Hasbara

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term Hasbara ( Hebrew הַסְבָּרָה hasbará , "Declaration" or " Public Diplomacy ") describes a public relations tool used by the Government of Israel to promote positive international reporting on Israel and its political concerns.

The term is used by the Israeli government and its supporters to describe efforts to explain government policy and promote Israel in the face of negative press and fight against what they see as attempts to delegitimize Israel. Hasbara means "explanation" and is also a euphemism for propaganda .

lexicology

While Hasbara literally means "explanation", its exact import in its current usage is discussed. According to Gideon Meir, there is no "real and precise" translation of the word hasbara in English or any other language. He described it as public diplomacy , an action that is taken by all governments around the world with the growing importance and Harvard professor Joseph Nye as a soft power is called.

Hasbara has been described as "pro-Israel propaganda" and "the new user-friendly term for Israeli propaganda," but while "propaganda seeks to highlight the positive aspects of one side of a conflict, Hasbara tries to explain whether or not actions are justified." "

The historian Giora Goodman regards "Hasbara" as "propaganda" in practice and explains it this way:

The term “propaganda” acquired a derogatory meaning in the first half of the 20th century. Accordingly, British and American propagandists used "information" to describe their work, and the positive-sounding word hasbara was generally preferred in Hebrew. "Propaganda," ta'amula in Hebrew, is mostly reserved for adversaries, but the term was often used by the Zionist movement to represent their own efforts to influence the mass audience.

organization

According to a report in the New York Times in 1986, the program was founded in the 1970s to influence American companies in particular. The advertising agency Backer and Spielvogel advised the Israeli government under Carl Spielvogel , who later became the US ambassador to Slovakia under Bill Clinton . The strategy was based on the book Battleground: Fact and Fantasy in Palestine by Shmuel Katz from 1974. The program is subordinate to the Israeli Foreign Ministry .

In 2009 it became known that Israel was looking for immigrants to volunteer with foreign language skills for the program in order to counterbalance the numerous anti-Zionist websites on the Internet and present the Israeli perspective on the political conflicts.

Internet users are also specifically recruited as part of Hasbara . The Israeli Foreign Ministry will provide you with aids to argumentation and ask you to leave targeted comments with the Israeli perspective of the Middle East conflict in international media, including German-language media .

Hasbara in the media

In Israel it is a matter of dispute whether Hasbara is a means of propaganda . The journalist Reuven Ben-Schalom interprets the question in an article in the Jerusalem Post in such a way that propaganda would inevitably use lies. The Hasbara did not use this means, so it was not propaganda.

In an article for Al Jazeera , Jamil Khader, dean of Bethlehem University , attested that Hasbara had failed to develop a credible narrative during the 2014 Gaza war . As a result, there have been protests around the world against the use of the Israeli army .

Student organization

Since 2001, the Israeli Foreign Ministry has been running an international student program for the interests of Israel in cooperation with the Jewish-Orthodox private foundation Aish HaTorah (“Fire of the Torah”) with the Hasbara Fellowships . In 2007, the organization called for work on Wikipedia as well.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dr. Shivi Greenfield: Israeli Hasbara: Myths and Facts. molad.org, 2012, accessed January 24, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Rachel Shabi: Special spin body gets media on message, says Israel. January 2, 2009, accessed May 1, 2018 .
  3. ^ Nicholas John Cull, David Holbrook Culbert, David Welch: Propaganda and Mass Persuasion: A Historical Encyclopedia, 1500 to the Present . ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 978-1-57607-820-4 ( google.de [accessed on May 1, 2018]).
  4. ↑ DAN FISHER: Israeli Army belatedly Courting Media: Sets Up Tours, Issues Unrest status reports to Foreign Press . In: Los Angeles Times . January 28, 1988, ISSN  0458-3035 ( latimes.com [accessed May 1, 2018]).
  5. ^ Clifford Krauss and: WASHINGTON AT WORK; Israel's Man, Scorched Once, Adjusts To Life in the Diplomatic Minefield . ( nytimes.com [accessed May 1, 2018]).
  6. ^ Gideon Meir: What “Hasbara” Is Really All About. May 24, 2005, accessed May 1, 2018 .
  7. ↑ The Hasbara Hijack - Op-Eds - Arutz Sheva. August 10, 2014, accessed May 1, 2018 .
  8. ↑ The Hasbara Hijack - Op-Eds - Arutz Sheva. July 12, 2007, accessed May 1, 2018 .
  9. ^ Giora Goodman: “Palestine's Best” ”: The Jewish Agency's Press Relations, 1946–1947 . Editor: Indiana University Press. 2011.
  10. ^ To Help Israel Improve Public Relations . In: New York Times , June 6, 1986
  11. ^ Op-Ed: Shmuel Katz's Legacy Arutz Sheva - Israelnationalnews.com, May 22, 2008
  12. ↑ Cnaan Liphshiz: Israel recruits 'army of bloggers' to combat anti-Zionist Web sites . In: Haaretz , January 19, 2009
  13. ^ Richard Silverstein: Hasbara spam alert . Guardian.co.uk, January 9, 2009
  14. ^ Reuven Ben-Shalom: Hasbara, public diplomacy and propaganda . The Jerusalem Post, December 6, 2014
  15. ↑ Jamil Khader: The grand failure of Israeli hasbara Al Jazeera , August 22, 2014
  16. ↑ About Aish International, Aish HaTorah website, accessed July 4, 2016
  17. ↑ Gideon Meir: What hasbara is really about . Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, May 24, 2005
  18. ↑ Hasbara Fellowships Newsletter ( Memento from July 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) May 31, 2007