Suria KLCC Mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia not a mall in Gaza, Palestine
The international perception of a country’s actions are just as important as the actions themselves, with every country around the world attempting to spin an image of themselves as the open, fair, business centre. Israel has more of a PR problem than most democracies with their constant confrontations with the Palestinians, and as such it should not be a surprise that they also take propaganda seriously.
A number of groups around the world including the EU are pushing for boycotts of goods and services from companies located in illegal settlements on lands taken by Israel since 1967. As these boycotts remind people of the illegal settlements and begin to make an impact on the Israeli economy, the country is looking for ways to improve its reputation, with the latest plan recruiting students to write pro-Israel tweets and Facebook messages according to a story by Haaretz.
Under this plan, The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) will form a number of “covert units” in collaboration with the National Union of Israeli Students within seven universities. The students in these units would then post pro-Israel messages on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook without identifying themselves as on the PMO’s payroll. The PMO is reportedly looking to invest NIS 3 million (£540,000) in the project.
Another arm of Israel’s PR machine online is the official blog of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), where Israel can put forward its side of the continual conflict with the Palestinians in Gaza. The blog, as a mouthpiece for the Israeli military, regularly goes into detail about the threats of rocket attacks and how they try to minimize civilian casualties when they reply with an air-strike. These are the same propaganda tactic used by every side involved in a conflict, but on occasion the IDF Blog also moves into other areas in trying to change the narrative on Palestine, most recently in a piece entitled “What Happened to the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza?“.
The post tries to claim that life for Gaza residents in one of the most overpopulated locations on earth, where Israel controls much of what enters and exits its borders, was not as bad as regularly described in the international press. Rather than showing pictures of bombed out buildings, poor families, and goods being smuggled through underground tunnels, the article showed pictures of the beach, a luxury hotel, and “the shopping mall for the latest fashion from overseas…”. The problem with this, is that the photograph of a luxury shopping mall that they used in the gallery was not from a shopping mall in Gaza, but actually an image of the Suria KLCC Mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Mistakes can be made, and the piece has since been corrected with that bullet point and photograph removed (here is a screenshot of the original post), but with the majority of people reading blog posts in the first hours after publication, the propaganda message has been successful.
PR and propaganda are a part of the way ever country interacts with the world, but with the Israel-Palestine talks currently underway, actions on the ground may be more productive to finding peace.