Public relations genocide: How anti-Israel campaigns aim to isolate and defame - opinion

There are many ways to kill someone. There’s the physical means and then there is the smear and libel path, meant to decimate the reputation and good name of a person or even a nation collectively.

In the case of Israel, the defamation accusation of genocide by the IDF against the people of Gaza has failed to get traction simply because it is unprovable.

Initiated by South Africa and taken all the way to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, it fell flat when no one could effectively or credibly prosecute the case for such an outlandish assertion.

So, although the false and libelous claim has been made repeatedly by agenda-driven organizations, political leaders, and pro-Palestinian supporters, that balloon continues to deflate because there just is no substance to get it to fly.

Consequently, another tactic must be employed to perpetuate the smear against the Jewish state by those committed to its end.

The best and most effective way to promote a guilty verdict upon Israel is to isolate the country as a dangerous pariah through the means of a relentless media propaganda campaign, depicting us as heartless murderers and cruel overseers whose objective is to inflict hardship and suffering upon our Gazan neighbors. But how is that done?

Simple! Use every opportunity to castigate Israel, cutting her off from normal society by economically choking her.

Reject her goods and services meant to enhance others, because by doing so, you send a message that Israel is unworthy of any support.

This is what has systematically been done via the BDS movement, which has, for years, sought to pressure merchants and foreign venues to boycott Israeli merchandise as a punitive measure.

Now, “more than 1,000 authors have signed an open letter that calls for a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions, among them Israeli publishers, festivals, publications, and literary agencies, which, in the eyes of the signatories, have ‘remained silent observers’ in the ‘oppression of Palestinians,’” as The Jerusalem Post reported this week.

So, who are these signatories and what is their beef? Unsurprisingly, the letter was crafted by the Palestine Festival of Literature (PFL), whose website is as thin as its claims against Israel.

It reads as an angry gripe, written in Arabic and English, encouraging authors to “visit Palestine” in order to become inspired by historical sites, which will enhance their own connections.

The only problem is that it’s a little hard to promote travel to a war zone when non-stop Hezbollah rockets are being launched into Arab and Druze cities that are part of Israel.

Of course, no condemnation is forthcoming by these 1,000 signatories, who you’d think might be appalled by Muslim fire upon other Muslims.

Not a word, because they are too busy pointing the finger at the country fighting for its survival.

A social genocide

The charges of injustice only go one-way, and for these marginally well-known authors, who include Sally Rooney, Arundhati Roy, and Percival Everett, all of whom have signed onto this letter, the assertion is that no one can deny the “overwhelming injustice faced by the Palestinians.”

 Ironically, there’s a statement with which most of us can agree. The part about who is responsible for that injustice, however, is where we diverge.

They go on to say that “the current war has entered our homes and pierced our hearts.” This too rings true, but the oddity here is that no one addresses the origins of the war, which began with a savage massacre of innocent families in their communities.

Instead, the accusation of “genocide” perpetrated by Israel is mentioned, a claim PFL states as being backed by “leading expert scholars and institutions,” asserting that “Israeli officials have spoken plainly of their motivation to eliminate the population of Gaza.”

The familiar lie swaps out Hamas for “the population of Gaza,” blaming Israel for a planned genocide.

But if the claim bore any resemblance to truth, why would Israel be taking such pains to provide thousands of truckloads of humanitarian aid, while its own economy has been hit hard, to the very people it hopes to eradicate?

Why would it send out warning leaflets of imminent attacks, advising Gazans to evacuate so as not to be placed in the crossfires?

This too is unmentioned among the 1,000 signatories, whose sole agenda is to cast Israel as a bloodthirsty, colonialist entity, which has no tolerance for anyone other than Jews.

But this is belied by Israel’s multi-cultural and multi-ethnic makeup, comprised of Jews, Arabs, Druze, Christians, LGBT members, refugees, and many other diverse populations that would be unwelcome and persecuted in most neighboring countries.

What is clear is that the vile and vicious claims being made against Israel constitute an obvious and undeniable projection of radical Muslim intolerance for others.

They are supported by somewhat renowned but ignorant authors who have neither done their homework nor made the visit to Israel to check out for themselves the free, democratic society that enables Arabs to rise to the highest levels of government, judicial positions, academia, and every other segment of life.

Only a tolerant society can boast such unconditional acceptance for all, but that too escapes these uninformed social justice warriors.

It is their small-minded, petty, and unjustified outright bigotry that fuels their goal to commit a public relations genocide against Israel, categorizing the Jewish homeland as the evildoers who must be punished.

That is why a coordinated effort is being made to “intimidate all authors into withdrawing their work for consideration at Israeli publishing houses and refusing to participate in Israeli festivals.”

In short, the PFL is using coercion to threaten the literary world. They might as well be saying, “March with us or we’ll see to it that you don’t march at all.”

This despicable attempt to force their will upon an entire segment of the arts is just one in a series of planned strategies to cut off Israel, better known as “social genocide,” leaving them to languish on their own. If carried out to the max, it would affect all imports, all providers of goods and services, and all cultural efforts.

Their goal would only end in an impoverished, isolated, and despised country whose Zionist leprous lesions are avoided by all humanity.

If that doesn’t qualify as a form of genocide, what does?

The writer is a former Jerusalem elementary and middle school principal. She is also the author of Mistake-Proof Parenting, available on Amazon, based on the time-tested wisdom found in the Book of Proverbs.