Leaked information published by leading German media outlets has revealed Russia’s plans for an influence campaign targeting Israel. The information was leaked earlier this month by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and German television stations Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) and Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), as well as by Israeli news outlets. It allegedly came from Social Design Agency (SDA), a Moscow-based firm hired by the Kremlin, which operates in Israel and several countries in the West.
Founded in 2017, the SDA is reportedly one of a host of firms and organizations that are collaborating with Russian intelligence in its efforts to influence public opinion worldwide. Earlier this year, the United States imposed sanctions on SDA, “for providing services to the government of Russia in connection with a foreign malign influence campaign”. The SDA’s founder is Ilya Gambashidze, who is said to be in direct contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Kremlin officials.
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Israel has been a central target of SDA’s Russian influence campaign. The country’s internal situation, with mass demonstrations against the legal reform is “perfect for launching a campaign to influence public opinion”, an SDA document from 2023 reads. The document accurately describes the political and social situation in Israel and names a number of influential Russian expatriates whose activities should be monitored.
According to the leaked documents, the purpose of the planned campaign was to raise support for Russia in its war against Ukraine, and strengthen the proportion of Israelis who espouse anti-Ukrainian sentiments. Another central goal was to ensure that no party in the Knesset —the Israeli parliament— would support a possible transfer of military aid to Ukraine.
From the documents, it appears that the conclusions formulated by the SDA were infused into around 50 cartoons distributed every month on social networks, around 20 fictitious articles appearing on websites pretending to be legitimate, and many reactions on various social networks. Among other things, the company distributed through paid ads on Facebook cartoons showing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky burning the Israeli flag, as well as cartoons accusing Israeli leftists of supporting Hamas.
One of the main revelations of the recent leaks is that the Arab community in Israel constitutes a target of the Russian influence campaign. For example, a fake Arabic-language article that was circulated online claimed that Israel did not have in its possession enough precision weapons, because it had given them to Ukraine. The article went on to claim that the lack of such weapons would lead to failures on the battlefield. “The good news should be heard by all believers living under occupation”, the article states. “The policy of the occupation government will soon lead to its defeat. We will wait for a spark to ignite our war of liberation, in which the entire Muslim world will support us”. The purpose of the article appears to be to prompt the Israeli-Arab population to turn against the Israeli government based on Israel’s alleged weakness, and to support Israel’s enemies.
It appears that the outbreak of the war in Gaza on October 7 provided the Russians with what they saw as a perfect opportunity to advance their goals. “Now, a central trend in the project could be a positive assessment of the wisdom and foresight of the Israeli Prime Minister”, one of the leaked documents reads. The narrative the Russians tried to promote is that, if Netanyahu had approved the sale of Iron Dome systems to Ukraine, the Israeli home front would have been left unprotected. Another document suggested trying to damage social cohesion in Israel through the use of provocative graffiti in Arab neighborhoods, as well as by distributing leaflets in synagogues containing fictitious accusations in a wide variety of topics.
SDA officials expressed satisfaction with the results in a document that described the project’s progress in Israel. They stated, “Our narrative entered the public discourse […] and was echoed by the leaders of public opinion and the media”. The authors of the document even gave an example of an untrue report on arms shipments from Ukraine to Hamas, which reached the Israeli media after a rightwing commentator repeated it on a major television program. A video of his remarks was shared on pro-Russian accounts. SDA personnel expressed the view that a campaign conducted entirely on social media platforms had limitations. They therefore planned to establish an office in Israel with an annual budget of 1.2 million dollars, which would centralize the SDA’s activities in the country and through which more ambitious plans could be implemented.
The Russians planned to influence the policy of the Knesset through a number of Israeli politicians of Russian origin. The documents mention the chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, MK Yuli Edelstein, who is in fact known to be a fervent supporter of Ukraine. Another idea mentioned in the documents is establishing a new immigrant party, which could win between 3 and 4 seats in the Knesset.Did the SDA’s Russian influence campaign achieve its goals in Israel? The answer is probably no, and it seems that this is why the company was asked to “step up” its activities and extent its operations beyond the social media environment. The leak adds to prior evidence of the Kremlin’s subversive operations in selected countries worldwide, in an attempt to influence a variety of target audiences.
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