Shachar Ben-Meir
Israeli lawyer who petitioned the High Court in 2018 against the Ministry of Strategic Affairs' covert propaganda campaign
| Shachar Ben-Meir
| |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
| Known for | High Court petition HCJ 3428/18 against the Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy and Kela Shlomo |
Shachar Ben-Meir is an Israeli lawyer. On 30 April 2018 he petitioned Israel's High Court of Justice to halt the global propaganda activities of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy and its outsourcing of "mass consciousness activities" to the private body Kela Shlomo.[1]
HCJ 3428/18
The Seventh Eye reported that Ben-Meir's petition charged the ministry, which he called the "Ministry of Spying and Propaganda", with running a global propaganda campaign for the government that violated human rights and lacked legal authority. The petition also targeted the transfer of public money to Kela Shlomo, a non-profit founded by former senior officials including ex-director general Yossi Kuperwasser. The paper said Kela Shlomo was "unlike a government agency": it was not bound by freedom of information law and did not even have a website.[1]
The State's preliminary response of December 2018 was among the Israel Ministry of Justice documents released in April 2024 by the hacking group Anonymous for Justice and published by Distributed Denial of Secrets. The leaked documents have not been independently verified. The response told the court that the ministry would exercise "real and effective supervision" over the venture (translated from Hebrew). It also quoted the October 2015 Security Cabinet decision making the ministry responsible for the campaign against delegitimisation "in the overt and covert domains".[2]
See also
- Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy
- Kela Shlomo
- Concert - Together for Israel
- Stav Shaffir
- Movement for Freedom of Information
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Itamar Benzaquen, New petition challenging Israel's secret information warfare campaign The Seventh Eye, 3 May 2018 (English translation by +972 Magazine of the Hebrew original of 30 April 2018), accessed 21 October 2026 (Wayback Machine capture). Critical.
- ↑ Israel Ministry of Justice leak (Distributed Denial of Secrets), State's preliminary response in HCJ 3428/18, December 2018 (Hebrew), Library of Leaks entity 9950367 Library of Leaks, accessed 21 October 2026. Leaked document; authenticity not independently verified.