Gilad Erdan
Gilad Erdan is the Minister of Communications in the Israeli Government formed on 18 March 2013.[1]
Minister of Strategic Affairs
As Minister of Strategic Affairs, in June 2018 he opened his ministry's GC4I conference of pro-Israel groups against the BDS movement.[2]
Leaked emails and documents
According to emails from a cache attributed to Benny Gantz that was released in 2025 by the hacking group Handala, which Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets) says is "believed to have ties to Iranian intelligence", and published by DDoSecrets. The authenticity of the emails has not been independently verified.[3] On 16 January 2016 Gantz wrote that "Minister Gilad Erdan asked for a meeting concerning the anti-BDS activity we want to promote through a company due to be set up under the name '12 Tribes'" (translated from Hebrew).[4] Minutes of a meeting on 14 June 2016 with the Institute for National Security Studies record that Erdan had offered Gantz the chairmanship of the ministry's planned public-benefit company (later Kela Shlomo and Concert - Together for Israel). He stressed "the need for a platform of influence and mutual dependence between the Ministry and the proposed company", so that after receiving government (49%) and donor (51%) funding it would not "turn against the government". According to the minutes, he said that centre-left figures were needed "to work with the important target audiences, contrary to his political base", and that he was aiming for "4–6 major, large donors" (translated from Hebrew).[5] Jack Poulson first reported the cache's account of the 12 Tribes initiative.[6]
Leaked Israeli Ministry of Justice documents, published by Distributed Denial of Secrets in 2024 and not independently verified, show the ministry taking advice from US law firms in 2018–2021 on whether its funding of US groups would trigger the Foreign Agents Registration Act.[7][8] See Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy.
External resources
- 'Disloyalty' bill passes first hurdle, jpost.com, 10 January 2007.
- Gil Ronen and Yoni Kempinski, Erdan: Stop Building New PA City, It will Pollute Environment, israelnationalnews.com, 5 October 2010.
Notes
- ↑ Government 33, knesset.gov.il, accessed 18 March 2013.
- ↑ Mordechai Sones, 'Hate network' against Israel exposed Israel National News, 19 June 2018.
- ↑ Distributed Denial of Secrets, Benny Gantz emails ddosecrets.org, 27 August 2025, accessed 21 October 2026. DDoSecrets says the emails "were released by Handala, a hacking group that is believed to have ties to Iranian intelligence", and applies its "Cyberwar" disclaimer.
- ↑ Benny Gantz emails (released by Handala, published by Distributed Denial of Secrets), email from Benny Gantz, 16 January 2016 (Hebrew), archive path
benny@bgprime.co.il/Sent/1 (75).html, dataset page ddosecrets.org, accessed 21 October 2026. Leaked email; authenticity not independently verified. - ↑ Benny Gantz emails (released by Handala, published by Distributed Denial of Secrets), email from Assaf Orion (INSS), "BDS and delegitimisation: main points of meeting with Minister Gilad Erdan – 14 June", 15 June 2016, with attached INSS presentation of 13 June 2016 (Hebrew), archive path
beny/Inbox!5/0000003261, dataset page ddosecrets.org, accessed 21 October 2026. Leaked email; authenticity not independently verified. - ↑ Jack Poulson, Leak indicates billionaire funders of Israeli cyber campaign targeting anti-apartheid activists All-Source Intelligence (Substack), 17 September 2025, updated 27 September 2025.
- ↑ Distributed Denial of Secrets, Israel Ministry of Justice ddosecrets.org, 25 July 2024, accessed 21 October 2026. DDoSecrets lists the dataset in its "Cyberwar" category, warning of "an increased chance of malware, ulterior motives and altered or implanted data".
- ↑ Lee Fang and Jack Poulson, Israel feared legal trouble over US advocacy efforts, leaked files suggest The Guardian, 17 August 2024.