Irna – Israel’s “Hasbara” policy, long considered one of the most sophisticated tools of public diplomacy, has evolved into a vast propaganda machine designed to justify occupation, whitewash war crimes, and suppress dissent.
Yet, as the Gaza war unfolded, the same mechanism that once shaped global narratives began to unravel in the face of raw, unfiltered images of devastation that even search engines could not conceal.
Hasbara, a Hebrew term meaning “explanation”, emerged in the early 20th century as part of the Zionist movement’s strategy to legitimize colonial expansion in Palestine.
The concept was first introduced by Zionist leader Nahum Sokolow, who sought a more presentable substitute for “propaganda,” a word laden with negative connotations.
Sokolow envisioned Hasbara as a communicative bridge between Zionist ambitions and Western audiences, using Europe’s history of anti-Semitism as a rhetorical shield to justify the creation of a “Jewish homeland.”
Initially defensive in nature, Hasbara sought to counter local and international opposition to Jewish settlements in Palestine. But by the 1980s, it had transformed into an institutionalized global project.
The turning point came after Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon and the massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, which killed up to 3,500 civilians.
The backlash to those atrocities led pro-Israel groups and media strategists to convene a major conference in al-Quds in 1983, formally crafting Hasbara as a public relations doctrine to repair Israel’s image.
From that point, Israel’s public narrative shifted dramatically: the issue was no longer occupation or human rights, but anti-Semitism.
Under this logic, criticism of Israeli policies was rebranded as hatred of Jews, a label used to silence journalists, human rights advocates, and international institutions.
Over the next decades, Hasbara developed into a partnership between Israeli ministries, Western media outlets, and private lobbying networks aimed at managing global perception.
The digital age brought new power to this machinery. After the 2006 Lebanon war and the 2008–2009 Gaza onslaught, Hasbara evolved from a reactive communication strategy into an offensive weapon in the information war.
The Israeli regime created specialized media and cyber units that used fake accounts, sponsored content, and algorithmic manipulation to flood social media with pro-Israel narratives while suppressing opposing voices.
According to reports, the Hasbara apparatus coordinates with social media giants, ex-intelligence officers, and volunteer “digital soldiers.”
Its tactics include controlling search engine results, launching multilingual pages such as “Israel Speaks Arabic,” and offering scholarships to foreign students in exchange for spreading pro-Israel content online.
Manuals such as Defeating Anti-Israel Propaganda train activists to brand critics, including even Jewish dissidents, as “anti-Semitic” or “terror sympathizers.”
The Ministry of Strategic Affairs allocates millions of dollars annually to counter what it calls “delegitimization campaigns” and to combat the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
In recent years, over 100 data centers, 120 “operations rooms,” and 40 partner organizations have been mobilized to defend Israel’s image worldwide.
However, the Gaza genocide, which began on October 7, 2023, exposed Hasbara’s limits.
Despite extensive coordination and online censorship, footage of mass killings, destroyed hospitals, and children pulled from rubble spread across the internet faster than Israeli narratives could contain them.
For the first time, Hasbara’s control over information flow faltered. Its language of “self-defense” and “anti-terrorism” struggled to mask what many now view as genocide.
Public opinion has shifted accordingly. A 2025 Pew Research Center survey found that majorities in 20 of 24 countries hold negative views of Israel, including 93 percent in Turkiye, 80 percent in Indonesia, 78 percent in the Netherlands, and 75 percent in Spain and Sweden.
Even in the United States, Israel’s closest ally, unfavorable opinions rose from 42 percent in 2022 to 53 percent in 2025, with disapproval highest among Democrats (69 percent) and Americans under 30 (71 percent).
Despite its vast funding and digital sophistication, Hasbara faces a growing credibility crisis.
Social media, once its strongest tool, has become a double-edged sword, a space where Israel’s tightly managed narratives collide with eyewitness accounts from Gaza.
The more Israel intensifies its propaganda, the more visible its contradictions become.
Ultimately, the Hasbara machine, from its Zionist roots to its modern cyber form, has succeeded in influencing Western discourse for decades.
But the Gaza war marked a turning point: the collapse of a long-dominant narrative under the weight of undeniable truth.
As the world’s empathy increasingly shifts toward Palestinian victims, Israel’s propaganda model stands exposed, unable to hide the reality of occupation and war crimes behind the familiar label of “anti-Semitism.”
