We announced we've paid pro-Israel creators, and the internet responded

by Brian Spivak

This month, Barzel Media went public with a number we're proud of: roughly $445,000 paid out to 194 creators since January 2025, with 29 percent of them paid more than once.

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I made the announcement live on stage at the Combat Antisemitism Movement VFT summit, in front of 100 pro-Israel content creators, and I'll admit, I was nervous walking up there with that number. What I didn't expect was how many antisemites it would set off within hours of posting this.

Here's the truth: when I first looked at that number, I wasn't sure how I felt about it. It seemed large on paper, but my instinct was that we should be doing more, that it wasn't enough yet. I almost talked myself out of sharing it. But the room didn't see it that way. When I said the number out loud, the response was cheers and applause.

After I stepped off stage, a very prominent influencer came over to me. He asked if it was really true, that brands had paid us that much. I told him no, brands had paid us more than that. This number was what we had paid out to creators. That distinction seemed to land hard for him, and honestly, it's what reframed it for me too. This wasn't revenue we kept. It was money that went directly into the hands of creators who took a real risk to speak up for Israel.

Then came the online reaction, and it delivered exactly what you'd expect. Antisemitic accounts had a field day, treating the announcement as if it were some secret puppeteering operation finally exposed. Somehow announcing that we pay creators who have stood up for Israel felt, to them, like a confession. It wasn't. The reply that stuck with me was someone saying, "so you're admitting it." What they missed is the nuance that actually matters: we don't pay people to post about Israel. We pay them because they've already posted about Israel and, as a result, lost brand deals for doing so. Our brands and organizations aren't funding an abstract PR campaign. They're looking for real commercial value from these creators, working with people whose values align with theirs in exchange for outcomes that actually matter.

What surprised me more was that some pushback came from our own side. A few pro-Israel voices wanted to know what the actual results were, convinced the payouts were really just to get creators to post positively about Israel. That reaction is fair to take seriously. It's a sign we need to be clearer about what this money is actually for: providing real commercial value to brands and charities, whether that's sales for a product, leads that sign up for a service, or donations for a charity. This isn't about renting good press. It's performance work with a measurable outcome on the other end.

Despite the noise, the majority response mirrored the room at VFT. Creators commented that they had no idea an agency like this existed. Nonprofits reached out asking how they could get involved. Everyday supporters, people with no direct stake in the creator economy, shared the post just to say thank you. Creators who'd lost brand deals after October 7 and assumed that door was closed for good realized there was an ecosystem built to bring it back open.