Israel launches "UN's Lie Industry" video ahead of Netanyahu speech

Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism said it was escalating a public diplomacy campaign directed at the United Nations, releasing a new video as the annual General Assembly debate opened in New York. According to the ministry's announcement, the campaign is titled "The UN's Lie Industry" and is run together with the National Public Diplomacy Directorate in the Prime Minister's Office.

The ministry said the launch was timed to the opening of the debate on 22 September 2026 and comes ahead of a speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu two days later. The centrepiece is a short film in which the General Assembly hall is filled with parrots standing in for member states, each repeating the phrase "Blame Israel" until the chamber becomes a chorus. The video ends with the line "Repeating lies doesn't make them true" and a link to a campaign website the ministry said it opened the previous week.

What the ministry is and who runs the campaign

The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism is the Israeli government department responsible for relations with Jewish communities abroad and for coordinating Israel's response to antisemitism worldwide. It is headed by Minister Amichai Chikli. The National Public Diplomacy Directorate, which sits inside the Prime Minister's Office and coordinates Israel's messaging to foreign audiences, is led by Tzipi Hotovely, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom. The press release identifies the government as the 37th Government, the numbering Israel uses for each successive coalition.

The ministry said the material was produced through the Government Advertising Agency, the state body that places official campaigns, and that distribution is primarily digital, weighted towards the United States and European capitals rather than domestic Israeli audiences.

What the campaign website claims

The site was built in cooperation with the National Security Council, the body in the Prime Minister's Office that coordinates Israel's strategic and security policy. The ministry described it as a collection of research and sourcing intended to show how, since the October 7 attacks, critical claims about Israel have been assembled, endorsed by institutions and circulated internationally.

Topics listed by the ministry include information manipulation, what it calls an organisational culture hostile to Israel, claims of starvation in Gaza which it describes as false, the infiltration of Hamas into UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, and what it terms the fabrication of a "genocide" narrative. The ministry said the site also carries testimony from UN personnel describing internal silencing and persecution. None of that material is independently assessed here; it is the ministry's own characterisation of its content.

The mechanism the video is meant to illustrate, the ministry said, is circular citation: allegations move between UN agencies, member states and media, are quoted repeatedly, and acquire the standing of established fact even where the original source was not verified.

The statements

In the release, Chikli said the General Assembly hall has "turned into an echo chamber for libels against Israel" and that "even 1,000 repetitions of a lie will not make it true". Hotovely said that "a large portion of the false blood libels against Israel come from the workshop of UN reports", naming the starvation campaign in Gaza as an example, and said the directorate was "putting forward the truth and the facts".

Why this sits where it does

Israeli governments across the political spectrum have long argued that UN bodies treat Israel disproportionately, and disputes with UNRWA in particular have been a recurring feature of Israeli diplomacy. What is new here is the format: a paid advertising campaign aimed at foreign publics during General Assembly week, rather than a diplomatic protest delivered through missions. The choice to weight promotion towards American and European audiences indicates the target is public opinion in states whose votes and funding decisions matter to the organisations named.

What the announcement does not say

The press release does not disclose a budget for the campaign, how long it will run, or which platforms carry the paid placement. It does not name the advertising agency or production company behind the film. It gives no figures for the research on the campaign site: no count of reports examined, no number of UN staff whose testimony is cited, and no detail on how that testimony was gathered or whether the individuals are identified.

The United Nations had not responded in the material available, and no reaction from UNRWA or from any member state is recorded. All of the above rests on a single Israeli government statement; the claims about bias, starvation reporting and UNRWA are the government's position and are contested by the bodies concerned.