Iqbal Jassat
“Lying is not a vice unless it does harm. It is a very great virtue when it does good... One must lie like the devil, not timidly, not just for a time, but boldly and always. Lie, my friends, lie. I will pay you back in kind one day.” - Voltaire
Is there an attempt by Israel to co-opt certain members of South Africa’s political groups for an exercise in salvaging its battered image?
It certainly is and appears to have gone into high-gear reflecting frantic efforts to combat growing dismay and disgust within South Africa at Israel’s blatantly cruel bloodbath in the besieged Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Front organisations ranging from the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) to South African Friends of Israel (SAFI), have been busy recruiting people and members of political parties to travel to Israel in what can be best described as a campaign to bolster Hasbara.
What is Hasbara?
In simple terms, Hasbara is a sophisticated form of deception used by successive Israeli regimes as a public diplomacy strategy to whitewash its crimes.
It is a tool to not only counter factual information but also to inject false versions in the hope that manipulating narrative in Israel's favour will influence public perception.
Hasbara – Hebrew for explanation – is a public diplomacy technique which links information warfare with the strategic objectives of the Israeli state, is how TRTWorld describes it.
“Public diplomacy is to be strategically conceived as a foreign policy priority, whereby a positive image of Israel is cultivated on the world stage, especially considering the image challenges Israel has continuously faced since its creation in 1948.”
A typical example demonstrating the deployment of hasbara to conceal and shield Israel’s notorious occupation force is the targeted killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
Le Monde reminds us that when she was killed at Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank on May 11, 2022.
The occupation army initially claimed she had probably been killed by "terrorists".
Then it was changed to “caught in crossfire”.
Only later did they admit that an Israeli soldier had fired five bullets in her direction.
“Several investigations, including one by CNN, concluded that she was probably killed deliberately. Her case received exceptional publicity because of her US citizenship and renown.”
A recent Hasbara junket to Israel under the aegis of FOI undertaken by South Africa’s minority political groupings comprising the Democratic Alliance (DA), Patriotic Alliance (PA) and African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) failed to condemn Israeli racism evident in the regime’s illegal settlements, violent occupation and demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank.
Hundreds of Israeli military checkpoints to isolate Palestinians in cages behind barbed wires and the apartheid wall also failed to evoke condemnation.
Their nine representatives, including a hardcore zionist Rabbi Warren Goldstein, fulfilled an obvious Hasbara objective to rubber-stamp Israel’s denial that it is an apartheid state.
However, to their shame and humiliation, the cat was let out of the bag when FOI foolishly shot itself in the foot by announcing ahead of time that the group will testify “there was no evidence of apartheid and, to the contrary, Israel is a vibrant progressive multi-racial and multi-ethnic society, in which the rights of all citizens are protected and upheld by the rule of law.”
In a welcome statement of condemnation, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) led by Julius Malema described the DA, PA and ACDP as “agents of white imperialism and global zionist aggression”.
“They do not speak for the people of South Africa, nor do they represent the values of justice, peace, and solidarity that our anti-apartheid struggle stood for. They stand with murderers, with occupiers, with colonisers, and they do so in our name.”
Currently SAFI announced that it is proud to host a delegation of Patriotic Alliance (PA) members on what it described as a “study tour to Israel”.
Shockingly, SAFI spokesperson Bafana Modise said the trip had been organised so that PA leaders “can learn from Israel”.
Two years earlier, PA leaders Gayton McKenzie and Kenny Kunene were hosted by Israeli president Isaac Herzog in what they said was a trip to gain insight into how the country has managed to run its coalition government.
Given that Hasbara is designed to obfuscate and conceal Israeli crimes against Palestinians, be sure that none of the junkets will allow the “study tour” to witness the intensified oppression, in the Occupied West Bank.
Jewish human rights organization B’Tselem who obviously would be out of bounds from engaging or meeting with the SAFI group, has a distinct role in exposing zionist apartheid and genocidal policies within the OPT:
“Israel has begun replicating tactics and combat doctrines honed in its current offensive on Gaza. This includes increased use of airstrikes in civilian population centers, widespread and deliberate destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure, and forced displacement of civilians from areas designated by the military as combat zones. These actions suggest Israel is working toward ‘Gazafication’ of the West Bank, already implemented in the north and, according to statements by government officials, expected to spread to other parts.”
Though it is unlikely the DA or the PA will concede that their participation in white-washing zionism and the settler colonial regime’s notorious criminal policies is unethical and immoral, they will find it extremely difficult to defend their role in Hasbara.
After all, Hasbara is contrived to make people believe Israel is a “benevolent democracy” pitted against “radical Islamic terrorists”, and being forced to fight a war is justified to unleash the ferocity of military attacks on Gaza.
Iqbal Jassat is Executive Member at Media Review Network, Johannesburg
