With the dawn of a new year, Israel’s government unveiled an additional $150 million to sway international public opinion in its 2025 budget. The sum is 20 times larger than in previous years and comes as Israel’s war on Gaza enters its second year.
Known as hasbara or “explaining” in Hebrew, the term refers to the state’s propaganda efforts to justify or explain away its oppressive policies against Palestinians.
The increase is the result of a political deal struck between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and newly appointed Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Sa’ar to push the latter to rejoin the coalition.
While the monetary influx is perhaps more of an internal political decision rather than a wartime strategy, the timing of such a significant spike can’t be overlooked – especially as Israel’s standing diminishes in the world’s eyes.
“When you look at what’s happening in Europe, you see growing resentment towards Israel among culture, sports, academia,” Nimrod Goren, president of the Israel-based, foreign-policy think tank, the Mitvim Institute, told The New Arab.
“Protests of people calling to boycott – we see those incidents happening more and more. It’s not necessarily reflecting the majority of European public opinion, but it’s becoming an issue for Israel.”
Israel’s wartime hasbara efforts
Israel’s Foreign Affairs Ministry did not respond to TNA’s inquiries on how the money will be used, but according to a statement from Sa’ar, the budget increase will be funnelled to “media campaigns abroad, in the foreign press, on social media…[including] concentrated activity on US campuses to change their attitude towards Israel”.
In the last year, a wave of pro-Palestine protests in solidarity with Gaza swept American universities, which pro-Israel lobbying groups called “anti-Semitic”.
In contrast, Israel’s wartime propaganda efforts have included sending scores of celebrities, social media influencers, and even university students to Israel with the goal of churning out brand ambassadors for the state.
The Foreign Ministry’s inflated hasbara budget could be directed toward more of these initiatives as Sa’ar has been holding brainstorming sessions packed with influencers in recent weeks.
“We are in the middle of an effort to change the approach towards the whole topic that was once called hasbara, and that I call ‘consciousness warfare,’” Sa’ar told the group in a recent meeting.
“The democratic world is influenced by public opinion…and when it is not good for us, then it influences the elected political level’s space to manoeuvre in the international arena.”
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Yet for many hasbara experts, throwing money at Israel’s reputational problem isn’t likely to fix the damage already done.
“It’s one thing to convince world governments in the West to continue to support Israel,” Matt Lieb, host of Bad Hasbara, a podcast discussing US and Israeli propaganda, told TNA.
“But when it comes to just everyday people who have eyes and a heart, the more they try to explain why they need to do the atrocities, the more people see it for what it is, which is just pure propaganda.”
As Israel pulls together a conga line of celebrities to vouch for them, Lieb points out that this tactic is futile.
“People don’t choose their morality or their politics even based on what celebrities say,” Lieb said.
In Goren’s view, Israel’s actions speak volumes and should be where the government’s attention is paid as opposed to simply doing damage control.
“The notion that hasbara can solve all these problems while actually the major issue Israel should look at is its policies because sometimes policies are more effective than trying to explain things that are unacceptable,” Goren said.
Is Israel losing the PR war?
On one hand, Israel’s war on Gaza, which thanks to social media and Palestinian journalists has essentially been live-streamed, has irreversibly changed the world’s perception of the state.
International rights groups and legal experts say Israel is committing acts of genocide in the war, which has killed over 45,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children.
Meanwhile, the ICC has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
On the other hand, analysts argue, its image has been bolstered by some world leaders, especially as many countries’ governments move to the right.
“With or without the funding, there are places that Israel is losing big time during the last 15 months. And there are places where Israel’s standing has actually improved, especially with those countries that have shifted more to the right,” Goren said. “There’s a differentiation between the public level – the activism level – and the more governmental class.”
The sea change in global public opinion has been felt most acutely in the US, where the Israel lobby is the strongest and its government the staunchest supporter of Israel.
“In many ways the cultural hegemony around Israel has changed,” Tariq Kenney-Shawa, US policy fellow at Al-Shabaka, The Palestinian Policy Network, told TNA.
“Especially in the United States, moving it from what Americans might have once thought of as a country that they see a lot of parallels in, a natural ally, to a country with bad connotations.”
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Yet in the fog of war, Israel’s hasbara campaigns have the potential to flourish.
“What Israel will try to do is muddy the waters, confuse people and make it difficult for people who might be coming around to the reality of Israel to take action on criticising Israel,” Kenney-Shawa said.
“They can make people think that this is a really complicated issue [to say] ‘it’s probably best for me to just stay out of it’,” Kenney-Shawa added. “That is where the real danger comes.”
Israel has long been obsessed with narrative – keenly aware that in today’s age of information, positive public perception is vital. But the narrative Israel is so desperate to manipulate may already be out of their hands.
“The image of Israel is now tainted,” Kenney-Shawa said.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t have to be as extreme as everyone coming around to the realisation that what’s going on is a genocide by every legal definition. It’s about the wider brush strokes of how people approach Israel and Israelis. That is something that’s going to be long-lasting.”
Jessica Buxbaum is a Jerusalem-based journalist covering Palestine and Israel. Her work has been featured in Middle East Eye, The National, and Gulf News
Follow her on Twitter: @jess_buxbaum
