Public Relations and Nation Building

Influencing Israel

Margalit Toledano, David McKie

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136678837
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Business allgemein

All public relations emerges from particular environments, but the specific conditions of Israel offer an exceptional study of the accelerators and inhibitors of professional development in the history of a nation.

Documenting and analyzing the contribution of one profession to building one specific nation, this book tells the previously-untold story of Israeli public relations practitioners. It illustrates their often-unseen, often-unacknowledged and often-strategic shaping of the events, narratives and symbols of Israel over time and their promotion of Israel to the world. It links the profession's genesis – including the role of the Diaspora and early Zionist activists – to today's private and public sector professionals by identifying their roots in Israel's cultural, economic, media, political, and social systems. It reveals how professional communicators and leaders nurtured and valued collectivism, high consensus, solidarity, and unity over democracy and free speech. It investigates such key underpinning concepts as Hasbara and criticizes non-democratic and sometimes unethical propaganda practices. It highlights unprecedented fundraising and lobbying campaigns that forged Israeli identity internally and internationally.

In situating Israeli ideas on democracy in the context of contemporary public relations theory, Public Relations and Nation Building seeks to point ways forward for that theory, for Israel and for the public relations of many other nations.

1 Explaining the nation

Israel, Hasbara, and public relations

In April 2010, before boarding a plane at Ben Gurion Airport to fly out of Israel, we picked up a brochure called “Masbirim Israel” [Explaining Israel]. It was provided by the Israeli Ministry of Public Diplomacy or, to give it its Hebrew name, the Ministry of Hasbara and Diaspora. The ministry’s brochure invited its readers to serve as ambassadors and to “change the [negative] picture” foreigners have of Israel. Its brochure in Hebrew, as well as an internet site, www.masbirim.gov.il (in Hebrew and English), along with social media interventions and other public relations and advertising activities, formed part of the ministry’s public relations campaign to improve Israel’s image in the world. It focused on motivating Israelis who travel abroad to explain the Israeli government’s official narratives and to present Israel in a positive light to people they encounter on their travels.

The campaign presented “facts” to refute negative “myths” about Israel. It advised travellers how to be effective in their communication: by telling personal stories, by offering new perspectives, by being concise and clear, by listening to the people they meet, by using humour, and by presenting visuals (for example, a map of the Middle East showing how the tiny State of Israel sits surrounded by the larger lands of Arab countries). As an Israeli living abroad, and a Scotsman who can’t read Hebrew, we were not the target audience for the campaign but were struck by the open recruitment of citizens as public relations advocates. The ministry’s attempt to enlist a whole nation to serve as voluntary ambassadors for the State of Israel is a contemporary campaign with a long history. The Masbirim Israel campaign is not only an expression of an Israeli longing for international recognition but also a demonstration of how deeply public relations is embedded in the Israeli experience and continues to play a vital role in nation building. The Masbirim campaign at the airport introduces one of this book’s key contentions: that Israel’s past and its nation-building activities are a major part of the formation and values of the contemporary practice of public relations in the second decade of the 21st century.

Background and context

If all writing about the past is partly an effort to understand the present, a confusing and contradictory present would seem to call more insistently for historical analysis and explanation. This is particularly true for the professional and academic discipline of public relations.

(Pearson, 1992, p. 111)

In line with Pearson’s (1992) observations, this book aims to understand the roots of Israeli public relations and its development as a profession within the context of building the State of Israel. In the process, it seeks to shed light both on the history and philosophy of public relations and on the development of Israel. It contends that the story of the Israeli public relations practitioners – and their role in shaping the narratives, the discourse, the symbols, and the events of Israel’s history – has never been told. In addition, it considers how the specific nation-building challenge affected their professional identity. This is even more true of Palestinian public relations and nation building, but although that story is even less documented, it is not part of this project. Instead, see Zaharna et al. (2009).

By tracking Israeli public relations practitioners’ work within major institutions in the public and the private sectors, the book also contributes to the professional and academic field of public relations in general; to contextual research into the role of public relations in nation building; to the understanding of the different functions of public relations in different cultures; to the historical construction of public relations identities; and to considerations of the different roles public relations plays in different environments.

Explaining the nation

Hasbara and Israel

Hasbara is a Hebrew noun form of the verb le’hasbir, which means “to explain” or “to account for.” In The Lexicon of the State of Israel (Shatz & Ariel, 1998), the editors relate to Hasbara under the item “Taamula” [Propaganda] and explain it as the government of Israel’s attempt to deal with unique internal and external challenges. From this perspective, Hasbara describes a persuasive communication effort, either by the State of Israel in defence of its image externally, or in attempts to promote social integration within its borders, or to convey a social marketing message. Its usage comes from a paternalistic attitude towards a population who are assumed to require explanations to be able to understand the place of Israel in the world and the associated meaning of news items and their fit with official narratives. Hasbara stresses positive messages and unifying issues that help create a national consensus.

Shatz and Ariel (1998) identify some of the complicated tensions in Israeli society that fostered the nation’s special Hasbara system:

The security focus . . . The constant threat to the physical existence of the state obliges the individual to always trust the power of the state and its ability to deal with the challenge, not only in the state’s physical power but also in its moral justification. . . .

Absorbing the immigration . . . The values and symbols that the immigrants brought with them were diverse, according to their countries of origin. . . . The need to create a unified system of symbols, while undermining the previous system, demanded lots of flexibility . . . the integration of different values . . . is essential for the creation of national consolidation and identification with the state’s goals.

(p. 1209) [Author translation from the Hebrew, hereafter ATH]

One of The Lexicon’s two editors, Yakov Shatz, worked for the Israeli Hasbara services for over 38 years, including 18 years as the head of the Israeli Hasbara Center [Merkaz ha-Hasbara]. In an interview, Shatz (2002) made a list of all the official Israeli Hasbara institutions: the broadcasting authority (TV channel One and the radio channel Kol Israel); the Hasbara Center, the Israeli Films Service, and the educational TV channel as part of the Ministry of Education; the Government Press Office in the Prime Minister’s Office; the Government Advertising Office in the Ministry of Finance; the Hasbara division in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Israel’s diplomatic services abroad; the Hasbara division in the Ministry of Tourism; the government spokespeople; the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson; and the IDF Chief Education Officer. This is a formidable persuasion apparatus, and the length and scope of Shatz’s list indicates the importance Hasbara was accorded in the life of the nation and gives an idea of the amount of resources allocated to it.

In addition, many non-governmental institutions, such as the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency, the Histadrut [the Federation of Trade Unions], political parties, the youth movements and many non-profit organizations, use Hasbara departments to communicate with internal and external publics.

However, as demonstrated in the Masbirim Israel example, Hasbara is not the exclusive domain of organizations. Israelis have strong concerns as individuals about the image of the state and its legitimization by the world. The need to be understood and approved of is demonstrated by the Israeli television reality show Hashagrir [the Ambassador] in which in each season, during the 2005 and 2006 shows, 14 young candidates competed on a Hasbara job in the United States, and later around the world, sponsored by a non-profit Hasbara organization based in New York (www.israelatheart.com). The candidates had to prove their ability to represent Israel well abroad in realistic confrontational situations with critical audience members.

Less credulous about the impact of persuasion, in a theme that will recur throughout this book, Neiger (2005) raises the crucial question: is Israeli public relations not up to the job, or is it an identity problem rather than an image problem? Neiger (2005) suggests that “not through Hasbara – even if its spokespeople were to be good-looking and eloquent like the [young candidates of Hashagrir] – but rather through policy and action it would be possible to change the image of Israel” [ATH]. His perspective aligns with Kunczik’s (1997) conclusion that “from the research findings and the experiences of the practitioners . . . clearly the best form of image cultivation for states is for them to be democratic, to observe human rights, and to pursue policies of openness” (p. 282).

Regardless of where it is practised, public relations “emerges from a specific social hierarchy, or field of power” (Edwards, 2010, p. 205), and that context “profoundly marks the nature and identity of public relations through the interests the profession supports and the share of voice it generates for those on whose behalf it is employed” (p. 205). Best practice in image cultivation, therefore, poses problems for a nation in multiple conflicts – often entailing violence – with Arab populations within and outside Israel. This situation is compounded by over 45 years of military occupation of Palestinian territory and the denial of human rights to its Palestinian inhabitants. Moreover, in Sand’s (2009) view, “Israel cannot be described as a democratic state while it sees itself as the state of the ‘Jewish people,’ rather than as a body representing all the citizens within its recognized boundaries” (p. vii). In short, the Israeli government and Israelis struggle to sustain their claim that Israel is a democratic nation in the Middle East. These internal and external challenges to presenting Israel in a positive light contribute to the intense interest of Israelis in Hasbara, propaganda, and public relations.

Hasbara and public relations

In documenting how, over time, one specific professional community of public relations practitioners contributed to the building of one nation, we examine some distinctive features and some particular implications for the profession. Many of the implications emerged from the profession being an integral part of Israel’s nation-building endeavours; many of the features emerged from practitioner deployment of certain discourses and key words. “Hasbara” – a word often used to describe public relations – is probably the single most important term; it is both a unique feature and embodies important implications.

Few Hebrew dictionaries even mention the term “public relations” [yahasei zibur]. Shvika (1997), in Rav-Milim: The Complete New Hebrew Dictionary, explains it as follows: “Public relations: Hasbara, advertising, and propaganda on behalf of someone (a state, an institution, a public entity, public figure, and suchlike) that is intended to create positive image in public opinion” (p. 776) [ATH]. Similarly, Yatziv’s (2002) Social Lexicon refers to the term “public relations” as including “spokespeople, Hasbara, propaganda, advertising, and sometimes even various marketing tactics” (p. 83) [ATH] and continues that “[i]t is all intended to persuade the public that the product or the personality for whom public relations is being performed are preferred compared to the alternative” (p. 83). In contrast, The Hebrew–Hebrew Concise Sapir Dictionary (Avnion, 1997, p. 90), without mentioning public relations, defines the term Hasbara as:

1. providing an explanation;
2. clear, simple, easy-to-understand presentation;
3. a lecture on political position. [ATH]

The same dictionary includes the term “yahtzan” [public relations practitioner, an abbreviation that rhymes with the Hebrew word “noble,” “aristocratic”/“arrogant” (yahsan) and carries negative connotations] (Avnion, 1997, p. 362) but not “yahsai tzibur,” which is the literal translation of “public relations.”

The negative connotations may partly be attributed to simple ignorance. Many dictionaries do not include the term “public relations,” and the distinguished Academy for the Hebrew Language never discussed the term (K. Cohen, 2002). The neglect is reflected in the wider public consciousness. As late as 1993 a public opinion survey of the Israeli general population found that almost 50% of the Israelis had never heard the words “yahsei tzibur” [public relations] or “yahtzan” [public relations practitioner]. The survey performed by the Brendman Institute for Public Opinion Research was commissioned by Otot, the Israeli Advertising Association’s monthly magazine, and included 521 men and women aged over 18 within the Jewish population. Only 5% of the respondents knew that the public relations practitioner [yahtzan] connects companies with the media, 6% said it is about events and parties, 19.7% had heard the term but did not know what it stood for (summarized from Ganor, 1993, p. 10) [ATH].

Hasbara and public relations in Europe

That cultural context has commonalities with, as well as differences from, other places. The origins of the term “Hasbara,” for example, might lie in Europe: more specifically, in Germany and the Netherlands. According to scholars from those countries, the term “public relations” is used simultaneously with local terminology meaning an effort to explain.

In the Netherlands, van Ruler (2004) traces the roots of public relations to the term “voorlichting,” which is a literal translation of “enlightenment,” and notices that although the “administration as well as civil society organizations started to introduce voorlichters, specialists who travelled around to give information about health, good farming, housekeeping, education, politics, etc. . . . the elite remained sceptic[al] about this full enlightening of ordinary people” (p. 264). For van Ruler (2004), this explains why for “most of the time voorlichting was also used to show people how to conduct themselves as good citizens and to control them” (p. 264).

Van Ruler (2004) goes so far as to see the history of public relations in the Netherlands “as a history of the battle between information and emancipation on the one hand, and education and persuasion on the other hand” (pp. 264–265). Although this is “always under the (‘Dutch uncle’) dogma of ‘knowing what is best’” (p. 265), she concludes that in “theories of voorlichting the rather pedantic premise is, that it is given for the benefit of the person or group to be enlightened, even when the ‘victims’ did not want to be enlightened at all – or at least not in that way” (p. 265).

For van Ruler, the term “voorlichting” characterizes the profession of public relations in the Netherlands as “soft-selling ‘persuasion’,” but at the same time, “dialogue, negotiation and consensus-building are natural exponents of Dutch culture, which for centuries has relied on the practice of consultation and the involvement of as many people as possible in decision-making” (p. 265). Discussing the Dutch-influenced Afrikaans term for public relations, “openbare skakelwese,” Holtzhausen (2012, p. 97) also sees a distinction with the United States, where “public relations practice is increasingly interpreted as public relationships, whereas a translation of the German, Dutch, and Afrikaans terms implies work that takes place in the public sphere or work in service of the public” (p. 97; italics in the original). It is significant that this democratic part of the Dutch and other national traditions did not exist in the Jewish public sphere and was not inherited by practitioners in the State of Israel.

The German term used to describe public relations from the 1920s is Öffentlichkeitsarbeit, which means “work for the public sphere” (Bentele & Junghänel, 2004, p. 162). Th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1. Explaining the nation: Israel, Hasbara, and public relations
• 2. Public relations, history, and nation building
• 3. Shaping communication: Diaspora life and the Jewish public sphere
• 4. Determining identity: Zionist leaders as forerunners
• 5. Shaping factors: the political and media environment
• 6. Early Zionist institutions and communication practitioners
• 7. Emissaries, fundraising, and nation building
• 8. Economics, market changes, and major campaigns
• 9. Speaking on behalf of government (1): government practitioners and Hasbara
• 10. Speaking on behalf of government (2): other civil servants and military spokespeople
• 11. The emergence of private consultants
• 12. Conclusion: representing nations and influencing Israel
• References
• Index