The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned a reported propaganda campaign by a registered foreign agent of the Israeli government to use geofencing technology to identify United Methodist (UM) churchgoers and mass text them anti-Palestinian messages.
The reported campaign is part of the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s attempt to halt rising Christian support for Palestinian human rights in the wake of the Gaza genocide.
According to UM News: “Worshippers at several United Methodist congregations in Texas may soon be targeted with propaganda from a foreign government attempting to shore up its lagging support among U.S. Christians.
“In a Sept. 26 filing under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a self-described ‘Christian-based marketing and communications firm’ reported that the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs is paying it more than $3 million to use ‘geofencing’ technology to identify the mobile devices of people inside hundreds of large churches in the western United States. Those devices will then be flooded with messages the company claimed will ‘combat low American Evangelical Christian approval of the Nation of Israel’…”
[NOTE: Geofencing allows marketers to target audiences by using their devices’ location services.]
In a statement, CAIR Deputy Executive Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said:
“This registered agent of the Israeli government’s disturbing geofencing scheme is yet another example of foreign interference designed to manipulate Americans and silence growing outrage over Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza. It is unacceptable for any foreign government to secretly target American churchgoers with surveillance-based propaganda.
“People of faith have every right to stand with the oppressed, condemn U.S. support for the genocide in Gaza and support the fundamental human rights of the Palestinian people without being digitally tracked and manipulated by a foreign state. Israel’s attempt to ‘geofence’ Methodist worshipers and bombard them with anti-Palestinian or anti-Muslim messages is a dangerous and insulting attack on our society.”
“We urge federal authorities to investigate this operation, address any violations of U.S. law, and protect American religious communities from covert foreign influence efforts. We stand in solidarity with the United Methodist Church and their right to worship in peace, as well as their right to advocate for justice here and abroad.”
BACKGROUNDER (ISLAMOPHOBIA.ORG):
In late 2024, Israel reportedly increased its global public relations budget by $150 million. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said this money would support the government’s “consciousness warfare” efforts.
Leaked 2025 documents produced by Stagwell Global, a PR firm whose founder is tied to the Likud Party, reveal findings from research Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned. In its reporting on the leaked research, Drop Site New notes the research finds, “Israel’s best tactic to combat this, according to the study, is to foment fear of ‘Radical Islam’ and ‘Jihadism,’ which remain high.”
In other 2025 developments, Responsible Statecraft reports, “A newly-created firm called Show Faith by Works is embarking on a ‘geofencing’ campaign to target Christian churches and colleges across the American Southwest with pro-Israel advertisements.” Responsible Statecraft staff reviewed a Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filing which says that the cell phone numbers of Christians attending worship services in four states will be harvested so the owners can be fed pro-Israel advertising. The larger $3.2 million contract “also includes trying to hire celebrity spokespeople and paying pastors to produce content.”
That same reporting notes that another firm, Clock Tower X LLC, “plans to deploy AI-driven tools: monthly SEO campaigns using the MarketBrew AI platform and efforts to shape outputs of GPT-based chatbots.” This campaign promises, “promises to produce 100 ads or pieces of content each month, plus 5,000 different variations of those ads.”
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com