Support for Palestinians is becoming a cultural trend. Israel is drifting ever further from global public opinion, clinging to the old establishment while deepening its alliances with far-right movements. What can still be done? A special report for Kol HaMon #100

Welcome to Brand Palestine

It is one of those counterintuitive moments. After the October 7th attack generated a wave of international sympathy and support for Israel, the tide has decisively turned in the opposite direction. The relentless inhumanity of what Israel has done to Palestinians, overwhelmingly innocent civilians, the indifference to suffering, and statements of Israeli leaders appear to have crossed the Rubicon. Israel’s image—at least, as long as it is denying Palestinians their rights—is simply not going to recover.

First, it’s worth acknowledging that Israel had a good run. For decades, Israel managed to maintain a favourable image in spite of occupation, settlements, documented violations of international law, and its ruinous approach to Palestinian life. But that was already changing even before October 7th. The legal designation of Israel as an apartheid state by blue-chip international human rights organisations Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, as well by Israel’s own human rights community, and the attempt by Israeli officials to offer no response other than accusations of antisemitism probably marked a watershed moment.

But it is in the last year and a half that Israel’s image has set out on a path whereby the cultural, social, and political zeitgeist has fundamentally shifted. Something new happened: the Palestinian cause has become cool. Across much of the West, the scale of protests has been unprecedented. Beyond that, Palestine can be found everywhere in everyday cultural symbols, the consumption of mass media, and especially social media. And it is a trend borne out in opinion polls: approximately a third of Americans in some surveys believe that Israel is guilty of carrying out genocide against Palestinians, more than half of French and Italian citizens think that Israel should face an arms embargo, while only 13 percent of Brits say that their government should continue selling weapons to Israel.

A disparate movement aligning with Palestinians has become a subculture of real magnitude. Israelis may be unaware of this, but the watermelon is no longer just a fruit,  it is  symbol of Palestinian steadfastness; the keffiyeh is worn beyond the constituency of Palestinian or sympathetic Muslims; the traditional Palestinian dance of dabke breaks out to fanfare impromptu at gatherings of all kinds. Palestinians have built a brand recognition like the Che Guevara posters of old.

Attend any major music festival and Palestinian flags will be flying. The coalition spans from high culture—the leading African-American writer of his generation and darling of the liberal establishment, Ta-Nehisi Coates, chose to take on the question of Palestine-Israel in his latest work The Message while perhaps the foremost Asian American novelist and Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen redoubled his commitment to the boycott of Israel—all the way unto and across popular culture. You can find Macklemore producing viral raps in solidarity with Gaza  and award-winning pop sensation Dua Lipa denouncing Israeli genocide on social media.

Israel’s Counter-Marketing Campaign

Of course, there is still a constituency for brand Israel. But most of Israel’s marketing efforts, and those of supportive lobby organisations, target an ever-narrowing cohort of the already convinced and are handicapped by the politically-driven aligning of Israel with the populist and often far right. The most powerful and impactful undermining of the Israel brand has come from the simple and repeated broadcast of statements made by Israeli leaders themselves, and images shared by Israeli troops and from Israeli media (especially the incitement of Channel 14). All it takes is for these to be reposted as evidence of the wave of grotesque and sickening inhumanity sweeping over the country. Palestinians do not need spokespeople given the rogues’ gallery of what Israel now freely offers itself.

Israelis may not realize it, but the watermelon is no longer just a fruit—it has become a symbol of Palestinian steadfast resistance. The keffiyeh is worn beyond circles of Palestinians or sympathetic Muslims. The traditional Palestinian, dabke, a traditional line dance symbolizing unity, garners spontaneous applause at all kinds of gatherings

Even within the Western constituencies of the resurgent right, where this kind of politics would not necessarily contradict their value system, Israel is not universally popular: considered to have an overbearing influence on the politics (and on the pursestrings) of the West, a sizable minority  of younger right-wingers and even some more established figures—such as MAGA shofar Tucker Carlson —have dared to express scepticism about the special relationship.

Much of Israel’s PR is so ineffective that it serves as its own undoing, such as the foreign ministry’s scandalous video accusing Spain of aiding Hamas when it recognized Palestine, or ex-IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari’s claim that the army had uncovered a Hamas rota for supervising hostages under a hospital, when in fact it was just a calendar listing days of the week 

And that’s just the West. The impact in the Global South is much greater. Most of the world is non-white and if Israel sounds and acts like a racist settler colonial project, and is being exposed as such on social media in ways never seen before, then one should not be surprised when large populations in Africa, Asia, and South America see Israel as symbolising the inequities suffered in their own troubled histories. Even the deployment of antisemitism is generating a backlash. Israel has used the accusation so ubiquitously against everyone from film producers to the entirety of the United Nations to the international legal system that it has lost most of its punch. Antisemitism is serious, but when Israel deploys it in such an unserious way, there is blowback. When Jonathan Glazer, the Jewish director of The Zone of Interest, a film about banality of the evil in the Holocaust, used his acceptance speech at the Oscars to decry the abuse of antisemitism and to denounce the occupation, something has changed.

Trump Era, Pyrrhic Victory

Before one gets carried away, a corrective needs to be inserted. Israel remains powerfully placed in the political leadership class in the West and a significant enough cohort of business elites which amounts to a consequential  reservoir of hard power. States are still ready to work with Israel and its economy, including selling and supplying the weapons that Israel needs . The lobbies and financial interests pulling for Israel remain effective. These range from the influence of the military industrial complex to the interests of Jewish groups  and the Christian evangelical Zionist community (which often tips into its own version of genuine antisemitism) while the significant sway of Islamophobia in popular politics also plays its part.

In the new era of “might makes right” heralded by Trump’s second term, Israel may feel like the tide has turned in its favour, if only temporarily. However, this might prove a Pyrrhic victory: by encouraging and empowering Israel down this extremist path, total impunity spearheaded by the Trump administration may accelerate the very overreach that will stretch Israel to its limits and intensify its internal tensions and with the diaspora. Israel is not America: It is not surrounded by Canada, Mexico, and water. For Israel to turn the Middle East even more implacably against it, and to be even more reliant on the US to save it when there is no endless supply of IDF reservist troops, and where economic resilience is already under strain, is an extremely risky bet to take.

Much of Israel’s global PR is not merely ineffective — it is actively harmful. Consider, for instance, the Foreign Ministry’s scandalous video accusing Spain of aiding Hamas following its recognition of Palestine

Israel’s tech and military and spyware capabilities make it useful to allies. If the Western establishment is still with Israel, surely that is enough? Well, yes, that does guarantee sufficient impunity that the costs are manageable, or at least deferred. But the more isolated that is from public opinion, the more aggressively it needs to be policed, the more fragile it becomes. The mainstream Western media still tells the story mostly from an Israeli angle, but media consumption is changing and those biases increasingly matter less when a citizen journalist like Bisan Owda or Hind Khoudary can drive narratives. Big ticket deals can still be landed, like the sale of cybersecurity company Wiz, but how many companies are quietly rebranding themselves as less Israeli? How many key Israeli workers are looking for work elsewhere? CEO Assaf Rappaport himself was filmed at the protests days after the Wiz sale. If Israel continues to lose public sentiment, then slowly but surely, centers of power will follow. The boycott of South Africa did not begin with major state or commercial actors; quite the reverse, this was driven by the public which over time forced sporting authorities and cultural institutions, businesses and ultimately states who were reluctant.

Snow White and the Overton Window

As we can see, even if brand Israel is tanking, the impact on daily life of most Israelis is less palpable, but could even this be shifting faster than is assumed? The answer for now is open. Most of this discussion has been about Western states and economies. But the map of geopolitical and economic power has long been shifting. We are now in a multipolar reality. That is captured not only by the G2 reality of the US and China, with indications everyday of the Chinese having caught up; look at Chinese dominance in critical minerals, advances in green technology, BYD eclipsing Musk’s Tesla in electric vehicles, in shipping transportation, the recent successes of DeepSeek imploding the myth of American chip and AI dominance, and the list could go on.

Israel invested heavily in and had successes in relations with China, but its dependence on the US means that it is difficult for Israel to hedge too far if competition intensifies. And while Israel is well-placed in India (for now at least, under Modi’s BJP), the ability to generate public pressure in places where Israel is more unpopular and does not have the support of old establishment elites creates additional vulnerabilities. Israel has a growing problem in much of the global South. And then there is the Gulf, which is hugely consequential in today’s global economy. Can the Gulf stay on board, indifferent and unwilling to deploy any of its economic leverage, if Israel doubles down on its permanent displacement and mass killings of Palestinians? Sadly, we may well find out.

Hollywood was one place where questioning of Israel and pro-Palestinian sympathies found it difficult for decades to get a foothold. But that, too, is going through a process of change. It can be over-hyped, but the Oscar awarded to No Other Land, followed by settlers beating and the IDF arresting its co-director Hamdan Ballal is another landmark moment. Disney may be about to feel that same effect. There are various reasons why the new Snow White movie may not become a Box Office hit, but the controversy surrounding Gal Gadot and her Israel poster-child status – is being referenced in every review of the movie. That has Hollywood movie makers sitting up and anxiously paying attention. If Brand Gadot is Brand Israel and if Brand Israel is Brand Hate, then cinema ticket sales take a hit. The Overton Window is shifting.

Rebranding and the Jewish Question

What this malaise suggests is that this has gone beyond the need for a rebrand. Israel needs to be selling a different product. That means a wholesale shift in Israel’s attitude toward Palestinians, its permanent occupation of Palestinian territories and dehumanisation of Palestinian people. Israeli politics is probably in its worst ever state of affairs when it comes to that. Driving change from within is proving difficult.

Both statistically and anecdotally it appears that while part of liberal Israel is fighting on, another significant part of liberal Israel has already or is preparing to give up and exit. The task of sustaining support for Israel internationally is assumed disproportionately by Jewish people. Jewish alignment with Israel acts as a brake mechanism on holding Israel accountable. Jewish communal organisations continue to stand with Israel far more than one might expect, both given the extreme actions undertaken by Israel and the sometimes negative repercussions for Jewish communal life and the indifference of Israeli leaders to that.

But divisions within Jewish communities are coming to the fore. That is likely to intensify. Some of the most high-profile protests have been by Jewish groups in the US. And now, the conflation of antisemitism with criticism of Israel and the attacks on civil liberties are being directly turned against Jews. Given that Jews have a stake in this (Jews who consider Israeli policies as antithetical to Jewish values and ethics and alliances with the racist right as dangerous to the well-being of Jews and others), it is unsurprising that they have been a highly visible part of the protest movement. Progressive Jews now face the intensification of a backlash under the Trump administration. This will drive division further.

Another source of tension came to a head with the antisemitism conference organised by Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli. Israel’s celebrated guests and staunchest allies represent European political parties that pride themselves on narrow nationalist jingoism, often tainted with racism and a history of antisemitism. That cast of characters was too much even for  most dogmatic and shameless cheerleaders for Israel among establishment Jewish leaders in Europe. The UK’s Orthodox Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mervis and the German government’s antisemitism czar Felix Klein were among key figures to drop out, while the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France distanced itself from the conference. The rupture is real, and widening.

To be clear, opposition to Israel and its policies is not antisemitism. Classic antisemitism exists, as it always has, but the attempts to criminalize Israel’s violations of international law by de

Indeed, none of this will be solved simply by replacing Netanyahu with a leader from the  center-right or center-left who maintains a system of occupation and structural inequality between Jews and Palestinians. That is what appears to be missing in the thousands of pages of inquiries into October 7th and what has happened since – endlessly assessing who knew what and when, the intricacies of intelligence and tactical failures – while nobody questions the basics. Can Israel step up and acknowledge Palestinian humanity and equality and build a future on that premise? That is the only way to guarantee that there will be security and hope for both peoples.

Daniel Levy is a political commentator and president of the U.S./Middle East Project. He served as an Israeli peace negotiator at the Oslo-B talks and the Taba negotiations under Prime Minister Ehud Barak. He has served as an Israeli negotiator in peace talks and is a former adviser in the Israeli Prime Minister‘s Office.