Toxic Triangle: The NGO Industry, State Funding, and Media Manipulation

Documents leaked to the website Jewish Onliner exposed what many in Israel and beyond have long suspected: the existence of a tightly coordinated, well-funded, international campaign to delegitimize Israel under the facades of freedom of the press and human rights.

A campaign led by France-based NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and activist platform Avaaz, and accompanied by an alliance of 150 media outlets from 50 countries launched on September 1st. Their shared goal: to promote a narrative that Israel deliberately targets journalists in Gaza. Participants were provided with prepackaged content, uniform graphics, time-zone-based publishing instructions, and synchronized hashtags. The messaging was not just meant to be spread widely – it was coordinated with military precision.

Included among the so-called “independent” media outlets participating in the campaign are well-known names such as Qatar-controlled Al Jazeera and The Independent (UK).

As with the cynical libels regarding genocide and starvation, which are forms  of Holocaust inversion, this media manipulation presents a one-dimensional prepackaged storyline with the obvious intention of vilifying the IDF and denying Israel’s right to self-defense. It erases Hamas’ complete weaponization of civilian infrastructure in Gaza and systematic manipulation of media presence. More specifically, it ignores the clearly documented exploitation of journalists and press credentials by terrorist organizations like Hamas. Inadvertently, RSF highlights the very real ethical dilemma posed by combatants disguising themselves as journalists, including donning “press” vests).

Perhaps most disturbing is the revelation that this campaign is underwritten and funded –  indirectly but undeniably – by European taxpayer money. Roughly 70 percent of Reporters Without Borders’ annual income  (€13.3 million in 2024) comes from European governments, including the European Union, France, and the Netherlands. In 2022-2025, France alone allocated €5.3 million to RSF for a project euphemistically titled “Protecting and Promoting the Right to Reliable Information.” Within the project’s stated objectives is the promotion of “influence campaigns” intended to protect journalists in “high-risk areas.”

Using this largesse, RSF’s political activities extend well beyond the September 1 media blitz. The organization has submitted four separate complaints against Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC) – actions that position RSF not as an altruistic supporter of press freedom, but as an active participant in the legal and political campaign to delegitimize the Jewish State. Submitting one-sided legal briefs to the ICC attacking a democracy defending against the genocidal terror group that conducted the October 7 atrocities is not journalism advocacy; it is lawfare.

This incident shines a spotlight on the toxic triangle in which organizations claiming moral and human rights agendas, followed by media platforms and political leaders, coalesce to launch lethal political campaigns targeting Israel. In parallel, they erase and ignore the heinous terror-driven realities in Gaza under Hamas, including mass slaughter, torture and sexual violence.

The complicity of some NGOs in this process is structural. These organizations, often recipients of large government grants, project an image of neutrality and humanitarian concern while adopting poisonous political narratives. When these narratives are repeated by self-proclaimed “independent” media, without transparency on funding sources, coordination, or intent, the result is not journalism – it is propaganda.

We must also consider what we don’t see. If this one campaign was uncovered thanks to leaked documents, how many similar campaigns take place under the radar? How many fabricated stories and misleading headlines have molded international opinion and government policies without being questioned?

The list of media outlets involved in this recent campaign has now been published. The question for Israel is not merely one of public relations but of national security: How should a democratic state respond when its enemies leverage foreign funding, civil society platforms, and the language of journalism to wage an information war?

Israel and its supporters must take a proactive approach in exposing these campaigns, challenging their legitimacy, and making clear that the misuse of journalism for political warfare not only endangers Israel, but endangers the very principles of a free press and democracy.

Gerald Steinberg is the president, and Itai Reuveni the communications director, of NGO Monitor.