Israel is committing a genocide in Palestine. And here I wanted to see how Google is helping to support the actions of Israel.
A few weeks ago UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese released her report "From economy of occupation to economy of genocide" in which it outlined how Big Tech has helped to support Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, including Alphabet, the parent company of Google.
From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide - image from the Special Rapporteur's report on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967
Google is no stranger to this criticism as they were previously condemned for their role in selling their AI software to the Israeli government in a $1.2 billion contract - with Google even terminating employment of 28 employees for protesting their decision (other reports suggest the number of employees was closer to 50).
Within the report of the Special Rapporteur it had the following to say on Google and Amazon:
As Israel’s apartheid, military and population-control systems generate increasing volumes of data, its reliance on cloud storage and computing has grown. In 2021, Israel awarded Alphabet Inc (Google) and Amazon.com Inc. a $1.2 billion contract (Project Nimbus) – largely funded through Ministry of Defense expenditure – to provide core tech infrastructure.
According to the same report, in July 2024, an Israeli colonel described cloud tech as “a weapon in every sense of the word”, citing Microsoft, Alphabet (Google) and Amazon.
Outside of being named in Albanese's UN report which accuses many Big Tech companies as being very directly involved in the genocide, from displacement of Palestinians, enabling the genocide or by replacing Palestinians, I feel there are other clearly visible connections between Google and their support of Israel.
A visually striking protest implying Google's very direct role in the "first AI-enabled genocide" - via Tehran Times.
Of course, Google's co-founder Sergey Brin responded internally amongst staff that the UN is "antisemitic" for publishing such a report. Which reminds me of this cartoon...
How Google Ads are being utilised to support Israel
When Googling certain keywords related to the genocide, you might have caught ads from the official Israeli Government website.
These occupy the top spots within Google - as the advertisers are basically willing to pay for visibility at the top of the page.
When you want to control the conversation here (and you know lots of independent publications and people are speaking out in support of Palestine) you can simply pay to run ads that help to push your propaganda. Google are waiting in the wings to take your money!
One of the text ads the Israeli Government were running which likely targeted keywords related to her and her report, taking users to a page like this one on the Israeli Government website: https://govextra.gov.il/mda/francescaalbanese/un-misconduct-review/
Ad spaces are limited to a few lines of text but that doesn't matter - you can link to a page on your website where you can share as much propaganda as you want.
So in this regard Google, very clearly, are receiving payment in exchange for allowing the Israeli government to manipulate the story and to "control the narrative" as they might say in the world of PR.
Using SEO software like Ahrefs I was able to also detect/confirm other ads the Israeli Government have been running:
Keywords being targeted by the Israeli Government within their Google Ads, and a preview of one such ad, as well as the URL or landing page used. Here they are targeting "famine in yemen" as well as the "unrwa" in addition to an organisation called the hind rajab foundation (data from Ahrefs).
How to check the Google Ads a Website is Running
If you want to check which ads a specific website or publisher is displaying you can use Google's Ad Transparency tool.
You first enter a website address and you can then select a specific region or you can look at ads run across the world. It's worth noting what type of adverts can appear on Google and across the wider web - here's a quick explanation:
1 - Search Ads: These can target specific keywords, and are usually text ads (eg the ads that appear at the top of Google when searching for something). Advertisers pay every time one of these ads get clicked.
2 - Image Ads: These are ads shown across what's called the Google Display Network - millions of sites that monetise their content by showing ads, typically earning money for every impression or ad click.
3 - Video Ads: These are video ads shown on platforms like YouTube before the video you wanted to watch, or sometimes during.
Other Anti-Palestinian Ads the Israeli Government are Displaying
Whilst initially I was researching some anti UN adverts that the Israeli Government had been displaying, thanks to a tip-off from fellow SEO consultant Filip Silobod based on some posts seen on Instagram, I also came across some other very disturbing anti-Palestinian adverts including the below video advert.
I used software to record the advert and have uploaded it to YouTube again (apologies for the poor quality audio) but you should be able to view the original advert here.
There's another video advert here which claims "Palestinian children are taught to hate and to glorify violence", stating that the world "pays the price". The advert claims that the costs of this is €248 million (it's not clear as to how that figure came about, or as to who is paying it).
Propaganda advert from the Israeli Government which implies children are taught to hate and that this has a huge cost for the world (€248 million, apparently, again with no elaboration on figures or data).
Outside of the above video adverts there were lots of display adverts and likely other ads that I have missed. I have sprinkled a small sample of ads being run by the Israeli Government below.
The frightening thing about this is that these are all ads which the Israeli Government are running on the web thanks to Google's ad platform.
Can you imagine what kind of ads they might be running via other affiliated or third-party websites, as a form of proxy?
These ads aren't being run on some kind of underground private network... they are being paid for by the Israeli Government, and Google are profiting from running these ads, which help to stir up hatrid amongst the target audience (in the case of the ads above, the US is the territory where these ads are being displayed).
I dread to think of the kind of propaganda the people of Israel are being subjected to, if this is what the people of the US are being displayed.
On a side note - one of the most visited pages on the Israel Government website is a page speaking about what happened on October 7th in Israel. This page ranks well organically on Google for terms related to "October 7th" and "What happened on October 7th".
The screenshot below is taken from that page: https://govextra.gov.il/mda/october-7/october7/
It's interesting to note that Israel are happy to describe the events of that day as a "catastrophic act of genocide" which feels a bit rich considering what Israel has been doing before and after this day, to this very day. It reminds me of the way in which rightwing and conservative groups often project - accusing others of exactly what they themselves are doing.
In summary: Not content with selling AI to Israel's military, Google's Ads are also being weaponised to show anti-Palestinian propaganda on behalf of the Israeli Government
People might argue that this is just a case of bad advert moderation on behalf of Google - and that these ads simply slipped through the radar.
Perhaps that's partly the case here, or also, maybe Google - a company with a supposed value of $2.19 Trillion (!) - ought to be investing a lot more money in preventing hateful ads like the ones shown here from being displayed on the internet.
And when it comes to targeting specific search terms in order to suppress coverage of the genocide being carried out in front of our eyes, and to spread their own hateful propaganda, they should be a lot more alert on this and prevent ads from being shown on such critical news and events.
If these are being shown across the Google display network and on Google's search engine, I dread to imagine what people are being subjected to on the likes of Facebook, Instagram and other social networks, in a bid to stir up more hatrid of Palestines and to justify the actions of the IDF.
