A columnist for Haaretz was allegedly found to have received hundreds of thousands of dollars that were traced back to a Qatari government lobbyist, the Israeli newspaper reported on Saturday.
The allegations about Alon Pinkas, a political analyst and former consul general of Israel in New York, marked the third time in recent months that one of Haaretz‘s writers has been linked to the “Qatargate” scandal.
“Qatargate” refers to a probe into advisers to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—Yonatan Urich, Eli Feldstein and Israel “Srulik” Einhorn—over suspected ties to a foreign agent, bribery, money laundering and efforts to promote Qatar’s image, with Feldstein also being accused of mishandling classified Israel Defense Forces intelligence documents.
According to a report by Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster, Doha’s influence campaign sought to spread five talking points: Egypt enabled the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack by letting smuggled goods enter the Gaza Strip; Hamas leaders were based in Qatar at the request of Israel and the United States; Jerusalem asked Qatar to transfer funds to Hamas in Gaza; Qatar is militarily important to Israel and the U.S.; and Qatar, not Egypt, must mediate the hostages-for-ceasefire negotiations with Hamas terrorists.
The alleged Qatari payments to Pinkas, which continued from January 2024 through March 2025, were made through an Israeli businessman by the name of Gil Berger, who it turned out received the money from Jay Footlik, a Washington-based lobbyist for Doha, Haaretz reported.
During the period in which he received money from Berger, Pinkas wrote seven pieces in Haaretz’s English edition dealing with Qatar.
Pinkas was said to have ended his dealings with Berger once Footlik’s involvement in the Qatargate affair was reported on in Israeli media.
After reports surfaced about his ties to Footlik, Pinkas was questioned by Haaretz Editor-in-Chief Aluf Benn, the newspaper said on Saturday. The columnist told Benn that he had a friendly relationship with Footlik and helped connect him with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
In a conversation about a month later, after it became public that Pinkas had given testimony to the Israel Police, he acknowledged that he had received payment from Footlik. Pinkas denied that any messages had been dictated to him by Doha, saying the columns reflected his own views only and were based on positions of Israeli and U.S. officials.
Following the exchange, Pinkas ended his work at Haaretz. The daily did not report on the circumstances of his departure at the time, though an editorial note was added to his columns on the day he left the paper.
Last year, another person who received payment from Footlik, David Saig, wrote an anonymous column for Haaretz in which he attacked Egypt for its support of Hamas while praising Qatar, the paper said.
In October, top Haaretz journalist Chaim Levinson was dismissed after it became clear he was paid some 200,000 shekels ($63,000) by Einhorn.
Qatar, which has hosted Hamas’s leadership and has provided the organization with hundreds of millions of dollars, played a role in mediating for the freedom of hostages the terrorist group held in Gaza.
Doha has long deflected accusations of playing a double game, saying that the U.S. requested that it open a mediation channel with Hamas.
