Defeat BDS The Non-Government Way

By Barry Shaw

Government should concentrate on international diplomacy and leave public diplomacy to non-government organizations and Zionist groups which it must help with funding.

The Israeli government has 108 delegations abroad, and plans to close 6 of them.

The 22 Arab League nations alone have 1799 delegations. Turkey has 233 delegations. That is more than double the number of Israeli missions abroad.

With its limited manpower, the Israeli government cannot cope with the added responsibility of challenging the thousands of global non-government, anti-Israel, groups that are practicing BDS and delegitimization of Israel.

It has to support non-government actors who are better able to counter the assaults against Israel’s legitimacy.

The battles taking place began, and are mainly based, in non-government circles.

The Israeli government must appreciate that BDS is a bottom up campaign by thousands of non-government groups each sharing the same anti-Israel messaging, often falsely dressed in law and human rights issues.

These groups put local domestic pressure everywhere, including academia, the media and their local and national politics.

They often use undiplomatic methods, including intimidation and lies to close down the Israeli voice.

The way to defeat BDS is by the establishment of an external non-government authority to coordinate action against BDS and delegitimzation globally.

Call it an Israeli Advocacy Kiria, if you will, a Public Diplomacy IDF.

This central authority will enlarge and coordinate the actions of existing successful support groups in Israel and abroad. It will distribute their messages and material, globally. It will help them set up branches in other countries, concentrating in the countries that are the hubs of anti-Israel demonization.

This authority will organize pro-Israel events, conferences, rallies, and academic visits independently and with the assistance of Israel’s overseas embassies.

It will send delegations to meet the public, the media, and government officials to offer an affirmative and apolitical Israel perspective insufficiently heard in any organized manner.

It will highlight the abuses of many anti-Israel NGOs being financed by overseas governments.

It will counter BDS and expose the lies and slanders of their narrative.

It will recruit local lobbyists in Western capital to persuade governments to change their immoral voting habits in United Nations chambers when it comes to anti-Israel resolutions.

It takes a network to defeat a network – and we do not have a network.

I have initiated the creation of a number of grassroots volunteer groups in various countries who are pro-active for Israel. Not all are Jewish groups. We have many Christian groups doing wonderful and brave things for Israel. 

One of our best successes has been the legal groups in countries like Britain, South Africa and now Australia and Holland. They apply the principles of local laws and regulations to offset many of the attacks against Israel and our supporters.

UK Lawyers for Israel, as an example, was effective in preventing the 2011 Gaza Flotilla ships from sailing from Pireaus, Greece, to the Gaza Strip.

Victories have been won by good  non-government organizations. We need a non-government hasbara authority to coordinate and improve their effectiveness.

Barry Shaw,

Senior Associate for Public Diplomacy,

Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.

Author of ‘BDS for IDIOTS.’

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