Here's how Israel can have better hasbara - opinion

• Author: DAVID S. LEVINE
• Published date: 29 September 2021

My ex-union, the PTLFC-AAUP-AFT, issued a statement in Solidarity with the Palestinian People on June 12. I resigned shortly thereafter.

The union's statement made unfounded and unsupported claims that were lies, libelous, slanderous, as well as antisemitic and racist. Even after I refuted each false statement, with links to facts and original source material, the union ignored my meticulously detailed supported claims and facts.

cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b' }).render('4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6'); });

>

The union's statement contained some of the usual tropes:

Illegal acts (war crimes) committed by Israel against defenseless civilians.

Israel targets the destruction of schools and hospitals.

Israel is an apartheid regime.

These lies live and get so much traction that even when confronted by facts, they are ignored, evidenced by recent actions of academic unions.

This is the result the Big Lie, a gross distortion or misrepresentation of the truth, used especially as a propaganda technique for political purposes. The German expression (grosse Luge) was coined by Adolf Hitler, in his 1925 book Mein Kampf, to describe the use of a lie so "colossal" that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously." (Wikipedia)

How do we combat the Big Lie? Holding more conferences/workshops, taking out ads or writing articles is not the best way to combat the Big Lie. We just end up talking to ourselves. More importantly, we do not reach a large enough audience to have any impact.

Consider this: compare the circulation of the New York Times vs. the number of social media followers of any celebrity. The Times reported a total of 7.8 million subscribers across both print and digital platforms. However, according to the Visual Capitalist's ranking of the "World's Top 50 Influencers Across Social Media Platforms," the last placed social media influencer had 134 million followers (circulation). Therefore, one social media influencer, who placed 50th on that list, has 17 times more followers/readers than The New York Times.

How does one fight the Big Lie on a battlefield that has no accountability to facts and lacks proportionality?

We need a new plan.

Hasbara (the overall public relations efforts to defend abroad the point of view of the State of Israel) must change in three broad areas: Messaging, Resources, Execution.

Messaging: Looking at the bigger picture, the...