Amichai Chikli
| Amichai Chikli | |
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| Born | 1981 Jerusalem |
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| Nationality | Israeli |
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| Occupation | Politician; former army officer and educator |
| Known for | 2024 talks with Black Cube about investigating Students for Justice in Palestine; ministry's covert influence campaign aimed at US lawmakers; outreach to Europe's far right |
| Parents | |
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| Website | |
Amichai Chikli is an Israeli Likud politician who has been Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism since December 2022. In 2024 he met the chief executive of the private intelligence firm Black Cube about a possible investigation of the US campus group Students for Justice in Palestine, the same year his ministry was reported to have funded a covert online influence campaign aimed at US lawmakers.
Amichai Chikli (עמיחי שיקלי) was born in Jerusalem in 1981. He served as an officer in the Golani Brigade and the Egoz unit, founded the Tavor pre-military academy in 2010, and entered the Knesset in 2021.[1] As minister he has run campaigns abroad against what his ministry calls antisemitism and delegitimisation of Israel. These have included a covert social-media operation, documented by the New York Times and the Israeli watchdog FakeReporter, which the ministry denies commissioning.[2][3] In June 2024 he met Dan Zorella, chief executive of Black Cube, and the firm's adviser Giora Eiland to discuss a possible investigation of Students for Justice in Palestine.[4]
Military and early career
Chikli's own account says he served for five years as a fighter and commander in the Golani Brigade's reconnaissance unit, then for a year as a combat officer in the Shayetet 13 naval commando unit. After a BA in security and Middle Eastern studies at the Tactical Command Academy, he commanded a company in the Egoz special unit, and he completed an MA in diplomacy and security at Tel Aviv University in 2010.[5] In 2010 he founded the Tavor pre-military academy (mechina) in Nazareth Illit (now Nof HaGalil), which prepares school-leavers for army service. Its graduates, his official biography says, have "enlisted in elite units in the IDF". In 2014, working with the Defence Ministry, it began preparing immigrants and volunteers from abroad for IDF service.[1] The Times of Israel describes him as the son of a Conservative rabbi with ties to the progressive Jewish movement, though he does not publicly affiliate himself with it.[6]
Political career
| # | Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2021 | Elected to the 24th Knesset for Naftali Bennett's Yamina party | [1] |
| 2 | 2021 | Votes against the formation of the Bennett–Lapid government and is declared a "defector", which would have barred him from the next election. The High Court later allows him to run for Likud | [6] |
| 3 | November 2022 | Elected to the 25th Knesset on the Likud list | [1][6] |
| 4 | December 2022 | Named Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism in Benjamin Netanyahu's government | [6][1] |
| 5 | October 2023 – 2024 | His ministry allocates about $2 million to a covert campaign by the Tel Aviv political marketing firm STOIC, using fake accounts to target US lawmakers, according to the New York Times. The ministry calls any link to STOIC "baseless" | [7][3] |
| 6 | May 2024 | Speaks at the rally of the Spanish far-right party Vox, "Europa Viva 24", in Madrid | [2][8] |
| 7 | Late June 2024 | Meets Black Cube's chief executive Dan Zorella and adviser Giora Eiland about investigating Students for Justice in Palestine | [4][9] |
| 8 | March 2025 | Hosts an international conference on combating antisemitism in Jerusalem with invited European far-right politicians, including Jordan Bardella of the French Rassemblement National. Speakers withdraw and President Isaac Herzog does not attend | [10][8] |
Black Cube and Students for Justice in Palestine (2024)
On 7 August 2024 TheMarker, the business daily of the Haaretz group, reported, citing three sources with knowledge of the matter, that Chikli had met Dan Zorella near the end of June to discuss a possible Black Cube investigation of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). SJP had led many of the protests on US campuses since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023. The paper speculated that a probe would have tried to trace the group's funding. The meeting was also attended by the ministry's director general, Avi Cohen-Scali, and by Giora Eiland, a member of Black Cube's international advisory board. It was held at a house in Herzliya used as the Israeli address of the US real-estate company Vision and Beyond, one of whose owners had worked on a civic venture with a confidant of Chikli.[4][9]
According to the report, the ministry and Black Cube decided against the investigation because they feared it would damage relations between Israel and the United States. The ministry said Black Cube had initiated the meeting. The paper's sources said the ministry had approached the firm. Black Cube said it "does not act, and never planned to act, against students or political protest groups in the US".[4] The Times of Israel noted that Zorella was one of three Black Cube employees convicted in Romania in 2022 of intimidating that country's former chief anti-corruption prosecutor.[4] The firm's operations, among them its work for Harvey Weinstein and against Obama administration officials, are set out on the Black Cube page.
Influence operations
The New York Times reported on 5 June 2024, citing four Israeli officials and documents, that the Diaspora Affairs Ministry had commissioned and paid for an influence campaign that began in October 2023. The ministry allocated about $2 million and hired STOIC, a political marketing firm in Tel Aviv. Hundreds of fake accounts posing as Americans posted pro-Israel comments on X, Facebook and Instagram aimed at US lawmakers, particularly Black Democrats such as Hakeem Jeffries and Raphael Warnock, urging them to keep funding Israel's military. Many of the posts were generated with ChatGPT.[7][3] The same day the Israeli watchdog FakeReporter linked five websites aimed at young progressive Americans to STOIC.[2] Meta and OpenAI had already reported disrupting networks traced to STOIC.[2] The ministry said it "is not engaging in disinformation campaigns" and that "any claim of a connection between the ministry and the company 'Stoic' is baseless".[3] Chikli accused FakeReporter of "slander against IDF soldiers and the State of Israel".[2]
Citing a June 2024 report in the Guardian, the Times of Israel said that the ministry and affiliated groups compiled weekly reports based on tips from pro-Israel US student groups. Much of the funding passed through Voices of Israel, formerly known as Concert and before that as Kela Shlomo, a public-benefit company that TheMarker said was used partly to distance the government from its campaigns. Chikli oversaw some NIS 32 million for "mass consciousness activities" between October 2023 and May 2024.[4] See Voices of Israel – Together for Israel and Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.
European far right
Chikli has cultivated ties with European far-right parties. According to the BBC, early in 2024 he met the leader of the Sweden Democrats when he visited Jerusalem, and in May 2024 he spoke at a Vox conference in Madrid.[8][2] For a March 2025 government conference on combating antisemitism, he invited representatives of European far-right parties. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that he saw them as partners in "a shared fight against surging Muslim influence in Europe". Germany's antisemitism commissioner, Felix Klein, and other French, German and British participants withdrew.[10] The BBC reported boycotts by prominent Jewish figures, and said President Isaac Herzog stayed away and hosted a separate event. Chikli said the far-right politicians had faced "lies spread against them by those who slander the State of Israel worldwide".[8]
See also
- Black Cube
- Ministry of Diaspora Affairs
- STOIC
- Voices of Israel – Together for Israel
- Dan Zorella
- Giora Eiland
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Amichai Chikli, Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, Government of Israel (official biography), updated 17 July 2024.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Huo Jingnan, How Israel tried to use AI to covertly sway Americans about Gaza, NPR, 5 June 2024.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Jerusalem Post Staff, Diaspora Affairs Ministry behind influence op. to target US lawmakers - NYT report, Jerusalem Post, 5 June 2024.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 ToI Staff, Minister, Black Cube CEO discussed probing Students for Justice in Palestine – report, Times of Israel, 8 August 2024.
- ↑ Amichai Shikli, Tavor Mechina in Nazareth, Matanel Foundation (project page with his own account), accessed 17 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Amichai Chikli, son of a Conservative rabbi, named Diaspora affairs minister, Times of Israel, December 2022.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Sheera Frenkel, Israel Secretly Targets U.S. Lawmakers With Influence Campaign on Gaza War, New York Times, 5 June 2024 (paywalled).
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Prominent Jewish figures boycott Israel antisemitism event, BBC News, 28 March 2025.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Gur Megiddo, Israeli Minister Held Talks With Black Cube About Spying on Pro-Palestinian U.S. Student Group, Haaretz, 7 August 2024.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Philissa Cramer, After welcoming far-right politicians, Israel’s antisemitism conference is hemorrhaging speakers, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 17 March 2025.