Netanyahu Aides Created PR Campaign to Improve Qatar’s Image Before 2022 World Cup

On 28 Novem­ber 2024, Haaretz report­ed that doc­u­ments revealed Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Netanyahu’s close asso­ciates devel­oped a strate­gic cam­paign to reha­bil­i­tate Qatar’s rep­u­ta­tion despite their denials of involve­ment. The arti­cle begins:

Doc­u­ments from a cam­paign craft­ed by Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Netanyahu’s close asso­ciates reveal the nar­ra­tive and mes­sag­ing strat­e­gy they devel­oped to improve Qatar’s image. While Yonatan Urich and Israel Ein­horn con­tin­ue to deny involve­ment in cre­at­ing a cam­paign to reha­bil­i­tate the Hamas ally’s rep­u­ta­tion before the 2022 World Cup, doc­u­ments obtained by Haaretz show they were direct­ly involved in prepar­ing and edit­ing the materials.

Though it remains unclear whether the cam­paign was ful­ly imple­ment­ed or who the Qatari client was, the doc­u­ments indi­cate that the cam­paign was devel­oped over the course of sev­er­al months. The doc­u­ments demon­strate that Urich and Ein­horn, through their com­pa­ny Per­cep­tion, were per­son­al­ly involved in craft­ing the cam­paign messages…

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Key Points:

1. Doc­u­ments show that Netanyahu advis­ers Urich and Ein­horn devel­oped mes­sag­ing strate­gies to improve Qatar’s image despite their pub­lic denial of involvement.
2. The cam­paign tar­get­ed spe­cif­ic audi­ences, includ­ing Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ties, soc­cer fans, and Ger­man cit­i­zens ahead of the 2022 World Cup.
3. Cam­paign mate­ri­als addressed Qatar’s vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties on issues includ­ing cor­rup­tion, LGBTQ+ rights, ter­ror­ism, and human rights concerns.
4. Qatar pro­vid­ed Pales­tini­ans with $3 bil­lion in aid between 2012 and 2022 while main­tain­ing unof­fi­cial diplo­mat­ic con­nec­tions with Israel.