Former Haaretz commentator Alon Pinkas received payments totaling hundreds of thousands of shekels over more than a year from a company controlled by lobbyist Jay Footlik, according to a report published in Haaretz.
Some of Pinkas’ articles in the newspaper included statements that aligned with parallel messaging lines that appeared in a campaign drafted by Footlik.
Following the report, Pinkas claimed he was not involved in the Qatari campaign and was unaware of its existence. According to him, he initially helped Footlik connect with families of hostages and journalists without payment, and later, over the course of more than a year, received money from him in exchange for writing three policy papers for other clients.
According to the report, the payments to Pinkas were not made directly by Footlik but were transferred through businessman Gil Birger – who had previously also transferred payments to Eli Feldstein when Feldstein served as spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
After the matter became known Haaretz management, Pinkas was asked to attend an editorial meeting. He denied that he had written on behalf of Qatar or that messages had been dictated to him. Following the meeting, Pinkas ended his work at the newspaper, but the circumstances were not made public at the time.
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