Graphic government campaign takes on Hamas on social networks
The campaign started last Thursday and will be live for around two weeks.
By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN
“Everyone is born free, except for Gaza’s LGBT,” reads an ad with a rainbow flag dripping with blood.The ad is one of the Strategic Affairs Ministry’s new campaign pieces, running wild on social networks throughout Europe.The campaign started last Thursday and will be live for around two weeks, according to a ministry spokeswoman. The ministry is not spending a large sum to back the posts but counting on them running virally through organic sharing.Other ads include “Hamas summer camp,” which depicts youth in Hamas military gear, and “Hey! Hamas! leave those kids alone,” with similar imagery.The campaign is running with the hashtag #FreeGazafromHamas.The Strategic Affairs Ministry has been working to better leverage social networks to combat hate and terrorism by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority in recent years. Last year, on UN Universal Children’s Day in November, the ministry and Digitell – a civic networking platform connecting pro-Israel organizations around the world – launched a large-scale social media campaign with the goal of fighting misinformation about Israel’s treatment of children in its military operations. That campaign provided evidence that children in Gaza are used for incitement, terrorism and violence.For more than a year, the ministry has been working closely with the Digitell network to help combat this type of misinformation using creative online posting.In mid-March, 100 pro-Israel bloggers and social network managers from all over the world were in Israel for a two-day Digitell seminar – the second of its kind. The seminar was meant to engage the social media leaders and provide them with tools and best practices for telling their stories on social media.According to Ido Daniel, senior director for digital strategy for the Strategic Affairs Ministry, there was a heavy focus on participants from Europe at that seminar.