SKDK, a PR Firm Registered as a Foreign Agent for Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Crafted UCLA’s Media Responses to Encampments

LOS ANGELES — UCLA hired SKDK, a public relations firm that formally registered in February 2025 as a foreign agent for Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to craft the university’s media responses to encampments, strikes and other demonstrations, documents obtained through the California Public Records Act reveal.

The records show SKDK was deeply involved in shaping UCLA’s responses to the Gaza solidarity encampment, the Sukkot protests, UAW strikes and other campus actions—often positioning student and faculty dissent as illegitimate or antisemitic.

Internal correspondence indicates SKDK handled everything from drafting media statements to contacting major outlets on UCLA’s behalf. A Media Relations official even noted with satisfaction that the Daily Bruin’s coverage “hew[ed] closely” to SKDK-prepared talking points, showing the degree to which UCLA’s student newspaper was echoing administration messaging.

While the exact contract value with SKDK remains undisclosed, a similar UCLA contract shows the university has paid upwards of $100,000 for outside PR services, making it reasonable to assume a comparable arrangement here.

The firm’s dual role raises deeper concerns. SKDK manages media outreach for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, which required its registration as a foreign agent. On behalf of the ministry, SKDK has pitched stories to the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, NBC, ABC, and NewsNation. SKDK also works on the so-called “10/7 Project,” an initiative backed by AIPAC and other pro-genocide organizations, that aims to attack journalists and get them fired when they do not align their reporting with Israel’s narrative of the genocide, and to make Israel’s unpopular genocide more palatable to Americans.

SKDK’s senior ranks include former Biden administration officials—such as Vedant Patel, once a key State Department spokesperson who concealed Israeli crimes and lied about the ongoing genocide, and who now operates from inside the firm as senior vice president.

At UCLA, the effect has been clear: SKDK repeatedly framed peaceful protest as dangerous antisemitism, even branding Jewish-led demonstrations such as the Sukkot protest as antisemitic. This framing was then amplified through university channels and echoed in Congress, where officials repeated the false claim that protesters had blocked Jewish students from accessing campus.

The documents suggest UCLA is not simply seeking outside PR support but partnering with a firm whose core mission is aligned with Israel’s disinformation campaigns. By employing SKDK, UCLA has entwined its communications strategy with a registered foreign agent intent on discrediting pro-Palestine voices and legitimizing repression of dissent.