In a post on X, Naftali Bennett, opposition leader and head of the ‘Together Party,‘ criticized National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir for harming Israel’s hasbara (‘public diplomacy’ better characterised as ‘propaganda’) with social media antics, and pointed out ways to improve hasbara.
Naftali Bennett, who hopes to unseat Netanyahu in Israel’s next election, published a detailed plan Tuesday to fix Israel’s “hasbara disaster” — proposing a “powerful national hasbara authority,” a “consciousness war room,” and an international alliance against disinformation.… https://t.co/NA1Imlvfry
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) May 20, 2026
Israel pretend PR is their problem
Bennett’s diagnosis is that Israel is suffering a ‘PR’ crisis after several countries, including Italy, France, the Netherlands, and Canada, summoned the Israeli ambassadors to their capitals to express their ‘indignation’ over Israel’s treatment of the abducted Gaza flotilla activists.
His prognosis is better PR.
The videos posted include showing Global Sumud Flotilla activists with their hands tied behind their backs, kneeling with their heads touching the floor. Another video showed Gvir intimidating and shouting at the handcuffed activists.
Bennett is not disgusted by the treatment of the detainees. His concern is that it was filmed and shared.
To undo the international condemnation, he suggests a powerful national hasbara authority, professional management of hasbara replacing political appointees with experts, a consciousness and technology war room, uniting all private hasbara efforts into one national campaign, and an international alliance against disinformation. Of course, given that this is Israel we’re talking about it’s safe to understand ‘disinformation’ in this context as ‘outright lies that barely disguise the facts.’
Palestinian prisoners
Given that Ben Gvir has carried out such antics before, including wearing a hangman’s noose badge while giving orders to abuse Palestinian political prisoners, the hypocrisy of Western leaders who only now summon Israeli ambassadors over the flotilla incident is clear.
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese also made the point that the flotilla is trying to draw attention to Palestinian detainees suffering in Israeli prisons, linking it to world leaders’ complicity with apartheid Israel.
World leaders: the flotilla is desperately trying to draw your attention to the plight of the Palestinians. Torture, rape, broken bones, beating to death, inflicted on men women children.
Their unbearable suffering is the consequence of (your?) complicity with Apartheid Israel. https://t.co/KyrMAcJBNv— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) May 20, 2026
She reshared the Cradle report that Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar was also scrambling to distance Gvir’s videos from Israel.
Israel’s systematic rape of Palestinian detainees is widely documented. So are other forms of torture, which include strip searches and forced nudity, urinating and spitting on detainees, breaking bones and teeth, forcing detainees to imitate animal sounds, and humiliation by making detainees wear diapers, among others.
Never mind the torture, the rape, or the broken bones. The rot is deep when Bennett’s thinks PR is Israel’s problem, and not sustained genocide facilitated by the West.
Featured image via Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images
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