p>\n<p>Human rights groups, fact-checkers and UN officials have expressed alarm at the growing role of US tech companies in amplifying genocide denial and disinformation. In June, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.middleeastmonitor.com\/20250704-an-economy-of-genocide-israel-and-the-albanese-report\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" >UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese<\/a> directly accused Google of profiting from the Gaza genocide. According to internal leaks, Google co-founder Sergey Brin responded on an employee forum by calling the UN \u201ca transparently antisemitic organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Google is already under scrutiny for its role in Project Nimbus, a cloud computing partnership with Amazon providing infrastructure to the Israeli government, including the military. Critics say the firm\u2019s deepening entanglement with Israel\u2019s war apparatus underscores the complicity of Silicon Valley in sustaining and legitimising state violence.<\/p>\n<p>_______________________________________________<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em> <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.middleeastmonitor.com\/20240921-big-techs-complicity-in-genocide-the-unforgivable-silence-of-online-platforms\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" >Big Tech\u2019s complicity in genocide: The unforgivable silence of online platforms<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.middleeastmonitor.com\/20250710-israels-genocide-industrial-complex-palestine-this-week-with-mouin-rabbani\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" ><em>Israel\u2019s \u201cGenocide-Industrial Complex\u201d<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.middleeastmonitor.com\/20220322-the-billion-dollar-deal-that-made-google-and-amazon-partners-in-the-israeli-occupation-of-palestine\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" ><em>The billion dollar deal that made Google and Amazon partners in the Israeli occupation of Palestine<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.middleeastmonitor.com\/20250904-google-under-fire-for-45m-deal-with-netanyahus-office-to-spread-gaza-genocide-propaganda\/\" >Go to Original &#8211; middleeastmonitor.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>4 Sep 2025\u00a0&#8211; Google signed a $45 million contract with the Israeli prime minister\u2019s office to run a global digital advertising campaign promoting Israeli state messaging during its ongoing genocide in Gaza, reported Drop Site News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":302582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[242],"tags":[1009,1138,1748,87,865,462,88,475,427,372],"class_list":["post-302581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exposures","tag-big-tech","tag-fake-news","tag-fake-report","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-google","tag-israel","tag-netanyahu","tag-palestine","tag-propaganda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302581"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":302721,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302581\/revisions\/302721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}