The investigation, titled Manufacturing the Great Replacement, documented 1,473 Facebook advertisements, 189 YouTube videos and 359 TikTok advertisements, alongside networks of accounts operating under different identities.
The recorded 533 million exposures combine advertising impressions, platform reach and video views. They do not represent the number of individual people who encountered the material. The researchers estimated that the total could reach 831 million when accounting for advertisements missing from their archives.
Marc Owen Jones described how the campaign adapted far-right conspiracy narratives to target Muslim communities and migration in Europe.
"Qatar takes the role that antisemitic versions give to George Soros: a hidden power directing Muslim immigration to 'Islamise' Europe," he told Al Jazeera.
The researchers identified several technical indicators pointing towards Israel, including an Israeli internet address associated with an account involved in Wikipedia editing and video-production metadata containing Hebrew-language folder names.
They also found that the production schedules followed an Israeli working week, with activity recorded in the UTC+3 time zone.
The operation used advertising accounts and intermediaries registered in several countries, including Vietnam, Brazil, Belgium and Germany. Companies involved in placing advertisements told the researchers that advertising assets had been transferred to buyers whose identities were not disclosed.
Meta previously disclosed spending of approximately $1.2 million on the campaign's first phase, according to the investigation. The researchers said later phases were not included in the platform's published records.
The campaign also continued after Meta removed its initial network in May 2024, returning under different identities in November that year before expanding again in October 2025.
Israel's messaging strategy
The findings follow separate reporting about efforts by Israel to improve its standing among Western audiences through messages portraying the country as a defender of Western values against radical Islam.
In an opinion article published by Haaretz on 8 November, journalist Tamar Kenigsberg Bentov examined preliminary findings from research commissioned by Israel's Foreign Ministry in 2025.
The ministry had hired US marketing company Stagwell Global, headed by former Bill Clinton political adviser Mark Penn, to examine ways of improving Israel's image in five Western countries.
According to Haaretz, the company's research found that presenting Israel as a defender of Western values against radical Islam was among the most effective messages tested. The newspaper reported that this approach increased support for Israel by more than 20 percentage points on average in the tested messaging exercises.
The research also examined how presenting the slogan "Free Palestine" as an expression of support for terrorism, rather than a demand for freedom, resonated with conservative audiences in the United States.
The findings focused on the effectiveness of different communications strategies rather than an assessment of Israel's military conduct in Gaza or the legality of its occupation and settlements.
Haaretz also distinguished the Foreign Ministry's commissioned research from the separate advertising operation investigated by Jones and Dsouza. The researchers have not established a connection between the two.
Controversy inside Israel
The debate over anti-Arab rhetoric has also reached Israeli television, where Channel 13 suspended presenter Eyal Berkovic following comments questioning the medical qualifications of two Arab and Muslim public figures.
During a broadcast on 7 November, Berkovic challenged the use of the title "doctor" for Abdul El-Sayed, a physician and epidemiologist elected to the US Senate from Michigan.
He subsequently questioned the qualifications of Israeli lawmaker Ahmad Tibi, who trained as a doctor and specialised in gynaecology.
Channel 13 announced the suspension on 8 November, saying that freedom of expression did not justify racist remarks. The network did not specify how long the suspension would last.
The incident followed an earlier confrontation involving Berkovic and Arab Israeli presenter Lucy Aharish, during which he told her: "Calm down, you're not in the village here."
Berkovic later acknowledged that the remark was incorrect but denied that it was racist, according to The Times of Israel.
Netanyahu's political warnings
The domestic debate has coincided with a political struggle over the formation of Israel's next government following the October 2026 election.
In a commentary published by Ynet, Israeli journalist Nahum Barnea criticised Netanyahu's response to the prospect of losing power to an opposition government supported by Arab parties.
Gadi Eisenkot received recommendations from 67 lawmakers to form a government, compared with 46 for Netanyahu, according to the results of consultations with parliamentary factions.
Netanyahu warned that a government relying on Arab parties would bring unrest to Israeli cities, comparing the potential situation with violence in Paris and Brussels.
Barnea challenged the comparison, arguing that it equated Arab citizens' participation in democratic elections with violent street protests in European cities.
"There, Arabs rioted. Here, Arabs voted," he wrote.
He also argued that Netanyahu's position towards Arab political participation was shaped more by the demands of his struggle to retain power than by a consistent objection to cooperation with Arab parties.
Barnea pointed to the prime minister's previous willingness to rely on Arab political support when it served his interests.
The commentary also cited growing criticism of anti-Arab remarks on Israeli television, including the controversy surrounding Berkovic.
Meanwhile, the researchers' report documented that the online advertising operation remained active in October 2026. YouTube removed several channels associated with the campaign that month, but replacement channels subsequently appeared under similar names.
