‘Ministries failed to tackle BDS, anti-Semitism’

Hostile messages were widely received and even seeped into communities that, in the past, had unreservedly supported Israel, the report said.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
BDS logo (photo credit: BDS)
BDS logo
(photo credit: BDS)
Government ministries failed to tackle growing anti-Israel sentiment as well as rising anti-Semitism abroad, the State Comptroller’s Report said. This included the battle against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
As a result, Israel was not able to stop the overt hostility in the international community among those questioning its right to exist, according to the report.
Hostile messages were widely received and even seeped into communities that, in the past, had unreservedly supported Israel, the report said.
The task of the ministries, particularly the Foreign Ministry and the Strategic Affairs Ministry, was made more difficult by the absence of a good working relationship with the IDF spokesman’s unit, it added. Although the Foreign Ministry had 106 global offices, it failed to utilize this resource and many others.
Nor did it communicate well with the other offices involved.
The Ministry of Strategic Affairs lacked the resources to fight the BDS battle and did not make use of the assets it had. It neither used its full budget nor executed its own work plan, the comptroller’s report stated.
It also presented a long list of plans that were never implemented. They included organized campaigns, such as reaching out to religious institutions worldwide, the promotion of dialogue with leaders of moderate Muslim communities in Europe and an information campaign about Jews expelled from Arab countries.
The problem was particularly acute during 2014’s Operation Protection Edge, when Jewish communities worldwide did not receive the appropriate support to deal with anti-Israel propaganda.
By 2015, the Foreign Ministry had yet to formulate a common strategy for all Jewish organizations fighting anti-Semitism in their home country. Similarly, it did not have a plan to strengthen ties between Diaspora Jewish youth and Israel.
A plan was similarly lacking to deal with the delegitimization of Israel on college and university campuses in the United States and the United Kingdom.