New York – Anyone typing the word “Israel” on an internet search engine these days is likely to end up with results depicting war-torn Gaza Strip, courtesy of the Palestinians, the Foreign Ministry has found.
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The ministry found that if one types the word “United Kingdom” into a search engine a picture of London’s Big Ben appears; “France” results in the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and “Jordan” in scenic views of Petra; but type in “Israel” and unsightly images of bombarded housed in Gaza, or the nuclear facility in the southern city of Dimona, pop up on the screen. Not exactly vacation hotspots.
In order to combat the PR impediment, the ministry, along with the Israeli Consulate General in New York, has decided it was time to fight back: The consulate has long been spearheading various innovative PR projects and now it stands to fly seven media experts to Israel, including video and stills photographers, who will be tasked with capturing the country’s more beautiful and unfamiliar sides, on film.
The project will see the mission photograph Israel’s heritage sites, one of the Negev’s cowboy ranches, Sde Boker, Caesarea, Akko and the Galilee; as well as shoot Israel’s beaches, parks, cafés etc.
The Foreign Ministry is also trying to organize an aerial tour of Israel for the mission, so it may have a bird’s-eye view of the country’s sights.
The photos are to be loaded up to prominent websites the likes of Wikipedia, Wikimedia, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, as well as be featured in several blogs.
The Foreign Ministry will maintain the copyrights to all photos, thus making them available for public use free of charge.
“We’ve protested Google allowing photos of bombarded Gaza to be included in search results about Israel, but it has made it clear that users can upload any photo they please and that it has no control over it,” said David Saranga, Consul for Media and Public Affairs at the Consulate General of Israel in New York, who initiated the mission.
“The fact of the matter is that Israeli surfers are rather indifferent, allowing the other side to dominate the web and upload its photos to harm the Israeli narrative. That’s why we have decided to bring these experts to Israel. We want to see the internet flooded with the true images of beautiful Israel, free for anyone to use.
“The last few years have made us realize that blogs and the new media have essentially become mainstream media and we hope this mission will help open a dynamic, user-friendly, accessible third-generation porthole to Israel.”
too little too late.
better late then never !
much too little much too late
but they gotta try anyhow
They announce this initiative on Taanis Ester ! Well at least it is Adar and I am mispallel that they put beautiful pictures of Eretz HaKodesh ! Let them show that Yisrael is Artzenu ! Show before and after pictures of Kever Yosef HaTzaddik. That is very important. I am sure others will have good suggestions too.
“Palestinians” woulod be a better way to fight back. We make sure that if someone types Iran or Palestinians they get images of Mr. Pearl the Jewish journalist, showing them cutting his head off. We show photos of the train explosions in Spain. We make sure people see the massacre at Mumbai. We show the world the images they all need to see again and again. These terroist killers are fighting to make us look bad, we don’t sit and cry and defend ourselves. We kick and we punch and we smear them all over the world and show them to be the murderers and rapist they really are.
Forget too little too late.
It is not too late. How did the Gaza images get there for a simple search for “Israel??” Huh?
That’s what we make sure happens when they write Palestinians in a Google search.
who cares about image.
im sure the UN hated Israel before google was created.
Copyright pictures are not allowed on Wikimedia. They’re only allowed on the English wikipedia if there is no way to get an equivalent picture that’s free of copyright, and it’s important enough a subject that *some* picture is needed. If “the Foreign Ministry will maintain the copyrights to all photos”, then they will be deleted from Wikimedia and Wikipedia as soon as they’re uploaded.
They need to fly media experts in order to take pictures and videos?
If the government of Israel needs to fly in experts from other countries in order to find the beauty within its own country, maybe that is part of the problem.
I just googled “israel” and didn’t find anything about Gaza or bombarded houses, only neutral or positive sites. Wikipedia showed up and the goisrael tourism website.
For all the brilliant and capable PR minds in Israel, isn’t it amazing that for all these years Israeli PR has been at the bottom of the heap?
The reason for this is that it is purposefully kept weak by the likes of Peres in order that the Israeli point of view of the righteousness of their claim to the land not be too strong. Otherwise, there would be no pressure to accept demeaning treaties such as the Oslo (see Airuvin about the ohr haoslo) Excrords.
The Israeli response to any blame for killing terrorists and some terror supporting “innocent” civilians has always been extremely feeble and inept. This is to advance the Leftist agenda.
Isreali hackers and SEO experts are among the best in the world. If they had been unleashed, the current state of affairs would never have evolved. However, this is Hashem’s plan to show the bankruptcy of the anti Torah leadership.