Hasbara

Western media headlines falsely accusing Hamas of beheading civilians

Hasbara (Hebrew: הַסְבָּרָה, meaning "explaining") is "Israel's" state policy of formulating and disseminating Zionist propaganda, information warfare and psyops aimed at international audiences. In addition to the Zionist government, private groups such as Christians United for Israel and StandWithUs are involved.

History

The Ministry of Hasbara was established in 1974 with future Israeli prime minister and president Shimon Peres as its leader. It was dissolved the next year, and the Foreign Affairs Ministry is now in charge of hasbara.

Hasbara as state policy

An investigation by "left" zionist think tank Molad showed that Hasbara is an official state policy of the "Israeli" government, and indeed even an institution. According to their research, hasbara starts as a department in the Prime Minister's Office. They are responsible for formulating the propaganda and clarifying a unified message. That message is then disseminated by the Foreign Ministry and IOF Spokesperson's division for initial spread.

From there, the message is picked up further down the pyramid to the National Hasbara Forum. At these forums, hasbara is further spread to allies of "Israel" so they can repeat the arguments to their respective audiences without deviation from the messaging agreed upon by the National hasbara headquarters. It is also an occasion where they can ask questions to refine the hasbara and make sure it will manipulate their audiences in the most efficient way.

The adherents to these forums are usually from civil life and not located in "Israel". They can be Christian allies, synagogues, NGOs, media outlets, think tanks, charities, public personalities and so on. Many of them are located in the United States.

With this pipeline, the message is first formulated and made coherent, and then spread at various levels to amplify it in society, all coming from a single source that controls the flow of information. Hasbara is thus not only state policy but an entire institution of the Zionist state.

Current situation

In 2002, the former Israeli Minister of Education Shulamit Aloni expressed that antisemitism and the Holocaust are frequently used to silence dissent toward Israel's policies. "When from Europe someone is criticizing Israel then we bring up the Holocaust. When in [the US] people are criticizing Israel then they are antisemitic."

In 2010, two Israeli groups, Yesha Council and My Israel, launched a course to teach participants how to edit Wikipedia articles to ensure that what is written on Israel is "Zionist in nature."

In 2011, the popular Israeli based +972 Magazine stated "Israeli advocacy is probably the most widespread and ambitious state-run propaganda effort in the world today." This same year, Arutz Sheva conducted an interview that revealed the existence of the IDF New-Media Desk, a team of soldiers dedicated to online information warfare and the dissemination of Zionist propaganda in social media. "Our goal is to provide as much information online as possible... New-Media is a new medium in order to disseminate information" said the co-founder and commander of the team. The team is located in the international communications department of the IDF Spokesperson unit. All the members of the IDF New-Media Desk are English speakers and many of them are new immigrants to Israel. This team can reach up to 100,000 volunteers on social media networks, as well as many bloggers.

In 2015, the Zionist Education Ministry started requiring all high school students to take hasbara courses before traveling abroad on school trips.

In 2017, Israel launched their official hasbara app, also known as Act.IL (also Act-IL). The launch was announced by then-Minister of Strategic Affairs, Gilad Erdan, during an event connected to New York's annual Celebrate Israel parade. The app was developed as part of the 4IL ("For Israel") digital campaign, which aimed to provide tools for pushing back on articles and social media posts critical of Israel and supportive of the boycott movement, targeting boycotts, justifying Israeli oppression, going after human rights groups and activists, promoting Israeli technology and culture, and criticizing Israeli conscientious objectors. Act.IL was shut down in March 2022, less than a year after the Strategic Affairs Ministry, which led the government's charge against the boycott movement, was folded into the Foreign Ministry.

In November 2023, the Israeli Finance Ministry boosted wartime hasbara budget by 63 million NIS (16.7 million USD). As part of the extra budget, the Foreign Ministry will receive 10 million NIS (2.7 million USD), as well as 20 million NIS (5.3 million USD) from the Diaspora Affairs Ministry. A further 33 million NIS (8.7 million USD) will be allocated to supporting civilian organizations that have been working on hasbara throughout the genocide on the Palestinian people after October 7th.