It’s deploying all its resources to fight the growing world movement against the occupation.
While paranoia mounts inside Israeli policy circles about the rising
tide of nonviolent global resistance, Netanyahu has grown obsessed with
Israel’s withering image in the West. Under his guidance, the term
“delegitimization” has become a household word signifying BDS and nearly
everything done in the name of exposing Israel’s violations of
international law. And thanks to Netanyahu’s instigation,
Barack Obama has become the first American president to explicitly pledge to battle the pressure campaign.
Groping for a convenient solution to its public relations problems, the Israeli government has turned to
hasbara.
The literal meaning of this Hebrew word is “explanation,” but when put
into practice, most informed observers recognize it as propaganda. The
more the State of Israel relies on force to manage the occupation, the
more it feels compelled to deploy
hasbara. And the more Western media consumers encounter
hasbara,
the more likely they are to measure Israel’s grandiose talking points
against the routine and petty violence, shocking acts of humiliation and
repression that define its treatment of the Palestinians.
***Read article at THE Nation***
