Geofencing the Pews: Israel-Backed Ad Push Aims at U.S. Churches
New federal disclosures show Israel’s Foreign Ministry hired a U.S. marketing firm to run a digital influence campaign aimed at Christians in the Western United States. The filings describe plans to “geofence” church properties and Christian colleges during worship and campus hours, then deliver pro-Israel messaging to the mobile devices detected in those locations. Reported budgets range from about $3.2 million to $4.1 million, with materials also describing a traveling “Oct. 7th Experience” exhibit. These documents indicate a coordinated outreach effort, not a cyberattack, but the scope raises privacy and ethics questions that deserve clear answers.
According to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filing, the contractor, Show Faith by Works, proposes “the largest Christian Church geofencing campaign in U.S. history,” focusing on four states: California, Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado. Local reporting has already identified church lists in Arizona and Colorado and describes plans to pair geofenced ads with on-the-ground outreach to pastors and faith communities. While “thousands” of geofenced sites has circulated online, the public records explicitly confirm broad coverage of “every major church” in the target states and name dozens in initial lists; a complete rollup has not been published.
Geofencing itself is a common marketing and political technique: advertisers draw a virtual boundary around locations (like a stadium or a church), collect mobile ad identifiers seen there, and later send tailored ads to those devices. The practice is legal but controversial, especially in sensitive places such as houses of worship. Past U.S. reporting has documented similar tactics directed at Catholic parishes and political rallies, underscoring the wider privacy debate rather than a tactic unique to this campaign.
Supporters of the effort argue that targeted outreach is normal public diplomacy: Israel is seeking to communicate with an audience historically sympathetic to its security concerns and tourism industry. They note that the filing describes lawful advertising, not the collection of personally identifiable information, and that the messages emphasize Israel’s perspective on the Oct. 7 attacks and the Gaza war.
Critics see something different: a foreign-funded influence operation reaching inside churches, tracking congregants’ devices, and pushing highly charged content during worship times. They warn that geofencing faith communities could chill religious life, politicize pulpits, and normalize surveillance-style marketing in sacred spaces. Privacy advocates add that even if data are “anonymized,” device-level targeting can feel invasive to people who never opted in to receive political messaging via their phones.
What would help the public judge this campaign fairly are concrete guardrails: the exact geofences used, the categories of data retained, retention periods, opt-out mechanisms, and clear statements from participating churches about whether they coordinated with the contractor. Transparency from the firm and from Israel’s Foreign Ministry could clarify whether the program is a limited public-diplomacy effort or a precedent for deeper political micro-targeting of religious spaces.
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@1TheBrutalTruth1 Oct 2025 Copyright Disclaimer under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976: Allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research.
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