For the first time in three and a half years, the Prime Minister’s Office appointments committee on Tuesday selected a head for the national Hasbara headquarters, appointing reserve Lt. Col. Noam Shapira. The post had remained vacant since the current government was formed, including throughout the war. The last person to hold it was Gadi Ezra, and before him, Yarden Vatikai.
Shapira is a former member of Sayeret Matkal and headed the field unit of a special section in the Operations Directorate. He received the Chief of Staff’s Outstanding Officer award for 2025. In recent years he has worked on public messaging, and under his command the “horror footage” from October 7 was released, becoming a central Israeli hasbara tool in Israel and abroad for both the Foreign Ministry and the IDF.
The selection panel included acting director general of the Prime Minister’s Office Drorit Steinmetz, National Hasbara Headquarters chief Tzipi Hotovely, a government ministry spokeswoman, and a public representative. The Prime Minister’s Office said Shapira was chosen unanimously and presented “very impressive skills.”
The appointment comes after years of criticism that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu neglected Israel’s public diplomacy by leaving both the national hasbara chief and the bureau head unfilled. Netanyahu recently appointed Hotovely, formerly Israel’s ambassador in London. On Thursday, the committee will discuss appointing a spokesman for the National Hasbara Headquarters, another long-vacant post.
