Middle East Eye: Facebook has become an advertising platform to collect funds for the Israeli army

According to RCO News Agency, Meta Company has announced that it is investigating the claims made against it that it is advertising for groups that are said to be seeking to donate funds for the provision of military equipment and re-settlement in the Gaza Strip.

The “Middle East Eye” News website reported about this, the social network Facebook has displayed paid ads for charities, which are said to be for the Zionist army, which is accused of committing war crimes, and lawmakers who want to build settlements again in the Meta subcategories. They are in the Gaza Strip, collecting donations.

Echo, a US-based organizing body, has identified 98 ads aimed at allocating financial aid from Europe and the US to equip the occupying army, including advanced thermal drones, assault rifle cameras, armor, night vision cameras and war helmets.

This organization stated in a report: The most worrying issue in this request for financial aid is their focus on drones that will probably be used in the ongoing violence in Gaza and Lebanon. Many of these drones, for which money is collected, are being upgraded by the Israeli military to carry explosives.

In one of these advertisements, a soldier named “Kubi” was depicted, who is the “main questioner” of the 551st Ranger Brigade of the Zionist Army, and he asked for a night vision camera in front of a destroyed mosque!

Another ad from the non-governmental organization “Sedaka Center” in Miami showed a Zionist pilot asking for donations.

Echo stressed in its report that if the money raised through these ads is allocated for military purposes, it may affect EU and US rules governing non-governmental organizations and companies and tax-free donations to charities.

Maine Hammad, one of the activists of Eco Company, told Middle East Eye: Since the beginning of the Gaza war, Meta has become the mouthpiece of the extreme right wing of the Zionist regime, which conveys their demands to everyone and benefits from their propaganda, and this leads to the advancement of policies. Extremism and related to their genocide helps.

He added: However, this social network company has become the focus of groups that collect donations to provide military equipment used by Israeli army units in their war crimes. This is beyond surveillance and an example of profit-motivated meta-betrayals of human rights.

Middle East Eye further wrote: The Echo Group has also identified a number of advertisements in Hebrew that target users in Israel and are paid for by members of the Israeli parliament.

These insulting advertisements describe the Palestinians as “savage” and “bloodthirsty” people and ask the occupying army to use the “Dahiya Doctrine” to cause widespread destruction of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure.

Other advertisements identified by Eko include the positions of “Betsleil Smotrich” the Minister of Finance of the Zionist regime, “Itamar Ben Goyer” the Minister of Internal Security and the party “Religious Zionism” and the extreme party “Noam” in this regime.

The data of Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp social networks, showed that this company promotes the statements of the Zionist regime’s legislators, whose target group is the residents of the occupied territories.

An advertisement for Smotrich, published in October 2024, showed him saying that his mission in life was to ensure that a Palestinian state would never be created.

Another ad was dedicated to Yossi Dagan, head of the Israeli Settlers Council in the West Bank, showing Dagan speaking at a resettlement conference in Gaza, saying, “This is our land and we are here to build it.”

A Meta spokesperson said in an interview with Middle East Eye that the company is investigating the allegations: “We do not allow hate speech on our social networks and we have standards that cover all content, including advertising.”

He added: Our advertising policies do not allow ads that promote the sale or use of weapons. Our review process includes several stages of analysis and inspection before and after publication of ads, and it is possible that ads may be rejected or restricted at any time due to violations of our policies. We are investigating the ads mentioned in this report.

The Echo report follows a BBC investigative report that said Facebook and Meta have been restricting content on Palestinian news websites since the start of the Gaza war. An analysis of Facebook data has shown that Palestinian media has experienced a sharp decline in audience since October 2023. Meta rejected the BBC’s claim and called it “false”.

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