Facebook hosted adverts fundraising for Israeli army and lawmakers

Facebook has been hosting paid adverts for charities fundraising for Israeli army battalions accused of war crimes and lawmakers encouraging the resettlement of the Gaza Strip.

Eko, a US-based campaigning organisation, identified 98 Facebook adverts targeting Europe and the US to solicit funds for Israeli army equipment, including advanced thermal drones, assault rifle sights, armour, night vision goggles and helmets.

“The most concerning issue with these fundraising appeals is their focus on drones potentially used in the ongoing violence in Gaza and Lebanon,” Eko said in its report.

“Many of the drones… are reportedly modified by the Israeli army to carry explosives.”

One advert showed a soldier called Kobi, who is identified as a “lead machine gunner” for the 551 Commando Brigade, making an appeal for night vision goggles in front of a destroyed mosque.

Earlier this year, Bellingcat identified the 551 Commando Brigade working with the 8219 Combat Engineering Battalion on widespread demolitions in Gaza, including residential blocks, mosques and entire neighbourhoods. The UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing has described these demolitions as potential crimes against humanity.

Another advert from the Tsedaka Centre, a Miami-based non-profit, featured an Israeli captain asking for donations. The advert links to the Chesed Fund, which hosts a campaign to purchase armour plates, tactical helmets, vests, assault rifle lasers and advanced drones.

Eko highlighted in its report that these advertisements may violate EU and US laws governing non-profits and could affect charities’ tax-deductible contributions if the funds are directed toward military purposes.

Maen Hammad, a campaigner for Eko, said Meta has become the megaphone for the “Israeli far-right” since Israel launched its war on Gaza after October 2023.

“Meta has become the megaphone for the Israeli far-right, amplifying their calls and profiting from their ads which push their extremist and genocidal policies,” Hammad told Middle East Eye.

“Worse yet, the platform is also a hub for groups to fundraise for military equipment used by IDF units implicated in war crimes. This is far from an oversight – it’s another example of Meta’s profit-driven betrayal of human rights.”

The campaigning group also identified a series of Hebrew language adverts targeting users in Israel paid for by Israeli members of parliament.

These adverts described Palestinians as “savages” and “bloodthirsty” and called on the Israeli army to use the “dahiya” doctrine – the mass destruction of civilian infrastructure – against Palestinians.

Other adverts identified by Eko include posts by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Religious Zionism party, and the Noam Party.

Data from Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, showed that Israeli lawmakers’ adverts targeted audiences inside Israel.

One advert for Smotrich, which ran in October 2024, declared that his “life mission is to ensure that a Palestinian state will never be established. It’s taking Gaza and multiplying it 20 times”.

Another advert from Yosi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, a West Bank settler group, was posted on Meta’s platforms.

It showed Dagan speaking at a Gaza resettlement conference, declaring, “This is our land, and we are here to build it.” 

A spokesperson for Meta said it was investigating Eko’s findings. 

“We do not allow hate speech on our platforms and have Community Standards that apply to all content – including ads,” the Meta spokesperson told MEE. 

“Our ad policies also don’t allow ads that promote the sale or use of weapons. Our ads review process has several layers of analysis and detection, both before and after an ad goes live, and ads may be rejected or restricted for violations of our policies at any time. We are investigating the ads cited in this report.”

Eko’s report follows a BBC investigation that found Facebook and Meta had restricted content posted by Palestinian news outlets since the start of the current war in Gaza. 

Facebook data analysis found that Palestinian newsrooms had experienced a steep drop in audience engagement since October 2023.

The BBC also obtained leaked documents that showed Instagram increased its moderation of Palestinian user comments after October 2023.

Meta denied the claims to the BBC and described them as “unequivocally false.”