Close Menu
    Welt

    Ermittlungsberichter

    Share.
    View 18 Comments

    18 Kommentare

    1. Bluehelix on

      **TL;DR**

      UN’s IPC declared an official famine in Gaza (Phase 5: “catastrophe”), threatening 1.9M people.

      One day before release, the Israeli government launched a €40m / $42.5m ad campaign with Google, YouTube, X, and others, showing restaurants and markets in Gaza to suggest “there is food.”

      Investigation by German public broadcaster BR24 (with EBU partners) verified that the restaurants in the ads are real, but they are not evidence of normal life. Many of them can only open sporadically for a few days at a time because of supply shortages. Menus are constantly changing depending on what and if any food is available. Prices like **€25 / $27 for a kilo of tomatoes**, or **€255 / $270 for a 25-kg sack of flour**.

      Leaked contracts confirm Google received the bulk of the budget (~€38m / $40m). Ads reached millions across Europe and the US.

      Experts and UN say this is a **coordinated disinformation campaign to downplay the humanitarian crisis**.

    2. Bluehelix on

      **Sources & further reading:**

      **BR24 investigative report (German public broadcaster)**
      [How Israel’s government deliberately sows doubt about famine in Gaza (BR24, Sept 8, 2025)](https://www.br.de/nachrichten/deutschland-welt/wie-israels-regierung-gezielt-zweifel-an-hungersnot-in-gaza-saet,UvvUbmK)

      **IPC report (UN Integrated Food Security Phase Classification):**
      [IPC Famine Review Committee: Gaza Strip, August 2025 (PDF)](https://www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/docs/IPC_Famine_Review_Committee_Report_Gaza_Aug2025.pdf)
      [IPC Country Analysis: Gaza Strip – July to September 2025](https://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/details-map/en/c/1159696/)

      **Official Israeli government advertising contract with Google/X/Outbrain (Procurement Protocol, June 2025)**
      [Government Procurement Protocol, June 2025 (PDF)](https://mr.gov.il/ilgstorefront/en/p/attachment/005056BF65EB1FD094D279802813A14E/%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%98%D7%95%D7%A7%D7%9C%20%D7%9C%D7%A4%D7%A1%D7%A8%D7%A1%D7%95%D7%9D)

      **UNRWA Situation Report #159 (Feb 2025):**
      [UNRWA Situation Report #159 on Gaza Strip & West Bank Humanitarian Crisis](https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-159-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem)

      **Deutsche Welle fact-check**
      [Fact check: Gaza famine photos not staged (DW, Aug 2025)](https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-gaza-famine-photos-not-staged/a-73626929)

    4. Talentagentfriend on

      I’m surprised, I see much more ads that are anti-Israel/pro-Palestine

    7. npquest on

      So if there is food in Gaza and „famine“ declaration is politically motivated then why not show that?

    9. AgitatedMistake6545 on

      Bad people of course do bad things and Israeli government displays it.

    10. default3612 on

      They should have paid for ads promoting all the Gaza restaurants that are popping up lately, like that Nutella themed one.

    12. Chompytul on

      „Reveals“!!! The source: Israeli government’s public information regarding government contracts.

      Oh, those sneaky sneaky Jews and their sneaky under-the-table deals!

    13. vertigounconscious on

      those dollars are literally at work in this comment section with auto-generated names and no comment histories saying that Palestine is somehow doing more than Israel in this arena. it’s right in front of you here.

    14. ksamim on

      Forgive me, but running ads that show there are tons of active restaurants in Gaza sounds like fighting the information war. It’s called “downplaying the Gaza famine” by the people who foment the notion that there is a famine.

      Not arguing for or against it, but the title to this post is partisan rhetoric in the same vein of who they are accusing.

    15. kimfromlastnight on

      I guess this tracks with Google doing away with their old ‘Don’t be evil’ slogan. 

    16. sampleminded on

      So Qutar pays google to make famine look bad, and Israel pays them to make it look fine. I’m buying google stock.

    17. Krilesh on

      The unregulated nature of ads via tech companies is insanity. Whether it’s simply fake product ads or election interference. The ability to pay cheaply to get a message out to millions without any fact checking is insanity.

      Putting misinfo ads on the same platform on which people get real info from is not ideal but it’s certainly overvalued people who speak more than they think

    18. CBT7commander on

      Except there isn’t a famine in Gaza, per the ICP.

      Until a week ago, no part of Gaza had ever been in famine. And even then it was just declared for Gaza city

    Leave A Reply