Hasbara () is the public diplomacy of Israel. It includes mass communication, individual interaction with foreign nationals through social and traditional media, and cultural diplomacy. Organizations involved include the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, the National Public Diplomacy Directorate at the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and pro-Israel civil society organizations. Zionist organizations historically called such efforts propaganda. In the early 20th century, Nahum Sokolow introduced the term "hasbara", which literally means "explaining", into the Zionist vocabulary, while "propaganda" continued to be used alongside it. By the eve of World War II, official Zionist institutions began adopting "hasbara" in place of "propaganda" as the formal designation for these activities. Hasbara seeks to justify Israeli state actions and has been called reactive and event-driven.
Characteristics Different terms have been used to describe Israel's and other actors' efforts to reach audiences abroad. Hasbara was formally introduced to the Zionist vocabulary by Nahum Sokolow. Hasbara () has no direct English translation, but roughly means "explaining". It is a communicative strategy that "seeks to explain actions, whether or not they are justified". As it focuses on providing explanations about one's actions, hasbara has been called a "reactive and event-driven approach". Most early practitioners of what became known as hasbara were Arabic-speaking Jews who published papers in Arabic to explain Zionism's goals to Arabs. These efforts were led by Arabic-speaking Jews such as Nissim Malul, Shimon Moyal, Esther Moyal, Avraham Elmalih, and Yehuda Burla. In 2003, Ron Schleifer called hasbara "a positive-sounding synonym for 'propaganda'".
Israeli practitioners tend to label their communicative efforts public diplomacy, not hasbara. They consider a focus on "explaining" too defensive and prefer to actively determine the agenda by being less reactive and more proactive, moving to a more comprehensive, long-term strategic approach. Israeli public diplomacy encompasses different forms of communication and other forms of interaction with the public abroad. For instance, Israel engages in open and fully attributable, unidirectional mass communication that targets so far unaffiliated civil populations in other countries (sometimes defined as "external communication"), both via social media and traditional mass media. The Israeli government uses this type of communication especially to depict Israel positively (a communication strategy Hirschberger calls "branding"). The Israeli government and pro-Israeli groups also use interventive communication to counter what they see as attempts at delegitimisation of Israel, e.g., in the context of BDS. The Israeli government also engages in activities beyond communicative efforts in social media and the traditional mass media, e.g., in the form of cultural diplomacy. The communicative efforts of pro-Israeli civil society groups are partially also called "advocacy".
Edward Said wrote in 2001 that hasbara methods used during the Second Intifada included lunches and free trips for influential journalists; seminars for Jewish university students; invitations to members of Congress; pamphlets and money for election campaigns; telling photographers and writers what to photograph or write about; lecture and concert tours by prominent Israelis; frequent references to the Holocaust; and newspaper advertisements attacking Arabs and praising Israel.
In 2012, the Israeli Foreign Ministry published new guidelines on the appropriate use of social media methods by its diplomatic staff. This was prompted by multiple embarrassing and inappropriate tweets and posts by Israeli diplomats, such as one instance when the Israeli embassy in Dublin used its Twitter account to disparage Knesset member Haneen Zoabi over remarks she had made while visiting Ireland. After these incidents, Foreign Ministry Digital Diplomacy Department head Yoram Murad sent out a message to Israeli diplomats titled "What is the difference between a press briefing and a tweet?", the first sentence of which read, "As far as you're concerned, there is no difference".
Sources for disseminating information Various branches of the Israeli government as well as pro-Israeli civil society organizations engage in public diplomacy efforts. The Spokesperson's Unit of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) plays a central role in the Israeli government's public diplomacy. The IDF's English-language Facebook page is one of the most-followed army social media pages worldwide. The unit has become Israel's largest spokesperson unit, with more than 400 officers, civilians and soldiers. There is also a reserve unit of almost 1,200 soldiers and officers. As of 2017, the unit has 15 staff members that are responsible only for the IDF's social media platforms to reach audiences abroad. As of 2015, the IDF is active on 30 different social media platforms.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the IDF unit responsible for coordination and liaison with the Palestinian Authority, has a spokesperson's unit of its own as well as its own social media channels in English and Arabic. Within the Israeli Prime Minister's Office (PMO), the Government Press Office (GPO), the Public Diplomacy Directorate and the National Information Directorate are involved in public diplomacy efforts. The National Information Directorate is in charge of coordinating "the public diplomacy activities of various governmental bodies in foreign and security affairs, and on socioeconomic issues". The Public Diplomacy Directorate is responsible for communicating the prime minister's and the government's policies and decisions. The directorate is headed by the prime minister's media advisor.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) executes foreign public diplomacy primarily through its Public Diplomacy Directorate. The directorate is organized into three main divisions: Media and Public Affairs, Cultural Affairs and Scientific Cooperation, and the Bureau for Religious Affairs and Relations with the Jewish Diaspora. Within the Media and Public Affairs Division, specialized departments handle distinct operational areas, including nation branding, intelligence gathering, visual media production, global mission policy briefings, and press relations via the spokesperson's bureau. The division also includes departments dedicated to academic outreach and civil society engagement, with a primary focus on countering the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. International online communications and social media operations are managed by the ministry's Digital Diplomacy Department.
Various pro-Israel civil society organizations and initiatives in Israel and abroad support Israeli public diplomacy efforts. Prominent examples are StandWithUs, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Christians United for Israel (CUFI), the Israel on Campus Coalition, the AMCHA Initiative, and The David Project. In 2010, the Israeli Ministry of Information and Diaspora Affairs launched the PR campaign "Masbirim Israel". The campaign intended to encourage Israeli citizens to contribute to improving Israel's image by talking with their international contacts about the country.
In the United States
According to The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, major American Jewish organizations have played a significant role in advancing an Israeli state narrative to the American public. They quote Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler, former chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, saying: "The Presidents' Conference and its members have been instruments of official governmental Israeli policy. It was seen as our task to receive directions from government circles and to do our best no matter what to affect the Jewish community." Similarly, they quote Hyman Bookbinder, a high-ranking official of the American Jewish Committee, as saying: "Unless something is terribly pressing, really critical or fundamental, you parrot Israel's line in order to retain American support. As American Jews, we don't go around saying Israel is wrong about its policies."
According to Shivi Greenfield and Nachman Shai, the Israeli government (particularly the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the former Ministry of Public Diplomacy & Diaspora Affairs, and the Ministry of Tourism) has worked with various Israeli and international non-government organizations to promote Israeli public diplomacy within the global Jewish diaspora and international community. Notable Israeli NGOs involved in public diplomacy have included the Jewish Agency for Israel, Israel Project, HonestReporting, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), and Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). The Israeli government has also partnered with several Jewish and Christian Zionist NGOs in the U.S. and abroad, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), American Jewish Committee (AJC), the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), and the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA).
According to Greenfield and Shai, the Israeli government and sympathetic NGOs, including Hillel International, B'nai B'rith, Israel at Heart, and StandWithUs, have sought to promote sympathy for Israel among university students through study tours (such as Birthright Israel and Masa Israel), talks, meetings, distributing educational materials, distributing educational materials, gift packages, fundraising, and blood donations. These campus outreaches seek to strengthen ties between Israel and the Jewish diaspora and support Jewish students' efforts to combat so-called "anti-Israel" activism on campus such as Israeli Apartheid Week. Shai identifies the "Israel on Campus Coalition" as the umbrella organization for most pro-Israel American campus organizations. It is funded by the Schusterman Foundation and Hillel.
Israeli officials have emphasized the importance of molding American public opinion to influence U.S. foreign policy favorably toward Israel. For example, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said, "In the last 30 years, I appeared innumerable times in the American media and met thousands of American leaders. I developed a certain ability to influence public opinion." Netanyahu said this in the context of the Israeli government's decade-long effort to pressure for military action against Iran. He added that this "is the most important thing: the ability to sway public opinion in the United States against the regime in Iran."
In Australia According to Shahar Burla, the Israeli Foreign and Public Diplomacy ministries worked with local Australian Jewish community and Zionist organizations such as the local chapter of the United Israel Appeal, the Australasian Union of Jewish Students, the Zionist Council of New South Wales, and the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies to mobilize Australian Jews into supporting Israeli hasbara efforts during the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid. The Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs established a "Communications Room" to circulate pro-Israel information to the global Jewish diaspora via email, websites, traditional media, meetings, and demonstrations. Pro-Israel sympathizers were encouraged to share pro-Israel videos and articles on social media platforms, respond to blogs and TV shows, and write editorial letters.
History
19th century – 1948