Key Facts
Career & Education
About
Sima Vaknin-Gil (Hebrew: סימה וקנין-גיל) is a retired Israeli Brigadier General (res.) and former senior intelligence officer who served nearly four decades in military and government roles focused on intelligence, censorship, and strategic influence operations. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Middle Eastern Studies and Political Science from Tel Aviv University (1988-1990) and a Master's degree in National Security Policy Studies from the University of Haifa (2004-2005), graduating with greatest honors from the National Defense College. Her military career included service as an intelligence officer in the Israeli Air Force (IAF), holding senior positions in the IAF intelligence branch, IDF Intelligence agency (Aman), and Ministry of Defense. She was promoted to Brigadier General (Tat Aluf) in October 2011 and served as Chief Military Censor of Israel from August 2005 to August 2015, overseeing media censorship during conflicts such as the 2006 Lebanon War and Operation Protective Edge, while advocating for reforms toward greater transparency. In government service, she was Director General of Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy from December 2015 to June 2019, leading covert and overt campaigns against BDS and delegitimization efforts, including building task forces for data gathering on activists and funding trails, coordinating with pro-Israel networks abroad, initiating legislation, and managing budgets (e.g., NIS 44 million for anti-BDS in 2016). Since retiring, she founded and operates SVG Strategic Consulting Company (Impact Solutions) from September 2019, directing anti-BDS task forces, and co-founded Strategic Impact Ltd in September 2020 with Revital Yakin Krakovsky, a global strategy firm offering intelligence, influence campaigns, crisis management, and data-driven operations. She also holds various roles, including VP of Strategy and Development / Managing Director / Advisor at ISGAP (Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy), Senior Advisor at MIND Israel, member of the Board of Advisors for Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), and expert consultant at JReady. She is the sister of author and public figure Sam Vaknin. Her career has faced controversies, including accusations of injecting propaganda into news feeds, running clandestine global anti-BDS operations via front companies like Concert Together for Israel, and criticisms of the Ministry's covert influence tactics, non-disclosure of funding (e.g., grants to ISGAP), and aggressive approaches against BDS supporters.