Israel’s foreign ministry’s hasbara efforts were shut down due to a lack of budget, according to Deputy Director-General Emanuel Nachshon, who informed the Knesset’s Hasbara Committee on Tuesday. The ministry’s hasbara budget only makes up 10% of what is invested in tourism, and the Spanish hasbara efforts ran out of funds this week, along with the Persian and Russian hasbara shutdowns for the same reason. Despite the shutdown, the Foreign Ministry denied running out of its hasbara budget, claiming that an additional NIS 100 million was allocated for that purpose. In response to this, the Civil Hasbara Headquarters urged the government not to neglect the hasbara effort and to make use of the available resources. The head of the headquarters, Eliav Betito, emphasized the achievements made without a budget and called for government support. Israeli Arab activist Yoseph Haddad, who works on hasbara for Israel, also urged the government to find ways to help the Foreign Ministry. Opposition leader Yair Lapid suggested hasbara activities that could be done without a budget, including interviews for foreign media, briefings for foreign reporters, utilizing government members’ social media, working with influencers, and emphasizing the need to start working instead of complaining.
