Palestine Talks - AFOPA Members' Forum

Wednesday, 5 September 2018
5:30 pm 7:00 pm 17:30 19:00

Palestine Centre For Peace 60 Frome Street Adelaide, SA, 5000 Australia (map)

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Welcome to a new initiative from the Australian Friends of Palestine Association - Palestine Talks - topical talks on all things Palestine.

WHEN: Wednesday, 5 September 2018, 5:30pm
WHERE: Palestine Centre For Peace, 60 Frome St, Adelaide SA

RSVP ESSENTIAL - AFOPA members only, plus one guest. Please RSVP via form below or call 08 8232 5273 (Mon-Fri, business hours).

Learn more about Palestine Talks here >>

#PalestineTalks #AFOPAaustralia

Post-truth politics in Israel-Palestine

With Prof. Bassam Dally, University of Adelaide and AFOPA Executive Member.

In this session we will explore latest political developments on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, touch on the Israeli hasbara (“explanation”) efforts to whitewash the truth and consider future scenarios.

PRE-READING SUGGESTIONS:

US to cut $200m aid to Gaza and West Bank, BBC, 24 Aug 2018

Jerusalem embassy: Why Trump's move was not about peace, BBC, 15 May 2018

US set to announce it rejects Palestinian ‘right of return’ — TV report, The Times of Israel, 25 Aug 2018

Documentary: The Occupation of the American Mind (45 minutes)

“Narrated by Roger Waters and featuring leading observers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. media culture, the film explores how the Israeli government, the U.S. government, and the pro-Israel lobby have joined forces, often with very different motives, to shape American media coverage of the conflict in Israel's favor. From the U.S.-based public relations campaigns that emerged in the 1980s to today, the film provides a sweeping analysis of Israel's decades-long battle for the hearts, minds, and tax dollars of the American people in the face of widening international condemnation of its increasingly right-wing policies.”

Hasbara is Dead, Mondoweiss, 10 Jul 2018

“Hasbara has died. The Israeli effort to 'explain' its actions to the world– that era is over. Israel has given up trying to explain itself to fair-minded people. Because the fair-minded have all made up their minds; the slaughter in Gaza has seen to that. And Israel doesn’t think they are fair anyway. No, its explanations are reserved now for the hard-core supporters. The hasbara is pure propaganda, aimed at rallying the base. And everyone else is tuning out.”

Hasbara and the Control of Narrative as an Element of Strategy, Middle East Policy Council

“Hasbara has its roots in earlier concepts of propaganda, agitprop, and censorship. Like them, it is communication calculated to influence cognition and behavior by manipulating perceptions of a cause or position with one-sided arguments, prejudicial substance, and emotional appeals. Unlike its progenitors, however, hasbara does not seek merely to burnish or tarnish national images of concern to it or to supply information favorable to its theses. It also seeks actively to inculcate canons of political correctness in domestic and foreign media and audiences that will promote self-censorship by them. It strives thereby to decrease the willingness of audiences to consider information linked to politically unacceptable viewpoints, individuals, and groups and to inhibit the circulation of adverse information in social networks.”

Israel is prioritising PR over peace-building in the Middle East, The Conversation, 23 May 2018

“Israel clearly maintains a significant power imbalance over the Palestinians. By refusing invitations to Israel to be potential PR instruments, these artists are refusing to contribute to this power imbalance that is a such heavy obstacle to peace.”