Recent military actions in the Palestinian territories caused severe damage to Israel's public relations efforts to tell its side of the conflict. Though Foreign Ministry spokesmen stepped up their appearances in the foreign media to explain the IDF operations as responses to Palestinian violence and terror, they were unable to combat graphic images of Israeli troops operating in Palestinian homes.

"You cannot harbor and give shelter to international terrorist organizations and expect a country to just absorb these blows," Dore Gold, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, told CNN last week. But his words couldn't deflect criticism of the Bush administration, which stated that though Israeli citizens "feel a need to defend themselves, and have a right to do so," military actions in "densely populated areas… don't actually contribute to better security."

Israeli representatives around the world labeled the international reaction to Israeli actions in the West Bank and Gaza last week as a "downfall," "catastrophe" and an "unparalleled low point" for Israel's image, Yediot Aharonot reported. The portrayal of the army's incursions into Palestinian refugee camps and Ramallah apparently wiped out all public relations gains from recent months. Erased from memory were depictions of Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat as fully responsible for the Karine A weapons shipment and terrorist attacks.

According to an internal Foreign Ministry report, the international media, led by the major television networks, has shifted the focus of reporting from terrorist attacks in Israel to the suffering of Palestinian people. "The terrorist attacks are being portrayed as Palestinian responses to IDF actions," said Ophir Gandelman, who wrote the report.

The Israeli cabinet's decision to rescind Arafat's travel ban and the decision by Sharon to drop his demand for seven days of quiet before the start of negotiations could not undo the damage caused to Israel's image by television scenes of the army's actions in Ramallah. The media image of the conflict, Yediot Aharonot reported, is one of Palestinian victims battling a well-organized and well-equipped army.

A number of specific reports caused major damage to Israel's public relations efforts.

Palestinian girl - Diplomatic sources said that an Israeli Channel Two television report showing IDF soldiers operating inside Palestinian homes in a Ramallah refugee camp was particularly damaging. In footage aired over the weekend, soldiers were shown pounding down a door, causing a Palestinian woman to fall and need medical attention. Her daughter was shown crying, begging the soldiers not to break down the walls of the house. One man spoke up, saying that the family members were civilians and did not have any weapons, but soldiers told him to shut up. And in one clip, a soldier involved in the operation said, "I don't even know what we are doing here." The clip was aired with permission of the IDF Spokesman's Office.

Italian journalist - The March 13 death of well-known Italian war photographer, Raffaele Ciriello, apparently by IDF gunfire in Ramallah, marked the first time a foreign journalist was killed covering the recent violence. The IDF said it was sorry Ciriello was killed but stated it was impossible to determine if he was killed by Israeli or Palestinian gunfire. Nahal Brigade Commander Col. Yair Golan's statement seemed to blame Ciriello: "It's an unhealthy neighborhood, and journalists ... need to be careful and not move in places that are too dangerous," he said.

A French photographer was wounded in a second incident in Ramallah that day. Though eyewitness testimony later suggested that this photographer was injured as a result of an explosive device and not by Israeli gunfire, Israel's image was damaged by scenes of Ciriello lying in the street with Palestinians unable to evacuate him.

Suspected terrorist - Photographs of the killing of a would-be suicide bomber in Beit Hanina in north Jerusalem on March 8 were circulated in the media and on the Internet. The series of pictures showed the suspected bomber apprehended by police, stripped to his underwear and then seemingly "executed" by orders of Jerusalem Police Commander Mickey Levy. Officials were unable to repair the damage caused by the graphic images with their explanations that the Palestinian was only shot when he attempted to detonate his explosive belt.

Numbers on arms - Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz ordered a halt to the practice of Israeli troops writing identification numbers on the foreheads and forearms of Palestinian detainees awaiting interrogation during the army's incursion into the Tulkarm refugee camp on March 9. Sharon's spokesman Ra'anan Gissin acknowledged that numbering prisoners in such a way did not create an attractive media image, conjuring parallels of Nazi tattooing of concentration camp prisoners, however misleading. "If the idea was to convey a message of deterrence, clearly it conflicts with the desire to convey a public relations message," he told Army Radio.

Foreign Ministry spokesmen go on the offensive
According to Yediot Aharonot, diplomats responsible for Israel's information and public relations efforts, under the direction of Gideon Meir, the Foreign Ministry's deputy director general of information and communications, have been working round the clock to combat the wave of unfavorable press Israel has been receiving in the world. Spokesmen like Gold, former Ambassador to the U.S. and Sharon adviser Zalman Shoval, Aryeh Mekel and others have been sent to television studios to explain Israel's side. Ministry deputies routinely go to the scenes of terrorist attacks to brief foreign journalists.

"We are making efforts to drill into world consciousness that Israel's actions are responses to violence and Palestinian terrorism," Meir explained. "The foreign media regards the conflict as a 'cycle of violence.' Israeli spokesmen try to be assertive and force their way into all the television screens… Our problem is not in our statements, but in the pictures that get published. A picture of a tank trampling an ambulance makes public relations efforts difficult."

Political consultant Motti Morel, who created the winning election campaign for former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in 1996, won a Foreign Ministry tender last Wednesday to serve as an adviser to the Ministry on public relations issues. Morel is to advise the Ministry "how to package [Israel's] messages and market them in the world," Meir explained.

© 2001-2002 Koret Communications Ltd. All rights reserved. Terms of Use.