Webinar Report: Countering Israel’s 2026 Hasbara Industry

This comprehensive report details the proceedings of the webinar organised by the Global Alliance for Palestine (GAFP) on 07 April 2026. The session convened a diverse panel of academics, digital rights advocates, and investigative journalists to dissect the mechanics of Hasbara – Israel’s state-sponsored information warfare – and to develop strategies to reclaim the narrative in an era defined by industrial-scale digital manipulation.

The event served as a critical platform for mapping the vast machinery of state-funded propaganda, exploring its reach into social media feeds, news cycles, and even the algorithmic foundations of Artificial Intelligence. By bringing together historical analysis, technical evidence of platform bias, and first-hand testimonies from Gaza, the webinar aimed to provide participants with the tools necessary to identify and counter sophisticated disinformation campaigns that seek to manufacture consent for occupation and genocide.

Key Takeaways

• Hasbara as an Instrument of Colonialism: Far from mere ‘explanation’, Hasbara is a coordinated, well-funded effort to manufacture global consent for ethnic cleansing and genocide while systematically suppressing Palestinian voices.
• The ‘Casting Doubt’ Doctrine: When physical evidence of state violence becomes undeniable, the Hasbara apparatus shifts from defending its own actions to ‘manufacturing discontent’ by casting doubt on the validity of Palestinian suffering (e.g., the “Pollywood” narrative).
• Algorithmic Warfare and Tech Complicity: Major tech conglomerates (specifically Meta and Google) are active participants in this conflict, utilising biased ‘classifiers’ to aggressively shadow-ban Palestinian content while allowing Hebrew-language hate speech to proliferate.
• OSINT as the New Front Line: Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) has emerged as a critical tool for resistance, allowing independent investigators to use satellite imagery and metadata to expose state lies and reconstruct reality in real-time.
• The Disparity Between Truth and Policy: While Hasbara is failing to win the hearts of the global public, it remains effective at the policy level, necessitating a shift from ‘awareness’ toward the building of tangible political power.

Background: The Infrastructure of Information Warfare

The webinar was chaired by Lujane Abdullah, who introduced the Global Alliance for Palestine as an international coalition born out of a moment of global awakening following the 2023 genocide in Gaza. Abdullah provided a stark financial and strategic context for the discussion, highlighting the staggering scale of the 2026 Hasbara budget. The Israeli government has approved an unprecedented public diplomacy budget of roughly $725 million – twenty times its usual annual allocation – to shape global opinion.

Abdullah noted that Prime Minister Netanyahu has explicitly described social media as Israel’s ‘eighth front’, ranking it alongside military, economic, and political arenas as a primary weapon of the state. This machinery extends into the very logic of modern technology; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reportedly signed a $6 million agreement with a US firm to produce digital content specifically designed to influence how Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems respond to queries about Israel. This represents a shift from targeting what people read to shaping what the ‘machines’ tell us, attempting to hardwire state-sponsored narratives into the digital foundations of the 21st century.

Historical Context: Manufacturing Discontent

Professor Miriyam Aouragh, an anthropologist and researcher at the University of Westminster, provided a nuanced theoretical foundation for the discussion by situating Hasbara within the broader history of settler-colonialism. She argued that media and communication have always been essential to projects of domination, as violent projects cannot rely on force alone but must ‘render agreement’ through manufactured narratives.

Aouragh introduced the critical conceptual framework of ‘Manufacturing Discontent’. Drawing on the theories of Edward Said and the ‘Manufacturing Consent’ model of Herman and Chomsky, she explained that while traditional propaganda seeks to build ‘consent’ for the state’s actions, Hasbara has evolved to focus on creating ‘discontent’ for the Palestinian people. This strategy is particularly evident in the ‘casting doubt’ policy. When Israel faced successive Hasbara failures after 2008, the state shifted its priority to causing doubt and deflecting attention away from war crimes.

This evolution culminated in the ‘Pallywood’ narrative, where Palestinians are accused of faking their own deaths or injuries. Aouragh described this as a ‘schizophrenic reality’ where the Israeli army mediates its own horrific activities on social media while simultaneously claiming such events never happened. She argued that Hasbara is currently ‘trapped between a rock and a hard place’: it attempts to maintain a ‘liberal diplomacy’ image while conducting an aggressive, hot war. Despite its vast resources, she noted that Hasbara remains ‘triumphant in its failure’ because it cannot negate the continued Palestinian anti-colonial claim in the 21st century.

The Architecture of Digital Censorship

Nadim Nashif, Executive Director and co-founder of 7amleh, detailed the systemic complicity of major tech conglomerates in silencing Palestinian voices. He argued that companies like Meta and Google do not merely respond to Israeli pressure; they are structurally aligned with American and Israeli state perspectives, seeing themselves as extensions of these political interests.

Nashif revealed the technical mechanics of this bias through ‘classifiers’ – the AI systems used for automated content moderation. He noted that while Arabic classifiers have been used aggressively for a decade to over-moderate content, a Hebrew-language classifier was only deployed in the summer of 2023 and remains significantly less effective. During the genocide in Gaza, Meta reportedly manipulated these thresholds. While a post typically requires an 80% ‘assurance’ of a violation to be removed, the threshold for content coming from Palestine and neighbouring regions was lowered to 25%. This resulted in an unprecedented wave of ‘false positive’ takedowns, effectively conducting an attack on Palestinians through code. Furthermore, Nashif highlighted the ongoing battle over political language, noting the intense pressure from the Zionist lobby to ban the phrase ‘from the river to the sea’ and to equate criticism of Zionism with hate speech.

OSINT: Debunking State Narratives in Real-Time

Tariq Kenney-Shawa, Al-Shabaka’s US Policy Fellow, explored the emergence of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) as a vital tool for contesting state propaganda. OSINT involves the expert analysis of publicly available data – such as satellite imagery, cell phone footage, and audio analysis – to reconstruct reality and cut through the ‘fog of war’.

Kenney-Shawa presented evidence from Forensic Architecture, highlighting two landmark investigations that refuted official Israeli denials:

1. The Tel al-Sultan Massacre: In this March 2025 incident, investigators used audio analysis from a medic’s phone and satellite imagery to prove that 15 emergency responders were executed by Israel at point-blank range and their vehicles crushed by tanks to hide evidence, refuting claims they were caught in crossfire.
2. The Murder of Hind Rajab: Spatial and audio analysis reconstructed the scene where an Israeli tank fired on a family car and subsequently targeted the ambulance sent to rescue the six-year-old girl, despite the vehicle having prior clearance.

Despite these successes, Kenney-Shawa warned of a deepening ‘democracy crisis’. While OSINT can preserve a legal and historical record, the sheer volume of documented atrocities has not yet compelled political intervention from the world’s most powerful countries. He argued that truth alone is no longer enough; the movement must find new ways to build political power that can make the truth have tangible consequences again.

The Personal Impact of Information Warfare

Hala Shoman, a researcher and political activist originally trained as a dentist in Gaza, provided a harrowing account of the human cost of these information battles. She described Hasbara not as an abstract policy but as a form of psychological violence that follows Palestinians even into their moments of grief.

Shoman spoke specifically about the Al-Ahli (Baptist) Hospital bombing in October 2023. She recounted a painful call with her father in Gaza, who was more incensed by the media’s willingness to ‘sell’ Israeli lies – casting doubt on who was responsible – than by the bombardment itself. She also highlighted the use of staged content, specifically debunking a viral video of a supposed nurse at Shifa Hospital claiming Hamas was stealing fuel. Shoman pointed out the technical inconsistencies: the ‘nurse’ was an actress with an incorrect (non-Gazan) accent, and she was seen wearing medical gear – masks and gloves – that real Gaza doctors lacked due to the total blockade. This video was used to manufacture consent for the invasion of a hospital, demonstrating how Hasbara directly facilitates military aggression.

Unmasking the Financial Paper Trail

The final speaker, Anas Ambri, an investigative journalist, provided a practical toolkit for unmasking state-funded influence operations. He focused on the ways the public can follow the ‘digital paper trail’ to identify state-funded scripts and unmask hidden influencers.

Ambri introduced two primary investigative avenues:

• Google Ads Transparency Centre: This public tool allows users to track every ad run by entities like the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ambri revealed that in just the last six months of 2025, Israel spent approximately $40 million on YouTube and Google ads, many specifically targeted to smear organisations like UNRWA and MSF.
• FARA Filings (US): Under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, US firms must disclose when they act on behalf of foreign governments. Ambri highlighted a filing for a $600,000 contract to develop a ‘bot-based program’ on various social media platforms to ‘flood the zone’ with state-sponsored narratives.

Concluding Discussion: From Awareness to Power

The webinar concluded with a strategic synthesis. Panellists agreed that the movement must transition from a reactive posture – constantly debunking every Hasbara lie – to a proactive one. Professor Aouragh suggested a formal division of labour within activist groups, where designated teams handle debunking while the majority of organisers focus on building grassroots political power.

The final remarks underscored that while the Hasbara industry is massive, it is fundamentally failing to win the battle of public opinion. Polls in early 2026 show that a majority of Western publics now support aid conditions and ceasefire. The critical task for 2026 is ensuring that this narrative victory translates into a policy shift that serves to end the occupation and secures justice for the Palestinian people.

Ultimately, this transition requires acknowledging the sophisticated symbiosis between Hasbara and imperial interests; the efficacy of propaganda often lies not in its inherent believability, but in the strategic value Israel offers as a regional ally. By deconstructing these power relations, activists can move beyond mere fact-checking and engage in the more difficult work of dismantling the institutional structures that sustain the status quo. The objective is no longer just to ‘win the argument’ on social media, but to foster a political environment where the documentation of reality, such as that provided by OSINT, possesses the weight necessary to trigger genuine accountability and systemic change.