How Israel uses ‘hasbara’ to whitewash its crimes against Palestinians

[0:00]You have probably come across this video featuring an Israeli military official claiming the army had found Hamas's list of operatives. But a closer look at the words written on the piece of paper revealed that the list was just a calendar with the days of the week written in Arabic.

[0:19]Now I want to show you an operational tunnel. By the time the truth came out the original video with its narrative based on a lie had already been viewed by millions. To deflect the criticism amid growing outrage, the Israeli army later blamed the faux pas on a 'translation error'. So, is Israel's 'distortion' of facts merely an accident? Or is it part of a calculated plan? Well, to put it simply, it is a component of Israel's state strategy, one that uses disinformation and lies to take control of the narrative. You're going to tell the whole world the real truth about Israel. I want to tell the world the truth! This Israeli practice of shaping narratives is known as 'hasbara', a Hebrew word that translates to 'explaining' and refers to Israel's public diplomacy scheme devoted to shaping public opinion, whitewashing its image and suppressing all negative commentary, especially given that Israel is no stranger to criticism given its decades-long illegal occupation of Palestine and its subjugation of Palestinians. The main objective of hasbara is to portray Israel as the victim and delegitimise Palestinians and their struggle for freedom by creating doubts about the human rights violations it seeks to deny. And because Israel has such a robust PR machine at its disposal to shape the perception of its state as well as pro-Israeli groups and lobbies around the world, it has been able to carry out military 'operations' that many deem to be 'war crimes' with near-total impunity. Israel's response to its killing of Mohammad al Durrah, who became the symbol of the Second Intifada, is an example of hasbara. The incident, which occurred on September 28, 2000, sparked global outrage and criticism of Israel. While Israel first admitted to the killing, it later retracted its admission. And in 2013, an Israeli government report claimed that Durrah had not been killed in the crossfire after all. If we can't convince them always, at least confuse them. A similar script came into play when Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in 2022. Abu Akleh's death showed to the world the dangers Palestinians face under Israeli occupation, with the international community condemning the killing. Again, Israeli authorities employed hasbara to counter growing anti-Israel sentiment. Israel's then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett first blamed Palestinian gunmen for the attack and the Israeli military later said, 'It is not possible to unequivocally determine the source of the gunfire'. However, the UN's commission on occupied Palestine conducted an independent investigation and concluded that Israeli forces had used 'lethal force without justification'. In both these instances, Israeli authorities, with the help of media organisations and pro-Israeli commentators, pushed the state's narrative in order to absolve Israel of any wrongdoing and to deny its role in the two killings. The objective is to make the world see Israel as the victim by spinning the facts and discrediting eyewitness testimonies and reports that implicate the state in its own crimes. This also means Israel refuses to engage in dialogue where their 'facts' can be challenged. Listen to this speech by Palestinian author Edward Said about the then-Israeli ambassador to the United States, Benjamin Netanyahu, who declined to debate with him on a TV set. And then he said, 'Mr Ambassador, why won't you speak to Professor Said?' He said, 'Because he wants to kill me'. And the moderator, without batting an eyelash, said, 'Oh really, tell us about it'. And then he went on about how Palestinians want to kill the Israelis and that, I mean, there wasn't any sense in which the whole thing was totally absurd. In the context of the Israel-Palestine conflict, Hasbara is essentially propaganda, primarily aimed at the West that is crucial in shaping Israel's global image. Hasbara isn't accomplished through international media only, Israeli universities, research centres and NGOs like Hasbara Fellowships and Birthright Israel regularly offer hundreds of students and influencers around the world subsidised trips to Israel to give them firsthand experiences and tools to ultimately return to their communities and campuses as pro-Israel advocates and leaders. This is finding out what life is like here. This is finding out what what the truth is in Israel and how to bring it back so we can educate others. Remember Noah Schnapp, star of 'Stranger Things'? He also visited Israel on a hasbara trip that was sponsored by Aish Global, an Israeli advocacy group. And amid Israel's current war on Palestine's Gaza, Noah was seen distributing stickers and pamphlets that glorified Zionism. There's even a hasbara handbook that contains talking points and even advises that the word 'administration' should be used instead of 'occupation' and that 'intifada' should be avoided and replaced with a 'wave of violence'. It also states that celebrity support for Israel can help to persuade people that Israel is a 'great nation'. But at the same time, it acknowledges that celebs might back away from controversial political issues for fear of having their own image tainted. When it comes to the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict, the talking point is to say that Palestinians 'left on their own accord' during the Nakba in 1948 to avoid the war. It also seeks to instil concern among Israel's supporters, claiming that the reason Israel opposes the right to return of Palestinian refugees is because their return would mean that Israelis would become a minority in their own land. Israel's multiple wars on Palestine's Gaza in the last two decades have occurred during the digital era. For Tel Aviv, the digital landscape is another battlefield and it uses hasbara as information warfare. Supporters of Palestine and the Palestinian diaspora are actively involved in organising protest movements and launching hashtag campaigns to bring the world's attention to Israel's violations of international law and human rights in occupied Palestine. To counter the Palestinian narrative and any anti-Israel content, Israel has created online blogs and has maintained an active presence on X to disseminate information faster than before and to set the tone on unfolding events as quickly as it can. Since 2010, Israeli authorities have invested millions of dollars in weaponising social media to whitewash Israel's image. The state recently spent $26 million to fund its hasbara activities in order to promote the 'legitimacy' of its war on Gaza. It has an army of volunteers that work 24/7 responding to anything that sounds remotely anti-Israel. And today I'm proud to say that we're working in many platforms, Twitter, both in Arabic and Russian and French and English, as well as the YouTube channel, as well as the blog, as well as the Flicker album, and so on. We have millions and millions of viewers just on those platforms. In order to drum up support for its ongoing military assault on besieged Gaza, Israeli authorities have, since October 7, already placed over 75 different ads on X and YouTube, like this one, and others that are more graphic, like these ads seen on Angry Birds. Even Israeli celebrities are involved in the state hasbara. Actress and former Israeli soldier Gal Gadot recently hosted a VIP screening in the US of 'Bearing Witness', a propaganda film produced by the Israeli military's Spokesperson's Unit to try to galvanise sympathy for Israel among Hollywood's elite. To sum it up, Israel essentially strives to be portrayed both as a heaven on Earth and also as a victim that deserves the world's pity and support. But both images it aspires to project are unconvincing, as numerous rights groups and a growing number of people and governments around the world are aware that Israel regularly violates human rights and international law, practices 'apartheid' against Palestinians and has committed 'war crimes'. With Palestinian journalists in Gaza sharing and talking about Israel's atrocities and violence in real-time, global support for Palestinians is growing by the day, both in the streets and online. And it's becoming harder for Israel to win a popularity contest as it continues to bomb residential buildings, hospitals and places of worship, killing thousands of innocent civilians.