National Information Directorate

This article is part of the Propaganda Portal project of Spinwatch.

Unit in the Israeli Prime Minister's Office that co-ordinates the government's hasbara (public diplomacy), also known as the National Public Diplomacy Directorate

National Information Directorate
Logo	Emblem of the Prime Minister's Office
Type	Government unit
Location	Prime Minister's Office, Israel
Services	Co-ordination of government hasbara (public diplomacy) messaging
Remarks	Also called the National Public Diplomacy Directorate, the Public Diplomacy Directorate or the National Hasbara Directorate (Hebrew: מערך ההסברה הלאומי)

The National Information Directorate, also known as the National Public Diplomacy Directorate, is a unit within the Israeli Prime Minister's Office charged with co-ordinating the efforts of press bureaus across government departments. It was set up in 2008 under a 2007 Prime Minister's Office order, after the Second Lebanon War, and was re-established by Naftali Bennett in December 2021 after the director's post had been vacant since 2018. Shomrim describes it as comprising three branches: the Government Press Office, the Prime Minister's Spokesperson's Unit and the National Hasbara Unit.

During the Gaza war it was one of the bodies behind the "IsraelTechGuards" initiative that produced Words of Iron, and one of the government clients for whom the Government Advertising Agency (LaPam) ran international digital campaigns during the June 2025 war with Iran.

Formation

The Jerusalem Post's website described the reasons for the Directorate's formation:

Established in the wake of the Winograd Report's criticism of insufficient coordination in the media effort during the 2006 Second Lebanon War, the NID's purpose is to synchronize the content and tone of Israel's message across the many organizations that carry it to the world, whether official or unofficial.

Operation Cast Lead

Following the launch of Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip in December 2008, the Jewish Chronicle reported that the Directorate had long been prepared for the offensive:

The Directorate, which has been up and running for eight months, began planning six months ago for a Gaza operation. A forum with representatives of the press offices of the Foreign and Defence ministries, the IDF Spokesman Unit and other agencies held numerous meetings to decide on the message.

The forum held two system-wide exercises in the past two months, one aimed at foreign media and, last week, one dedicated to the Israeli press.

The Directorate claimed some success in influencing perceptions of the conflict:

Unlike in previous military crises, "we have close coordination and unified messages between agencies," says Yarden Vatikai, the director of the National Information Directorate, which is seeing its first trial by fire.

Historian Avi Shlaim argued that the Directorate's activities were successful but mendacious:

The core messages of this directorate to the media are that Hamas broke the ceasefire agreements; that Israel's objective is the defence of its population; and that Israel's forces are taking the utmost care not to hurt innocent civilians. Israel's spin doctors have been remarkably successful in getting this message across. But, in essence, their propaganda is a pack of lies.

A wide gap separates the reality of Israel's actions from the rhetoric of its spokesmen. It was not Hamas but the IDF that broke the ceasefire. It did so by a raid into Gaza on 4 November that killed six Hamas men. Israel's objective is not just the defence of its population but the eventual overthrow of the Hamas government in Gaza by turning the people against their rulers. And far from taking care to spare civilians, Israel is guilty of indiscriminate bombing and of a three-year-old blockade that has brought the inhabitants of Gaza, now 1.5 million, to the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe.

The Guardian's Rachel Shabi highlighted the Directorate's use of new media and social networks in the conflict:

The hasbara directive also liaises over core messages with bodies such as friendship leagues, Jewish communities, bloggers and backers using online networks. Last week the directorate started a YouTube channel showing Israeli bombings in the Gaza strip. "New media is a new war zone within the media - we are planning to be relevant there," said Leibovich.

Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland discussed the role of the Directorate in a January 2009 podcast, in which he noted a change in Israel's information strategy in months leading up to the conflict.

"Even here at The Guardian we have been lavished with attention by Israel," he said. "I think the Israelis have understood that the BBC and the Guardian and others actually have powerful websites that have an impact in the arena that matters most to Israel, which is American public opinion."

As the conflict wore on, Rachel Shabi concluded that the Directorate's work was proving successful:

Israel's war on Gaza was the first time we saw the "hasbara" directive in action. A body set up to spin (or "explain", if you like) the country's justifications for the war, it tightly coordinated key messages and worked on so many levels – mainstream media as well as diplomatic channels, friendship leagues, YouTube, Twitter and the blogosphere – that the effect was epidemic. It got world media repeating the Israeli government's core messages practically verbatim.

Operation Pillar of Defense

Operation "Pillar of Defense" (sic) against Gaza in November 2012 was accompanied by "a no less well-planned and orchestrated media operation", according to Haaretz:

The National Information Directorate in the Prime Minister's Office, the Information Ministry, the Foreign Ministry's press operation, IDF Spokesman Unit and a long list of governmental and private volunteers are working together to mold the public perception of the operation in Israel and around the world. The Hasbara directors were informed in advance to prepare for a large military offensive, though only a small handful of them were aware of the operational details. Contingency plans had already been prepared and the PR teams had carried out exercises in recent months.

Re-establishment, 2021

The Jerusalem Post reported in December 2021 that the directorate had been "officially re-established" at a meeting of the National Hasbara Forum chaired by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Bennett wrote that "after years of neglect that hit Israel in the international arena, we have re-established the Public Diplomacy Directorate, which will respond to the lies spread about Israel online". Its stated purpose was to synchronise Israel's external messaging and to "develop messaging in advance of military actions". The paper said the post of director had been held by Yarden Vatikai until 2018 and was then vacant until the appointment of Gadi Ezra; Elad Tene had been appointed head of public diplomacy in the Prime Minister's Office in September 2021.

Gaza war, 2023–

In September 2024 Shomrim published a Prime Minister's Office document describing "a leadership vacuum" at the directorate, freelance hiring of English-language spokespeople and no national public diplomacy strategy, stating that "the damage is evident and worsening by the day". The directorate replied that its officials had been "spearheading the State of Israel public diplomacy efforts with the international community" with the goal "to generate international legitimacy for actions in the war", that a national hasbara headquarters had been set up at the Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv, and that it worked "with influencers and a distribution group with more than 12,000 members".

Ctech reported in October 2023 that Words of Iron was "one of several projects in a joint initiative between the National Information Directorate, the Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, other government offices and tech companies called 'IsraelTechGuards'" (see Israel Tech Guard). A later Ctech article said the system was built by the team of the start-up Akooda.

In June 2025 the Accountant General's exemptions committee approved NIS 167 million of digital advertising for LaPam. The protocol says that since the start of the war with Iran LaPam had been in "full emergency mode" running hasbara for government bodies including the Foreign Ministry, "the National Hasbara Directorate" and the Diaspora Ministry, and was advancing "dedicated campaigns in the international arena" (translated from Hebrew).

People

• Yarden Vatikay - Former Director
• Nir Hefetz - Director
• Elad Tene - head of public diplomacy, Prime Minister's Office (appointed September 2021)
• Gadi Ezra - director of public diplomacy staff (appointed 2021)

See also

Israel Prime Minister’s Office | National Hasbara Headquarters | National Hasbara Forum | Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Israel) | Government Advertising Agency (Israel) | Ministry of Diaspora Affairs | Words of Iron | Ministry of Public Diplomacy & Diaspora Affairs | IDF Spokesperson’s Division | Jewish Agency for Israel | Public Diplomacy Directorate