Israel buying Google ads to deter potential UNRWA doners: report

The Israeli government is buying Google advertisements for searches to discredit aid organisation United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the American magazine WIRED reported on Monday, amid an ongoing assault 

The government is buying ads for searches for "UNRWA" and "UNRWA USA", which appear to draw potential donors to a website filled with allegations against the organisation, including linking it to the Palestinian group Hamas.

The site falsely claims UNRWA has not declared whether "employing Hamas members" violates its neutrality and does not investigate potential abuses by employees despite the UN agency's latest investigation finding no evidence to support such claims.

WIRED found that the website was funded by the Israeli Government Advertising Agency.

"The spread of misinformation, disinformation has become a weapon of war," Juliette Touma, director of communications at UNRWA who was quoted in the WIRED piece, told The New Arab, referring to Israel's war on Gaza.

"This is part of a bigger effort to dismantle the agency, dismantle UNRWA."

By analysing user searches from May to July for over 300 terms related to UNRWA, data from UNRWA USA's Google Ads account revealed that Israeli ads appeared 44 percent of the time, and both Israeli and UNRWA USA ads were eligible to be shown.

UNRWA USA ads appeared in just 34 percent of eligible circumstances.

"We've seen quite a number of attempts, including a spread of misinformation and disinformation, and this story is only one of a much bigger campaign against the agency, where there is quite a lot of efforts to dismantle [UNRWA]," Touma tells The New Arab.

She added that the Israeli government was using Google as a "tool" to further its campaign.

A Google spokesperson defended this policy, in comments to The New Arab, saying: "Governments are allowed to run ads on Google and YouTube, as long as they adhere to our strict ads policies.

"These policies are publicly available and we enforce them consistently and without bias. If we find ads that violate those policies, we take swift action."

UNRWA is the largest humanitarian organisation providing aid to Gaza.

Israel accused 12 of its employees of taking part in the 7 October attacks, causing many Western nations to suspend funding to the agency in January.

However, a UN probe into the allegations found that Israel had failed to provide evidence to back their accusations, leading to several countries restoring their funding to the organisation including the UK, Canada, and Australia.

Current and former Google employees told Wired this "anti-UNRWA campaign is just one volley of ads that Israel has orchestrated in recent months", and have drawn complaints inside and outside the company.

While UNRWA has raised concerns to Google, a spokesperson for the company told WIRED that governments can run adverts that adhere to the company’s policies and users and employees are welcome to report alleged violence.