By: Jerome Brookshire

In June 2025, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office signed a $45 million contract with Google to spearhead a sweeping global advertising campaign designed to counter what Jerusalem has termed a “relentless disinformation war” waged by Hamas and its supporters. The campaign, which included placements on YouTube and through Google’s Display & Video 360 (DV360) digital ad network, has since emerged as one of the most extensive state-directed information initiatives in the country’s history.

The agreement, first reported by Drop Site News and later corroborated by internal Israeli records, underscores how Israel is mobilizing big tech partnerships to promote official narratives abroad while combating accusations that its Gaza campaign has crossed humanitarian and legal red lines.

The $45 million deal, coordinated by Israel’s Government Advertising Agency (known as Lapam), falls under the direct oversight of the Prime Minister’s Office. Documents describe the effort explicitly as hasbara — a Hebrew term often translated as “public diplomacy” but understood colloquially as a strategic communications drive aimed at “telling Israel’s truth” in the face of hostile narratives.

Central to the initiative is Google’s YouTube platform, where paid promotion dramatically boosted the reach of official content from Israel’s Foreign Ministry. One such ad, bluntly titled “There is food in Gaza. Any other claim is a lie,” has already garnered over six million views, much of it through targeted paid distribution under the Lapam contract.

The broader campaign leverages DV360, Google’s ad-buying platform, allowing Israel to place highly targeted video, display, and mobile advertising across multiple countries and media markets.

While Google has not issued a formal statement, sources familiar with the arrangement suggest that the company has treated the Israeli government as a high-level institutional client, subject to its advertising rules but afforded the privileges of a sovereign state with significant spending power.

The partnership with Google is part of a larger media blitz orchestrated by Israel since the escalation of the Gaza war. According to government procurement data, Israel also invested:

$3 million on X (formerly Twitter), capitalizing on the platform’s looser content moderation policies under Elon Musk.

$2.1 million on Outbrain/Teads, the French-Israeli content recommendation and ad platform that distributes stories across leading news websites worldwide.

An undisclosed sum with Meta, promoting Israel-aligned content on Facebook and Instagram.

Many of these ads were designed not only to push back against allegations of a humanitarian blockade but also to undermine the credibility of international organizations. Several campaigns accused the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) of “deliberate sabotage” of aid deliveries, echoing long-standing Israeli claims that the UN body collaborates with or enables Hamas.

The contract was signed on June 10, 2025, during a period of growing international scrutiny. In March, UN agencies accused Israel of creating a “man-made famine” after cutting off food, fuel, and humanitarian convoys into Gaza on March 2. Jerusalem has vigorously denied the allegations, arguing instead that Hamas routinely seizes aid and manipulates imagery of suffering for propaganda purposes.

Facing mounting condemnation in Europe, the United Nations, and parts of Washington, Netanyahu’s office fast-tracked the hasbara initiative. According to insiders, the decision reflected a belief that traditional diplomatic channels were no longer sufficient to counter the tide of negative opinion, particularly as social media imagery of starvation and devastation in Gaza flooded global platforms.

“The battlefield today is as much digital as it is physical,” one Israeli government official was quoted in local media as saying. “If we do not tell our story, Hamas and its allies will fill the vacuum with lies.”

Google’s involvement has already attracted significant controversy. Critics argue that the company, by accepting such a contract, risks becoming complicit in a propaganda effort during wartime. Human rights organizations have demanded greater transparency from both Google and the Israeli government about the content of the ads and the targeting criteria used.

Scholars of digital communications note that this is not the first time Israel has invested heavily in global hasbara. However, the sheer scale of the Google contract — combined with the timing of its launch amid reports of famine — represents a sharp escalation in the integration of big tech into state information wars.

Civil society groups have also questioned whether the ads were clearly labeled as government-sponsored, or whether some viewers may have mistaken them for organic content. On YouTube, where autoplay and algorithmic recommendations amplify promoted videos, transparency about sponsorship is critical to maintaining trust.

The use of hasbara as a strategic tool is not new. Since Israel’s founding, successive governments have invested in public diplomacy campaigns aimed at securing international legitimacy. But what was once conducted through traditional embassies and state broadcasters has shifted decisively into the digital realm.

By partnering with Google and other platforms, Israel is not simply purchasing advertising space; it is entering the world of microtargeted influence operations, where narratives can be tailored to specific demographics, geographies, and even psychographic profiles.

Analysts point out that this method mirrors similar campaigns by other governments, including Russia, China, and the United States, which have also relied on social media platforms to project national narratives abroad.

Supporters in Israel view the initiative as essential statecraft. They argue that antisemitism and misinformation have merged into a powerful wave of delegitimization that can only be countered with robust digital outreach.

The $45 million Google contract highlights how digital battlegrounds now shape modern conflicts as much as tanks and drones. Israel’s wager is that high-tech messaging, backed by Silicon Valley distribution, can shift public perception in its favor even as humanitarian crises deepen on the ground.

For Google, the controversy places the company at the center of a geopolitical storm. As one of the world’s largest gatekeepers of information, its willingness to act as a conduit for wartime messaging is likely to attract further scrutiny from regulators, advocacy groups, and policymakers worldwide.

What remains unclear is whether the campaign has measurably shifted global opinion. While official ads have reached millions, polling continues to show declining international support for Israel’s Gaza policy, particularly in Europe and among younger demographics in the United States.

The $45 million deal between Google & You Tube and the Israeli government marks a watershed moment in the intersection of big tech, geopolitics, and wartime information management.