• Former employees, contractors, and private companies are suing Israel’s propaganda directorate for millions of shekels in unpaid “work”
• Israel has heavily funded propaganda campaigns through the foreign and diaspora ministries.
Former employees of Israel’s national public diplomacy directorate, which oversees Israeli propaganda, are demanding millions of shekels for unpaid “work.” The “work” was carried out since October 7th, according to the Israeli daily Calcalist.
Referred to in Hebrew as Hasbara, the directorate is being sued by companies and contractors who provided so-called services during the early months of Israel’s campaign in Gaza, following October 7th.
Two private companies, which supplied studios for Israeli leaders and funded activism in Europe, are seeking a total of two million shekels ($650,000).
Eylon Levy, a high-profile British Jewish Zionist who served as an official government spokesperson until March 2024, acknowledged he is owed money but said he has grown tired of pursuing it and is not participating in the lawsuit.
Despite no longer working for the Israeli government, Levy, educated at London’s University College School and the University of Oxford, continues his Hasbara work for Israel.
“The UK Government is in complete denial that Iran attacked Britain. It tried to kill British soldiers,“ Levy wrote on his X account on Wednesday, referring to missiles fired at the British Royal Air Force’s Akrotiri base in Cyprus.
“Why does Iran even have an ambassador in the UK? It is an enemy state. Expel him,” he added on the account, which has 250,000 followers.
Major Israeli news outlet, Calcalist, reported that dozens of independent Hasbara activists and contractors were hired after October 7th, as the directorate was understaffed.
Some were not formally employed by the state but worked through private contractors. “Thus, private production companies became a payment channel for those representing Israel abroad,” the report said. Contractors described the work as “always messy.”
One company that provided former Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant with a dedicated studio for interviews is now demanding more than half a million shekels ($160,000) in unpaid fees.
Another company, Intellect, is seeking over 1.5 million shekels ($487,000) from the Prime Minister’s Office, which oversees the Hasbara directorate.
According to Calcalist, Intellect “funded flights to The Hague, which were used by influencer activists who operated against pro-Palestinian demonstrations ahead of the hearings at the court in The Hague.”
The Prime Minister’s Office said there were “irregularities in the contracting practices of the public diplomacy directorate” but could not provide further details due to ongoing legal proceedings.
Since October 2023, propaganda efforts have also been run by the foreign ministry and the diaspora ministry. Both of these have devoted significant funds to distributing Israeli propaganda shamelessly denying that they have committed any war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
In September 2024, the Israeli government approved an additional 150 million shekels ($49m) for Hasbara efforts in the foreign ministry, supplementing an existing budget of 520 million shekels ($170m). The extra funding was taken from higher education.
That same month, the foreign ministry, headed by Gideon Saar, established a new public diplomacy directorate intended to employ bloggers and social media influencers. This reflected concerns that Israel’s propaganda efforts were underperforming.
In June 2024, it emerged that Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli led a propaganda campaign targeting US college campuses and aimed at redefining antisemitism in US law.
A year later, in May 2025, Chikli’s ministry offered settlement municipalities up to a million shekels ($325,000) to conduct propaganda campaigns in Israel and abroad.
