The far-right Otzma Yehudit party, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, has been running an online influence campaign using more than 100 social media bots posing as Israelis, according to an investigation by the FakeReporter watchdog group.
The report says the accounts amplify the party’s messaging while systematically attacking leaders of coalition parties and other political allies within Otzma Yehudit’s broader bloc.
Similar FakeReporter findings about coordinated fake-account networks have previously led to accounts being removed from X.
According to the investigation, the accounts use AI-generated profile pictures, flood posts with repetitive messages and attacks and serve as a platform for promoting election messaging on behalf of Otzma Yehudit and Ben-Gvir.
The report links the accounts to the office of Ofer Rosenbaum, the party’s campaign manager. Reporting published Sunday also described a network of more than 100 fake accounts using AI-generated images in coordinated activity linked by the investigation to Otzma Yehudit.
The method, according to the researchers, is straightforward: AI-created accounts pose as authentic Israelis. They are all connected to several central, genuine accounts that are directly linked to Otzma Yehudit’s campaign.
(Photo: FakeReporter)
The profiles respond en masse to posts containing material either supportive of Ben-Gvir or related to candidates from other parties, using highly uniform messaging that the researchers said raises reasonable suspicion that artificial intelligence is being used to operate them.
The researchers also said that each post tends to feature one or two central narratives repeated throughout the comments in multiple variations, creating the impression of a manufactured consensus.
For example, accounts allegedly operating on Ben-Gvir’s behalf targeted Channel 14, which generally takes a pro-Netanyahu line, responding to reports critical of the Otzma Yehudit leader by calling the channel’s staff “like Netanyahu’s mercenaries” and writing: “You think attacks on Ben-Gvir will save Netanyahu? Wrong. He is the strong voice and you are just background noise.”
In another example, responding to a campaign by Religious Zionist Party chairman Bezalel Smotrich on increasing Jewish settlement in the Negev and Galilee, the accounts posted comments including: “Voters aren’t buying this bluff,” “He only remembered at election time” and “cold, unfeeling bureaucracy.”
After Channel 14 criticized Ben-Gvir, the bots fought back
(Photo: FakeReporter)
The network also carried messages against Amcha Yisrael chairman Ofer Winter, messages supporting a political alliance between Knesset member Tally Gotliv and Ben-Gvir and numerous other posts backing Otzma Yehudit in related political debates.
“Ahead of the elections, we are identifying growing use of bots and fake profiles to influence public opinion in Israel and disrupt the elections," FakeReporter CEO Nir Rosen said. "Influence activity of this kind raises genuine suspicion of violations of election propaganda laws and rules, and requires an immediate examination by the Central Elections Committee.
“Inauthentic activity masquerading as public discourse is a deception of the public and an infringement on all of our right to choose. Politicians and parties that choose to manufacture fake support through fictitious profiles are trying to replace genuine support with the illusion of support.
“In doing so, they are not only misleading voters but also eroding public trust in society and the state. Ahead of the elections, every citizen across the political spectrum should be especially cautious and ask who is really behind the content they see and share.”
Ben-Gvir’s office said in response: “The same ‘investigation,’ the same left-wing elements and the same ‘FakeReporter’ of the radical left — backed by an army of foreign money interfering in Israel’s elections — told us before the previous election that there was an ‘army of fakes’ behind Prime Minister Netanyahu. Then the public went to the polls and decided.
“They will keep barking, and we will keep winning.”