: [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated inaccurately that the U.S. had “cut ties with UNWRA.” The U.S. has suspended financial support to UNRWA until next year.]
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, better known as UNRWA, is the leading humanitarian aid provider in Gaza. It's been active since 1950, and it is one of the U.N.'s largest programs. But earlier today, when one of my colleagues did a Google search for UNRWA, the very first result was a sponsored page with a long list of claims linking the U.N. program to Hamas. It's all part of the Israeli government's campaign to buy Google ads that lead users to false information about UNRWA, rather than to UNRWA's official website. Paresh Dave has been investigating this ad campaign for months for Wired and joins us now. Welcome.
PARESH DAVE: Great to be here.
CHANG: Great to have you. OK, the Israeli government has been claiming for decades that UNRWA is connected to Hamas, right? But this Google ad campaign does seem fairly new. What kinds of claims is the Israeli government making about UNRWA exactly?
DAVE: So the main claim is that UNRWA is a front for Hamas, and that UNRWA is allowing its schools that it runs and other sort of educational facilities to be overrun by Hamas.
CHANG: And does Israel acknowledge that it is behind these Google ads?
DAVE: Israel hasn't formally acknowledged that, no. But the ads are being paid for by an organization called the Israeli Government Advertising Agency, and they certainly haven't denied their involvement.
CHANG: OK. When did this ad campaign targeting UNRWA begin, approximately?
DAVE: So the executive director of a group called UNRWA USA, which raises funds in the U.S. on behalf of UNRWA, saw this ad for the first time back in mid-January. She was just googling the name of UNRWA USA and happened to stumble upon one of these.
CHANG: What do you think the Israeli government is trying to accomplish by misdirecting Google searches here?
DAVE: So UNRWA USA and UNRWA believe that Israel is trying to discredit and defund them. UNRWA USA has raised a tremendous amount of money since the October 7 attacks. And, you know, it seems to them that Israel isn't happy with that because it prolongs the existence of UNRWA, which is concerning to Israel.
CHANG: Well, I do want to note that the United Nations responded to Israel's accusations by conducting an internal investigation. They did fire something like 13 of their staff members this year, including nine whom Israel claimed had been involved in the October 7 attack by Hamas. The U.S. has suspended financial support to UNRWA until next year because of Israel's claims. Do you think all of that validates Israel's allegations about UNRWA?
DAVE: There's certainly some credibility to what Israel is saying, right? I mean, there have been Hamas sympathizers connected to UNRWA over time, but there are also some accusations that there just hasn't been credible evidence for. I mean, one of the claims that are made in video ads that Israel is running in the U.S. is that like 10% of UNRWA staff belongs to Hamas. And there just isn't, you know, evidence out there to support that at this point.
CHANG: How often might someone searching for UNRWA on Google come across one of these ads leading them to the Israeli government's webpage?
DAVE: I mean, this is potentially every user that's making this search. I spoke to an expert in these sorts of ads who said that Israel is likely paying a significant amount to make these ads show up very consistently. And UNRWA USA just doesn't have the budget to compete. So many users are probably encountering these ads.
CHANG: Well, when an employee of UNRWA first came across one of these ads, she and her team went straight to Google to complain about the misinformation. What was the response they got?
DAVE: Google didn't really give a reason but said that the ad in question that the UNRWA USA executive director saw back in January was removed. And it seemed to not be an issue from January until May. And that's when things changed.
CHANG: What exactly is Google's policy about ads that spread false information?
DAVE: So Google's main thing is that you can't misrepresent yourself as an advertiser. But misinformation is sort of generally OK unless it really crosses the line and sort of undermines participation or trust in an electoral or democratic process. And Google has said that the ads in question here don't violate its policies.
CHANG: So when you asked Google why the ads continued to show up, they just said it's not a policy violation?
DAVE: Correct.
CHANG: OK. Paresh Dave is a senior writer at Wired. Thank you so much for being with us.
DAVE: Of course. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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