From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, August 27, 2024
Government paying for Google ads detailing UNRWA terror allegations — report
The government has paid for a Google advertising campaign to publicize its allegations that UNRWA, the aid agency for Palestinian refugees, has ties to Hamas terror activities, the US monthly magazine WIRED reports.
Israel’s New York Consulate acknowledged the report but did not answer requests for comment.
According to WIRED, the government has bought advertising for searches such as “UNRWA” and “UNRWA USA” in an apparent attempt to direct the attention of potential donors to the agency toward information about its ties to the Hamas terror group.
Israel and pro-Israel lobbying groups have for years accused UNRWA staff of antisemitism and the glorification of terrorism, particularly within UNRWA’s extensive education system. Throughout the IDF’s campaign in Gaza, weapons and Hamas facilities have been found embedded at UNRWA sites.
Mara Kronenfeld, who runs the agency’s US partner UNRWA USA, tells the magazine she noticed the campaign when searching the name for her nonprofit and found what appeared to be a promotion for the organization that led to a webpage detailing the allegations.
Ads in January with the headline “UNRWA for Human Rights” were removed after the aid agency complained, despite Google saying there was no violation of its policies. By May, advertisements were renewed with clearer headers, including “UNRWA Neutrality Compromised, “Israel Unveils UNRWA Issues,” and “Israel Advocates for Safer, Transparent Humanitarian Practices.”
Other video ads on Google charge that “UNRWA is inseparable from Hamas,” and that the agency “keeps employing terrorists.”
According to the report, from May to July, the advertisements appeared 44 percent of the time that they and UNRWA USA ads were able to appear, citing UNWRA USA’s Google analytics. Additionally, UNRWA USA ads popped up in only 34% of eligible searches.
UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma tells WIRED that the advertisements harm the agency’s reputation and “are destructive to people.”
“They should stop, and those responsible for this sabotage should be held accountable. There should be a lot of follow-up with companies like Google once the war is over. There’s a lot to answer to,” she says.
Google employees who spoke to WIRED said they felt uncomfortable with their company profiting from Israel’s alleged efforts to blame UNRWA for Gaza’s humanitarian crisis.
“You shouldn’t be taking that money,” one of the sources says.
Earlier this month, the United Nations announced that nine employees of the UNRWA agency for Palestinian refugees “may have been involved” in Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and will be fired from the organization, nearly 10 months after allegations were raised.
The Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), an independent body of the United Nations Secretariat, said in a terse press release that it had completed its investigation into 19 UNRWA staff members alleged by Israel to have taken part in the October 7 atrocities and concluded that in nine cases, the evidence obtained by the organization “indicated that the UNRWA staff members may have been involved in the armed attacks of 7 October 2023.”
Several past reports by such organizations have found that UNRWA schools and teachers continue to teach hatred of Jews and glorify terrorism, including a 2022 report by the IMPACT-SE organization that UNRWA textbooks continue to contain incitement, and a 2023 report by the same organization along with the UN Watch group citing dozens of examples of social media posts by UNRWA employees that “glorify terrorism, encourage martyrdom, demonize Israelis and incite antisemitism.”
