Suspected Israeli Operatives Wage Anti-Muslim Narrative Warfare Targeting France

Freddie Ponton
21st Century Wire

A vast paid propaganda campaign has presented Muslims and migrants as an existential threat to Europe, with France becoming a central target. Investigators found evidence pointing to Israeli production and connections to the country’s political influence industry. Overseas advertising accounts distributed the material, but who commissioned the operation and where its funding came from have not been publicly established.

Researchers Marc Owen Jones and Sohan Dsouza published their findings on 29 October 2026 after tracking the operation for three years. Their report, Manufacturing the Great Replacement, follows the campaign across social media, websites, Wikipedia, petitions, and public events. Le Monde published an accompanying investigation into its Israeli connections and growing presence in France.

The researchers recorded approximately 533 million exposures across 30 countries between October 2023 and October 2026, a figure that combines advertising impressions, audience reach, and video views rather than counting individual people. France received more recorded advertising placements than any other country, with 991 of 2,748 placements and roughly 120.6 million exposures.

French viewers encountered songs, video-game parodies, and footage of demonstrations recast as warnings of an organised takeover in which Qatar supposedly supplied the money, whilst Muslims and migrants supplied the threat. The campaign bought space for that message as France approached a presidential election in which the far right has placed immigration and national identity at the centre of its ambitions.

IMAGE: Campaign material portraying Muslims and migrants as an existential threat to Europe, using replacement slogans, video-game imagery and footage of demonstrations (Source: Marc Owen Jones / X)

Selling fear to French audiences

The advertisements borrow from the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, which claims that immigration is being organised to displace established populations. Qatar takes the role assigned to George Soros in antisemitic versions of the same story, as separate events become evidence of a common plot to Islamise Europe.

A series of advertisements called Grand Theft Qatar imitates the style of the Grand Theft Auto video games, while others use AI-generated songs, music-festival parodies, and footage of street violence. French-language graphics declare “Vous êtes remplacés,” meaning “You are being replaced,” and footage of protests featuring Palestinian flags is presented as evidence of Qatar’s influence.

IMAGE: “Grand Theft Qatar” campaign imagery pairs a video-game parody with the allegation that “Qatar is responsible” for the “Islamization of Europe.” The red French label identifies the images as AI-generated (Source: Le Monde)

Some campaign pages used French-language slogans as their names, including Défendons la laïcité, meaning “Let’s defend secularism,” and Ne Financez pas le Qatar, meaning “Don’t fund Qatar.” The slogans presented an overseas campaign as a French civic cause.

The operation also targeted audiences beyond Europe, circulating anti-Hezbollah and anti-Iran material aimed at Shia audiences in Lebanon. European TikTok users received advertisements promoting regime change in Iran, with researchers recording at least 118 Iran-related ads with a combined recorded reach of 12.6 million.

The messages cast Qatar, Iran, and Hezbollah as forces to confront, while portraying Muslim presence in Europe as a threat. In France, that portrayal reinforced the fears of immigration and Islam on which the far right campaigns.

France’s far right finds support in Israel

The Rassemblement National, commonly known as the RN, has built its appeal around immigration, security, and national identity. Marine Le Pen leads its parliamentary group while Jordan Bardella serves as party president.

The RN’s June 2024 programme argued that uncontrolled immigration had weakened assimilation and encouraged separatism. In March 2026, the party proposed a constitutional referendum on immigration in 2027. Le Pen’s earlier proposal to ban the Muslim headscarf in public places had already shown how the party’s policies could reach into everyday religious life. During the 2022 presidential campaign, she described the hijab as an “Islamist uniform”.

Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli publicly welcomed the prospect of a Le Pen presidency during France’s parliamentary election period. On 1 July 2024, he told Israel’s Kan broadcaster that it would be “excellent for Israel”, adding “with 10 exclamation marks.”

Asked whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed, Chikli replied, “I think I and Netanyahu are of the same opinion.”

In March 2025, Chikli’s ministry invited Bardella to its Jerusalem conference on combating antisemitism, where Netanyahu also spoke. The invitation gave official recognition to a party seeking to escape the antisemitic legacy of its founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, even as prominent Jewish figures boycotted the event over the participation of Europe’s far right.

IMAGE: Rassemblement National president Jordan Bardella (left), with Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli at the international conference on combating antisemitism in Jerusalem, 27 March 2025 (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90. Source: The Times of Israel)

Bardella used the international platform to present the RN as “the strongest protection for our Jewish compatriots” and argued that anti-Zionism was often a cover for antisemitism. Chikli, in turn, defended Bardella and other European right-wing politicians against what he called falsehoods spread by people who also defamed Israel.

The production trail points to Israel

During a Wikipedia editing session on 30 January 2024, an Israeli fixed-line internet address appeared alongside campaign-linked accounts and German proxy connections used to conceal users’ locations. The researchers interpreted the sequence as a likely lapse that exposed an operator’s actual connection in Israel. The accounts promoted material about Qatar and linked to a campaign website.

Investigators recovered 78 videos from the operation’s Made in Qatar Telegram channel containing Adobe editing histories that recorded working times and names given to folders, and storage drives. Many platforms strip this technical information from uploaded videos, but Telegram can preserve it when videos are shared as files.

Thousands of editing events revealed a Sunday-to-Thursday working pattern, with Hebrew appearing in storage labels and project details. One machine’s timestamps shifted back an hour, from UTC+3 to UTC+2, between 22 and 27 October 2024, matching Israel’s change from daylight saving time. These findings, alongside the Wikipedia editing evidence, underpin the researchers’ assessment of Israeli origin with moderate-to-high confidence.

The portable-drive label “ShukidToGo” appeared in imported project histories associated with the campaign and contained the professional name of Israeli graphic designer Shuki Duchovni, known as ShukiD. Jones highlighted the match in his publication thread, while noting that investigators had not established whether Duchovni owned or used the drive.

IMAGE: Shuki Duchovni, known professionally as ShukiD, a graphic designer specialising in political campaigns. Researchers found the label “ShukidToGo” in campaign editing histories, but did not establish whether he owned or used the drive (Source: GNR311 / X)

The people behind the professional connections

Duchovni’s LinkedIn profile lists him as creative director at Timor Consulting from January 2013 and senior creative, as well as a graphic designer at the communications consultancy Baobab Group from March 2015. He describes developing an online branding system that allows strategists, spokespeople, public relations teams and field staff to coordinate their work throughout a campaign.

The researchers also examined Timor Group, an international political consultancy offering research, message development, digital campaigning and campaign war rooms. An archived version of Timor Group’s website carried a credit to Baobab Group, where Duchovni’s profile lists a creative role.

Duchovni’s portfolio connects him to Lior Chorev, an Israeli political strategist whose career includes campaigns for former prime ministers Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert. Chorev managed the Kulanu party’s 2019 election campaign, which features in Duchovni’s portfolio. In March 2023, Chorev also publicly shared Duchovni’s artwork and credited him by name.

Chorev, co-founder of Percepto International, which sells intelligence, strategy and influence services, also participated in an earlier Israeli initiative preparing anti-Qatar material for foreign audiences.

IMAGE: Lior Chorev, Israeli political strategist and co-founder of Percepto International. Researchers examined his professional connections while tracing the campaign’s links to Israel’s influence industry (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

The initiative that abruptly stopped

Haaretz reconstructed the project in an investigation published on 14 September 2026. Shortly after the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023, roughly 30 communications professionals, political advisers and former intelligence personnel joined a WhatsApp group called “Free the Kidnapped.” They sought an international boycott that would pressure Qatar to help secure the hostages’ release.

Chorev urged the group to act quickly. “The government is embracing the Qatari conception, and in my view, we absolutely have to get out there quickly,” he wrote.

Udi Levy, a former senior official in Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service, supplied research on Qatar and helped write a position paper with historian Ronit Marzan. Teams prepared videos, a multilingual website and material for journalists, while discussing outreach to American and French lawmakers, and pressure on Qatari-owned businesses. Plans to approach Congress also prompted discussion of American foreign-agent registration requirements.

IMAGE: Udi Levy, Mossad’s former head of economic warfare, who supplied research on Qatar for the short-lived anti-Qatar initiative described by Haaretz (Source: BBC Panorama)

Haaretz reported that the project’s public accounts attracted little engagement and that it bought no advertising. Activity declined until the initiative stopped about a month after it began. Participants said they were not told why.

“We had no idea where the project’s funding came from,” one recalled. “The vast majority of us didn’t receive a penny.”

As the project wound down, one of its initiators met twice with the director general of the Diaspora Affairs Ministry. The ministry later gave Bardella an official platform under Chikli, who had publicly welcomed the prospect of a Le Pen presidency.

The ministry had also been linked to a separate covert influence programme. The New York Times reported that it allocated approximately $2 million to the operation and hired the Israeli company STOIC to carry it out. The ministry denied a connection to the company. Jones and Dsouza identify overlapping messages in the STOIC operation and the campaign they investigated, portraying Muslim immigration and Qatari influence as threats to Western societies, and attacking pro-Palestinian university protests.

Chorev’s participation in the earlier anti-Qatar initiative placed a political strategist with commercial influence capabilities in a project preparing material for foreign audiences. Le Monde asked him whether the continuing campaigns had grown out of that initiative. According to Jones, neither Chorev nor Duchovni responded to requests for comment. These professional connections do not establish who commissioned or ran the continuing campaign.

Intelligence becomes a commercial service

Percepto’s co-founder and chief intelligence officer, Royi Burstien, is described in his company biography as a retired lieutenant colonel with 27 years in Israeli military intelligence. His listed experience includes signals intelligence, human intelligence, special operations, psychological operations, and “Narrative Warfare.”

IMAGE: Royi Burstien, co-founder, CEO and chief intelligence officer of Percepto International. His company biography describes him as a retired lieutenant colonel with 27 years in Israeli military intelligence (Source: Percepto International)

After retiring in 2013, Burstien co-founded the business intelligence company I2A, then established and managed Psy Group, which his company biography describes as conducting intelligence-led influence campaigns. A Times of Israel investigation identified him as Psy-Group’s chief executive and examined its covert work targeting supporters of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel. The firm operated in Israel through Invop Ltd, with ownership running through companies in Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands.

Psy-Group entered liquidation in February 2018, around the time FBI agents working for special counsel Robert Mueller began questioning its employees about proposals to influence the 2016 US presidential election.

The company says Burstien joined Chorev after recognising the connection between intelligence, cyber capabilities, and influence, “especially during high-stakes election campaigns.” Its team page presents a marketing specialist called Irina S. with a professional biography, then reveals that she does not exist and is an avatar.

The 2023 Story Killers investigation exposed how French media became a vehicle for an anti-Red Cross influence campaign in Burkina Faso. An article by Emmanuel Dupuy in Valeurs Actuelles was picked up by Burkinabe outlets, fuelling accusations against the humanitarian organisation. Royi Burstien later showcased the operation to undercover reporters as a commercial success. The campaign took place when he headed Athiri, before Percepto’s formation.

A Radio France investigation identified two fictitious French journalist identities used by Percepto, “Anita Pettit” and “Chloé Boyer,” which gives us a concrete example of how the company disguised its influence work.

Publicity contacts and purchased accounts

The operation also drew on American publicity contacts. AFP reported that evangelical public relations executive Johnnie Moore, who later headed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, asked religious-freedom advocate Katrina Lantos Swett to promote campaign material targeting Sheikha Moza, the mother of Qatar’s emir. Swett’s spokeswoman confirmed that Moore made the request, but said Swett did not know who organised the campaign and was not affiliated with it. Moore stopped responding to AFP when asked about Swett’s account and his apparent association with the campaign.

IMAGE: Rev. Johnnie Moore at an October 7 commemoration at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, 6 October 2024. (Photo: Jerritt Clark/Getty Images for Museum of Tolerance (Source: Middle East Monitor)

Moore’s firm, JDA Worldwide, also issued a press release promoting a protest by two former US state beauty-pageant winners outside Valentino and Balmain stores in Atlanta. The women appeared bound and bruised, accompanied by an actress portraying Sheikha Moza, to denounce the brands’ Qatari ties. Researchers included the stunt among the operation’s public activities.

Other intermediaries supplied advertising access. Vietnamese operator LT Media told AFP it had sold Facebook pages to unknown customers through Telegram, denying involvement in the campaign. Brazilian agency Agência Moll said it was winding down and had sold Google advertising accounts to an unidentified buyer on Facebook whose profile later disappeared.

Meta disclosed around $1.2 million in advertising spending for the first network, according to the researchers’ report. Almost none of its advertisements were classified as political or social-issue content, leaving them outside the additional transparency requirements. The spending visible in Meta’s public Ad Library was more than a thousand times smaller than its disclosed total.

Account removals did not stop the operation. After Meta took down the first network around May 2024, advertising resumed under new names that November and returned at scale in October 2025. Replacement YouTube channels appeared on 26 October 2026, days before the latest investigation. The identities changed, but the anti-Muslim and anti-migrant messages persisted.

An old fear, repeated at scale

The claim that Muslim immigration threatens European civilisation is not new. In a 2017 interview, Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum portrayed migration to Europe as a threat of civilisational replacement, warning of “the replacement of European civilization with Islamic civilization.”

IMAGE: Daniel Pipes, founder of the Middle East Forum, whose 2017 comments portrayed migration to Europe as a threat of civilisational replacement (Photo: Middle East Forum / via Al Jazeera)

The interview was cited in Presumptively Antisemitic, a November 2023 report by Rutgers Law School’s Center for Security, Race and Rights examining how anti-Muslim narratives are used to discredit Palestinian advocacy and Muslims in general.

The production evidence points towards Israel. Reports of Israeli influence campaigns in the United States and South America, alongside our two-part BlackCore investigation into Israeli companies operating in Europe and France, place these findings within a wider pattern. France is not an exception.

Ahead of 2027, this operation paid to portray Muslim immigration as an organised threat, amplifying a narrative central to the RN’s politics. Israel’s Diaspora Affairs minister has already called a Le Pen presidency “excellent for Israel.”

These campaigns turn grievances over immigration into a civilisational confrontation, casting Muslim neighbours as enemies within, and making hostility towards them a vehicle for political and geopolitical advantage. Our Ceuta investigation also raises the possibility that Israeli actors helped foment the migration pressure they then exploited politically.

The clash of civilisations is not simply their message. It is their instrument.

Read more: BlackCore: Israel Runs Secret Avatar Army to Hijack Elections Worldwide
Read More: BlackCore: Israel’s Cyber Hitmen in French Elections
Read more: THE CEUTA CROSSING: Anatomy of a Manufactured Crisis

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Source: https://21stcenturywire.com/2026/10/30/suspected-israeli-operatives-wage-anti-muslim-narrative-warfare-targeting-france/