Since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, there has been increased attention in the Jewish world on the terror organization’s funders, including Qatar, with a spotlight on the Gulf state’s influence through Al Jazeera, its significant donations to academia and more.

In recent weeks, another possible sphere of Qatari influence has been exposed: Israeli decision-makers. A junior spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of being paid to provide public relations services to Qatar while working for the prime minister, and two consultants who have had access to Netanyahu for the past decade also allegedly worked for Doha.

In addition to the possible security breach, Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara cited the allegations to try to block Netanyahu from firing Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, saying that the prime minister has a conflict of interest as Bar’s agency is investigating the matter. 

The scandal, which has come to be known as “Qatargate,” began with Eli Feldstein, who became Netanyahu’s spokesperson for military affairs days after the war in Gaza began. 

Feldstein began his work as an outside contractor, as did many appointees in the early days of the war, as a way to quickly staff up the Government Press Office without going through the usual civil service hiring process. 

When Netanyahu’s office sought to upgrade Feldstein to a full-time role, the Shin Bet would not give him the necessary security clearance. As such, Feldstein continued to do the same work as a contractor. Feldstein answered to Yonatan Urich, Netanyahu’s personal spokesperson, who was also a contractor. 

Contractors can take on other work, which a direct employee of the prime minister’s office would not be able to do. In addition, a source hired under similar circumstances as Feldstein in October 2023 told Jewish Insider that he was not given restrictions on the work he could do outside of his work for the government.

Urich was one of Netanyahu’s best-known spokespeople in the past decade. He worked for Netanyahu via the Likud party since 2015, starting as his social media manager and running several of the party’s election campaigns. He has owned a media consulting firm, Perception, with Yisrael Einhorn since December 2020; their past clients reportedly include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Urich and Einhorn, as well as another Netanyahu spokesperson, Ofer Golan, were indicted earlier this year for allegedly harassing a witness in the corruption case against Netanyahu. 

The Israeli police arrested Feldstein in November 2024, amid allegations that he leaked classified documents, given to him by an IDF intelligence officer, to Israel Hayom and Bild. 

Last month, Israel’s Channel 12 reported that while Feldstein worked for Netanyahu, Qatar paid him via a third party to improve the Gulf state’s image in Israel during the ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations between Israel and Hamas, in which Doha has served as the primary mediator.

Gil Birger, an Israeli businessman working in the Gulf, said that he facilitated the payments between the third party to Feldstein without knowing that they originated from Qatar. According to Birger, that third party was Jay Footlik, a registered agent of Qatar who previously served as President Bill Clinton’s liaison to the American Jewish community and was Middle East advisor for John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. Footlik has also helped arrange meetings between hostage families and Qatari officials, and advised hostage families. 

The contract between Footlik’s Third Circle firm and the Qatari Embassy in the U.S., published by Ynet this week, said that he would receive $40,000 per month to advance Qatar’s interests in the U.S. The contract states that Footlik and any subcontractors “shall not advise, represent or accept engagements from any sovereign state in the MENA Region … other than the State of Qatar without written pre-approval of the Embassy. Consultant shall promptly disclose to the Embassy any actual or apparent conflicts of interest.” 

Among the actions Feldstein took to help Qatar was to arrange interviews for The Jerusalem Post Editor-in-Chief Zvika Klein on major Israeli news programs after Klein visited Doha last year and wrote positive articles about it. Nir Dvori, a reporter for Israel’s Channel 12, said that he reported stories about Qatar that Feldstein had pitched. 

Einhorn and Urich are also alleged to have worked for Qatar and Netanyahu at the same time. Urich worked to improve Qatar’s image in relation to the ongoing negotiations to free the hostages, according to a Channel 13 report. 

Urich and Einhorn were also reportedly hired by Qatar in 2022, to give it a better image before and during the World Cup, which was held in the Gulf state. According to documents leaked to Hebrew media, they attempted to paint Qatar, a key funder of terrorism, as a peace-seeking, stable country. 

While Qatar is a major supporter of Hamas and the home of many senior Hamas figures, it is not legally classified as an enemy of Israel.

Regardless, the Shin Bet said that it was looking into the allegations against Netanyahu’s advisors on Feb. 15, days after they were reported. Baharav-Miara announced a criminal investigation on Feb. 27, that would be conducted by the Shin Bet and police.

The content of the investigation has been under a gag order for the past two weeks, but the fact that Urich and Feldstein are the two primary suspects was made public over the weekend. 

In light of the scandal, the behavior of senior figures in Netanyahu’s circle relating to Qatar in the last year and a half has come under scrutiny. 

Netanyahu has been reticent to criticize Doha in public — though private remarks have leaked — as it serves as a mediator in hostage negotiations. Lower-level Israeli government figures have spoken out against the Hamas sponsor state. Israeli National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi faced public criticism after posting on X on Oct. 25, 2023, that “Qatar is becoming an essential party and stakeholder in the facilitation of humanitarian solutions. Qatar’s diplomatic efforts are crucial at this time.”

That week, the Mossad asked the IDF to remove a post on X strongly criticizing Qatar because “we need them,” according to Israel Hayom. Another Israel-based X account called “The Qatari Project” threatened to reveal secrets about the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, even posting a shirtless selfie that appeared to have been taken by the emir, and the people running it were asked by the Israeli prime minister’s office to stop because the account was “harming Israeli interests,” Israel Hayom reported.

The Hostage Families Forum — which is highly critical of how Netanyahu has conducted the negotiations — has also praised Qatar and its mediation efforts, and some relatives of hostages held in Gaza have sought advice from Footlik and others funded by Qatar.  

Ariel Admoni, an expert on Qatar at Bar-Ilan University, told JI that the attempt to exert influence in Netanyahu’s inner circle is typical of Doha, raising the examples of former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, who was convicted of accepting gifts and bribes from Qatar and Egypt, and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who took a trip to the Gulf state funded by its government, among others. In the Trump administration, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff has done extensive business with Qatar, and Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin have been lobbyists or consultants for Qatar.

“it is very characteristic of Qatar to use straw companies to do this work, and this has happened in other countries, as well,” said Ariel Admoni, an expert on Qatar at Bar-Ilan University  

“There have been Qatari influence operations from the start of the war,” Admoni said. “They invited journalists from [Israeli public broadcaster] Kan and The Jerusalem Post … The reports about the Prime Minister’s Office should be viewed through that angle.” 

Since the 1990s, Qatar has sought to position itself as an indispensable mediator, a country that will talk to anyone, Admoni said. This is why, even though Doha is squarely on the Palestinians’ side in the war, “they want to keep Israeli public opinion with them … Qatar wants to influence the Israeli public and say they’re not on any side,” he said.

In addition, Admoni said that “it is very characteristic of Qatar to use straw companies to do this work, and this has happened in other countries, as well.”  

“The suspicion seems to be that they did business with people in the Prime Minister’s Office with the goal of getting somewhere near the prime minister, whether to get information or to influence decisions,” said Amichai Cohen, head of the Program on National Security and the Law at the Israel Democracy Institute.

As to how Qatar will respond to the bad press, Admoni said “they believe there is no such thing as bad publicity. Yes, it makes life difficult, because it’s easier to make dirty deals in secret, but accusations aren’t a problem. They’ve dealt with it in the past — and in the end they hosted the World Cup. They know how to handle it and brief friendly reporters.” 

Amichai Cohen, head of the Program on National Security and the Law at the Israel Democracy Institute, said that while the details of Qatar-gate are unclear because of the gag order, “we know that Qatar is trying to present itself as a neutral state when they actually funded Hamas, support the Muslim Brotherhood and don’t love Israel, and we know that they tend to use money — and a lot of it — to buy influence. We can assume that’s what happened.”

“The suspicion seems to be that they did business with people in the Prime Minister’s Office with the goal of getting somewhere near the prime minister, whether to get information or to influence decisions,” he added.

For Qatar, the cost of retaining Israeli public relations consultants is “small change,” Cohen said.

“Qatar-gate” made further headlines after Netanyahu moved to fire Shin Bet head Bar last week, about two weeks after the investigation was announced.

Bar and Netanyahu had disputes over the hostage negotiations months before the firing. Netanyahu supporters also point to the fact that the Shin Bet, by its own admission, suspected Hamas may try to infiltrate Israel and sent a team to the Gaza border in the early hours of Oct. 7, but did not inform the prime minister. The Shin Bet, for its part, included a page of criticism of the “political level” — led by Netanyahu for over 14 of the past 16 years — in its report on the failures of Oct. 7.

At the same time, opposition leader Yair Lapid and others quickly connected Bar’s dismissal to Qatar-gate, accusing the prime minister of dismissing the intelligence chief because of the investigation into Netanyahu’s advisors. The prime minister responded to the accusations in a video, saying, “the firing wasn’t meant to prevent the investigation; the investigation was meant to prevent the firing.” Netanyahu’s defenders have also pointed out that the Shin Bet does not drop investigations just because it has a new leader.

Cohen said that while “no one knows if something happened beyond the business ties [between Netanyahu advisors and Qatar] that were made public, it was enough for the Shin Bet to investigate … Now, it came in conjunction with the prime minister trying to dismiss the head of the Shin Bet.”

“Israeli jurisprudence has long-standing precedents that were not controversial up until now, that just because a body has the legal authority to do something, doesn’t mean they can always do it, because the process also has to be proper,” Amichai Cohen, head of the Program on National Security and the Law at the Israel Democracy Institute, said. “If there is a reasonable concern that a decision won’t be impartial … if it’s true that the prime minister wants to fire the head of the Shin Bet so there won’t be an investigation into him about Qatar or Oct. 7, that’s a conflict of interest.” 

If Bar ordered the investigation to stop Netanyahu from firing him, it would be “a real criminal conspiracy,” and if Netanyahu fired Bar to stop the investigation, “that would also be disqualifying,” Cohen said.

Baharav-Miara — who Netanyahu’s government is also trying to fire — said the Cabinet cannot fire Bar because the prime minister has a conflict of interest, but the ministers approved Netanyahu’s motion anyway. Israel’s High Court of Justice plans to hold a hearing on April 8, after receiving several petitions on the matter. In the meantime, the court has allowed Netanyahu to interview possible candidates to replace Bar, who the cabinet said must vacate his position by April 10.

Cohen explained that Miara’s dispute with the government is a matter of administrative law.

“Israeli jurisprudence has long-standing precedents that were not controversial up until now, that just because a body has the legal authority to do something, doesn’t mean they can always do it, because the process also has to be proper,” Cohen said. “If there is a reasonable concern that a decision won’t be impartial … if it’s true that the prime minister wants to fire the head of the Shin Bet so there won’t be an investigation into him about Qatar or Oct. 7, that’s a conflict of interest.”