a collective of researchers unveils a highly organized campaign to denigrate UNRWA for the benefit of Israel

The open conflict between Israel and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees continues online. The NGO FakeReporter on Tuesday uncovered disinformation campaigns by Israel targeting the UN agency.

The conflict between Israel and UNRWA continues online. Monday March 18, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, claimed to have been prevented from entering Gaza. False, respond the Israelis, who speak of an administrative error for which the head of UNRWA is responsible.

For several weeks, humanitarians from this UN agency have accused Israel of hitting their personnel and infrastructure indiscriminately, the Jewish state says it has proof of the involvement of agency employees in the October 7 attacks. . On Tuesday, a collective of Israeli network researchers, the NGO FakeReporter, uncovered an ingenious campaign to denigrate UNRWA on the Internet for the benefit of Israel.

This is what you could call an amplification campaign. It is first of all a matter of capturing real facts reported in traditional media, such as the American channel CNN or the British daily newspaper The Guardianthen relaying them on the sites of fake press outlets, which seem at first glance entirely credible, and then relying on fake accounts on social networks, to give more coverage to this information.

Elected officials targeted by fictitious profiles

In the case of the conflict between Israel and UNRWA, 500 fictitious profiles widely distributed articles on Instagram, Facebook and X which dealt in particular with the alleged involvement of employees of the United Nations agency in the attacks of October 7 . The target: Democratic African-American senators and deputies, sensitive to the Palestinian cause.

“The difference between this type of operation and ‘fake news’ is that they are carried out by people who seem normal, observes Achiya Schatz, executive director of FakeReporter, who uncovered the manipulation. They rely on profiles which do not exist but which support Israel’s messages. This is another battlefield in this war. And it concerns each of the two camps. A few weeks ago, the FakeReporter association denounced disinformation campaigns favorable to Hamas. They were launched from Iran and Russia.