Google Search users who try to find information online about Israel's war in Gaza are now being met with targeted advertising that aims to discredit the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
According to reports, Israel is purchasing these ads for placement atop Google Search results for "UNRWA" and "UNRWA USA" in an attempt to discredit the humanitarian body as having ties to Hamas.
A report from Wired explains that an Israeli government advertising agency is behind the scheme, the goal of which is to redirect all Google Search users to a special Israeli government propaganda page claiming that UNRWA is a Hamas entity.
The Israeli government says that UNRWA has not declared whether or not employing Hamas members violates its neutrality claim. UNRWA in response says the Israeli government is lying and that it does not employ Hamas members.
(Related: During a recent raid on Hamas tunnels in Gaza, Israel Defense Forces [IDF] killed five out of the six Israeli hostages who were inside – they all "suffocated to death" because of Israel's weapons.)
Google catering to Israel's propaganda efforts at UNRWA's expense
Back in January, a number of Western countries suspended their financing of UNRWA after Israeli accused 12 of the organization's 30,000 employees of playing a role in the October attack on Israel that precipitated the Netanyahu regime's crusade against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
A UN commission put together what is known as the Colonna report to look into Israeli's allegations. It found that Israeli authorities had not provided "any supporting evidence" to definitively link UNRWA staff members to Hamas.
After the report was published, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Sweden and Canada all restored funding to UNRWA, which the same commission is urging to strengthen its internal audit function and improve external oversight of its project management operations.
These Israeli propaganda ads on Google were first spotted by UNRWA staff members who tried to appeal to the tech giant to remove the ads, which UNRWA says are full of misinformation. As of this writing, Israel's anti-UNRWA ads are still appearing on Google.
When searching Google for "UNRWA," the very first result is a sponsored ad from "GovExtra," an Israeli government entity, claiming that UNRWA's neutrality has been "compromised" by Hamas.
"UNRWA" and "UNRWA USA" are not the only two search terms that pull up that sponsored ad. Israel identified some 300 different search terms related to UNRWA that have also been tied to the propaganda article featured as the first result on Google.
Between May and July of this year, Google users who tried to search for information about UNRWA were met with Israel's sponsored result 44 percent of the time. Compare that to UNRWA USA's own advertisements, which only appeared 34 percent of the time.
According to Mara Kronenfeld of UNRWA USA, the agency has spent thousands of dollars and lots of staff time trying to outbid Israel's advertising on Google, to no avail. Even so, UNRWA continues to receive donations by supporters, including 78,000 who gave money to the agency just in the month of August so far this year.
"There is an incredibly powerful campaign to dismantle UNRWA," Kronenfeld said, expressing concern that the general public will get the wrong idea about the agency thanks to Israel's propaganda efforts.
"I want the public to know what's happening and the insidious nature of it, especially at a time when civilian lives are under attack in Gaza," she added.
The latest news about Israel's efforts to control the war narrative can be found at Prophecy.news.
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