Above photo: SKDK.
Tel Aviv significantly increased its propaganda budget this year.
In an effort to reverse declining popular support in the west for its genocide in Gaza.
US public affairs giant SKDK has ended a $600,000 contract with the Israeli government that “promoted Israel’s perspective” about the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, according to POLITICO.
“SKDK stopped this work on Aug. 31 and has begun the process of de-registering,” a spokesperson for SKDK told the DC-based magazine, declining to comment on the reasons why the contract was cut short early, saying only that the work “had run its course.”
According to POLITICO, the contract between Tel Aviv and SKDK was expected to run until March 2026.
The announcement followed a report by Sludge on 15 September that said the firm was involved in a bot program to boost pro-Israel content online.
“The contract, worth $600,000 from April 2025 through March 2026, also tasks SKDK with coaching Israeli civil society spokespeople for on-camera appearances, testing the effectiveness of social media influencers, and arranging tailored outreach to journalists at outlets including BBC, CNN, Fox, and the Associated Press to secure favorable coverage,” the Sludge report details.
However, SKDK and its parent company, Stagwell, denied this, insisting their work was limited to media relations. “Our work focused solely on media relations and nothing else,” the SKDK spokesperson told POLITICO.
An investigation by MintPress News in July revealed that Israel has spent millions of dollars per day on an expansive advertising campaign across YouTube, aimed at shifting European public opinion in support of its genocide and its unprovoked war against Iran.
In May 2024, Al-Jazeera found that Israel was using AI-powered “superbots” to target pro-Palestinian posts on social media, quickly replying with pro-Israel messages and amplifying specific narratives.
Since the start of its ethnic cleansing campaign in Gaza, the Israeli government has boosted its foreign PR budget by more than 2,000 percent for what’s officially known as “public diplomacy,” or hasbara in Hebrew.
Israel’s massive hike in pro-genocide propaganda came as a response to dwindling popular support across western nations. According to a Gallup poll published in July, only 32 percent of the US population said they support Israel’s actions in Gaza.
