In January, Mara Kronenfeld, who runs UNRWA USA—a nonprofit that helps raise money for Palestinian refugees—was shocked by what she found online. When she Googled her organization’s name, she saw ads that looked like they came from the UN, but when she clicked on them, they led to an Israeli government website. It turned out that Israel was running a secret online ad campaign to discredit UNRWA, the organization UNRWA USA supports.

This ad campaign started around the same time Israel accused several UNRWA staffers of being involved in a deadly Hamas attack. Israel claimed that UNRWA was too close to Hamas and urged other countries, like the US, to stop funding it. Kronenfeld believed that this campaign was also aimed at reducing donations to UNRWA USA.

Interestingly, donations to UNRWA USA had soared after Israel’s recent actions in Gaza. In 2023, the organization raised over $32 million from about 73,000 donors, compared to $5 million from 5,700 donors the previous year. Th...