Israel first election advert wey dem ban because dem no tell say dem use artificial intelligence, show one peaceful scene. For the fake video, opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot dey hug Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.

Na Bezalel Smotrich far-right Religious Zionism party produce the footage make voters fear say Eisenkot fit reconcile with the Palestinians.

Na irony wey hard to miss. Dem use synthetic image of coexistence as political threat by movement wey ministers don openly talk say dem dey support annexation, displacement and the destruction of Palestinian life.

But the fake video na only the small visible part of one much bigger system.

As Israel dey near important national elections, AI no just dey use to create images. Dem dey use am to manufacture voters, enter private conversations, collect personal information and quietly shape wetin people go think be public opinion.

The Economist report say Israeli technology companies don develop swarms of bots wey dey pose as human voters, influence online conversations and distort informal polls.

Some more advanced AI avatars fit get telephone numbers and even credit cards, so dem fit join WhatsApp groups and behave like real people.

Political campaigns fit combine information wey dem gather through chatbots with commercial data on purchases, searches, viewing habits and location, then tailor adverts, messages and lifelike robocalls to individual voters.

This one suppose concern anybody wey dey worry democracy. But danger dey if we tell the story like Israel just discover one scary technology for the eve of im own election.

The machinery no just show from nowhere. Dem develop am, fund am and normalise am through years of information warfare against Palestinians, Arabs and Western publics. Wetin new no be the weapon; na who dem dey target now.

Money poured into Hasbara

Since October 2023, Israel don treat public opinion as another front for the genocidal war wey dem dey fight for Gaza.

Government don pour plenty money inside hasbara, wey be the state public diplomacy and influence apparatus.

Their 2025 allocation of about $150 million already be big expansion.

The 2026 budget reportedly raise that figure to about $730 million. Investigation by the Quincy Institute conclude say direct Israeli government spending on public diplomacy since October 2023 don pass $1 billion.

That money no dey only buy ordinary advertising.

For 2024, OpenAI expose one Israel-based influence operation dem call "Zero Zeno". The network, wey Israeli political marketing firm STOIC run, use AI to generate articles, comments and fake online personas across Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube and websites wey dey pose as independent organisations.

Their material attack UNRWA, portray pro-Palestinian university protesters as "supporters of terrorism" and target audiences for the United States, Canada and other places. Reporting for the time link the wider campaign to Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, which deny involvement.

The ambition don even become more brazen. Investigation for 2026 reveal say one apparently fake American think tank, the Hanover Institute for Public Policy, publish more than 560,000 words inside nine days.

Their reports dey dress like neutral, sourced research on questions like whether Israel dey commit genocide, dey starve Palestinians or dey torture prisoners.

The site na part of Israeli-government-funded campaign wey design to influence wetin AI chatbots go tell users. One contract even mention delivering "GPT framing results" inside chatbot conversations.

This one more dangerous pass clumsy deepfake. False video fit identify, label and remove. But when thousands of synthetic accounts, pseudo-academic reports and engineered search results drown the information space, propaganda fit start to look like consensus.

One person wey ask apparently neutral chatbot about Gaza fit never know say some of the material wey shape the answer na wetin foreign government create to hide their own actions.

A manipulation apparatus

For Palestinians, this no be abstract debate about technological ethics. The manipulation of information dey go side-by-side with the destruction of lives.

While Palestinians dey document children wey dem kill, hospitals wey dem attack, families wey dem starve and whole neighbourhoods wey dem erase, one heavily funded apparatus dey work to dispute the evidence, smear the witnesses and change demands for accountability to "extremism" or "anti-Semitism".

AI make that apparatus fit operate for scale wey no human propaganda team fit match.

E also help explain one familiar distortion for Western debate.

Palestinian voices dey regularly treat as biased, emotional or unreliable, while Israeli state claims dey repeat as the default account even when later dem collapse under scrutiny.

Digital influence operations dey exploit that imbalance. Dem no need convince everybody. Dem just need create enough noise, doubt and artificial agreement to delay political action while facts for ground turn irreversible.

Now the same culture of manipulation dey turn inward. Netanyahu and him allies don spend years to build databases and election technology, while opposition-linked people for Israel powerful tech sector reportedly dey prepare to fight with similar tools.

So the problem no fit reduce to one party or one politician. Once covert persuasion become accepted instrument of statecraft, e no go stay only for foreign audiences.

System wey dem design to impersonate citizens abroad go eventually impersonate citizens for home.

Another bitter contradiction dey.

Israeli institutions now dey discuss safeguards to protect Israeli voters from AI-generated deception, but little concern dey for the millions of people abroad wey dem don already target—or for Palestinians whose reality these campaigns try to erase.

Democracy no fit mean defend Israeli citizens from manipulation while accept covert manipulation of Americans, Europeans and Arabs as legitimate public diplomacy.

Governments for London, Washington or Brussels no suppose treat this as only Israeli election story.

Foreign interference no become harmless because e come from ally. If Russia, China or Iran fund fake American organisations, synthetic citizens and campaigns wey dem intend to change wetin chatbots tell voters, Western officials go call am national security threat.

Israel no suppose get exemption from standards wey apply to everybody.

“Profiled, targeted and manipulated”

Lesson big pass Netanyahu. Governments must require full disclosure of state-funded digital campaigns, enforce foreign-agent and data-protection laws, force tech companies to expose coordinated inauthentic networks and create transparency around efforts to manipulate AI training and retrieval systems.

Political parties suppose no dey allowed to deploy synthetic identities or use covertly harvested personal data to suppress or redirect voters.

But regulation alone no go solve the moral question. Israel influence machine dey because leaders believe say the problem no be wetin the state don do to Palestinians, but say the world don see too much of am.

No algorithm fit make mass killing humane, occupation democratic or starvation defensible. As public opinion turn more against these policies, na more money and technology dem dey spend to correct the public, instead of correcting the policy.

Israel AI propaganda apparatus don start to come back home. Danger wey dey for Israeli voters real, but Palestinians don live for years with the consequences of the worldview wey produce am: people fit be profiled, targeted and manipulated; inconvenient truths fit bury under manufactured narratives; and dem fit think say technology fit solve political crisis wey domination cause.

Weapon no become unacceptable only when those wey build am realise say dem fit aim am at themselves.