How Pro-Israel Groups Mobilize Media Support for the Israeli Narrative

While Israel refuses foreign journalists entry into Gaza – except for those who agree to accompany the Israeli occupation army on a tour, which many correspondents have done without any criticism of the conditions imposed on them – few voices have protested this ban. 

Israeli news site blinker.co.il recently reported that senior journalists from major newspapers in Europe and the United States: The Mirror, The Telegraph, Newsweek, and many others have joined all-expenses-paid trip by pro-Israel groups to the occupied Palestinian territories in recent months.

Israeli Propaganda

The British website Declassified recently revealed that a Jewish press association organized a trip to Israel, in which dozens of Western journalists participated, who received briefings from current ministers, former Mossad officials and soldiers who participated in the Gaza war, as part of a concerted effort to provide more biased media coverage of the Israeli narrative.

The trip, which took place last June, lasted five days and was organized by the European Israeli Press Association (EIPA) in cooperation with the American Middle East Press Association.

It is worth noting that the EIPA was founded by Israeli Rabbi Menachem Margolin in 2012, and merged with the European Jewish Association (EJA) in 2019.

Among the journalists who visited “Israel” included correspondents from the British magazine The Spectator and the American magazine Newsweek, a correspondent from the Sunday Express, as well as journalists from Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

The itinerary included meetings with Zohar Palti, the former head of the Mossad, representatives of the Israeli arms company Rafael, soldiers who participated in the Gaza war, as well as lawyer Tamar Kaplan, who represented Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and the hardline Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, who belongs to the Likud party.

According to Declassified, the EIPA offered to cover travel and accommodation costs, although it is not clear which correspondents accepted the financial support.

Posts on social media from the EIPA confirm that about 20 journalists received a briefing on the Middle East from Zohar Palti, who currently heads the military-political bureau in the Israeli Army Ministry.

Journalists on the trip were also offered the opportunity to observe the Lebanese border and receive a briefing on the current intelligence picture and the delicate situation between Israel, Hezbollah, and Iran.

The delegation of journalists also met with Israeli residents who had been evacuated from their homes near the border, before visiting Rafael for a briefing on anti-missile defense technology.

Newsweek’s London-based security correspondent Ellie Cook wrote about her visit to the Lebanese-Israeli border as part of the trip.

Declassified reported that there were no Palestinians listed as speakers on the program. Instead, journalists were presented with a one-sided view of the conflict, as seen only by Israelis.

Other days included a trip to the Erez crossing on the Gaza border, where journalists were briefed by COGAT, the Israeli Army Ministry’s unit that handles humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Israel has denied that it is restricting aid to two million Palestinians in Gaza, despite the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor seeking an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Netanyahu on charges of starving civilians as a method of warfare.

Israel promised journalists on the trip a field briefing from an officer on the Gaza border and a visit to the Yahalom Unit, responsible for underground warfare in Gaza.

Israeli Voices

Days after that trip, Marco Giannangeli, a diplomatic editor for the right-wing British newspaper The Sunday Express, wrote an article about Hamas, citing a private press release he had received from tunnel experts in the Israeli forces, according to Declassified.

He also published another article titled ‘Keir Starmer as PM would spell open season for anti-semitism warns Israeli minister’.

Gianangeli was quoting Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Chikli, who described Labour’s policies under Starmer as pro-Islamist.

In March, Chikli made headlines for telling reporters on a previous EIPA press trip that London had become the most Antisemitic capital in Europe where Jews might be attacked just for speaking Hebrew. 

GB News reported at the time that During a heated press conference with the Europe Israel Press Association, Chikli called Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez an anti-Semite and said US President Joe Biden caved into political pressure by criticizing the Israeli campaign in Gaza.

Declassified has identified 11 Spanish journalists who recently visited Israel, many of whom were from right-wing outlets in Spain, whose prime minister Pedro Sanchez recognized Palestine as a state.

Miguel Perez Pichel, a Spanish journalist writing for El Debate, wrote a number of articles about the press trip. 

Alicia Alamillos also wrote about the trip for the liberal business website El Confidencial, while the Spanish press agency Europa Press carried an interview with Chikli by journalist Ignacio Tuda. 

Tuda reported how Chikli told the EIPA journalists that “the rise of far-right parties like Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France signaled positive changes for Europe.”

Belgian journalists also attended the trip, with Vincent Georis writing about it for the business publication L’echo, and Fabrice Melchior for the liberal La Dernière Heure. Norwegian journalist Alexander Ibsen wrote for Minerva about the trip.

EIPA spokesperson Nir Natan told Declassified that “since its founding, EIPA has faithfully served hundreds of journalists, editors, commentators, broadcasters, and bloggers from leading media outlets all over Europe, and recently also from the United States.”

In response to the lack of Palestinian voices on the itinerary, EIPA said: “We do not pretend to represent the Palestinians. And the reason is quite simple—we are proud Jews concerned about Israel’s image and regretfully see that pro-Palestinian propaganda does not need our assistance”

Press Trips

The EIPA is not the first to organize such press trips, with the lobby group the British Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) having organized controversial delegations in the past.

BICOM, which was founded in 2001, has been one of the most active pro-Israel organizations in the UK in recent years, receiving millions of dollars in donations.

BICOM claims to be an independent organisation dedicated to creating a more supportive environment for Israel, but it acts as the front line for a media lobbying campaign in Britain, bombarding foreign correspondents with Israeli government statements and invitations to meet senior Israeli ministers and advisers.

For decades, Israeli advocacy groups in Australia have sent dozens of journalists and politicians to the occupied Palestinian territories.

For nearly 25 years, the New South Wales Board of Deputies has invited senior media professionals to take part in an annual study tour for journalists in “Israel.”

Four of Australia’s nine top newspaper editors have taken part in such trips: Bevan Shields, Tory Maguire, Patrick Elligett, and David King.

In addition, Guardian Australia editor Lenore Taylor, SBS managing director James Taylor, Daily Telegraph editor Ben English, and AAP CEO Lisa Davies are just some of the more than 130 names.

In contrast, last month, more than 70 media and civil society organizations signed an open letter urging Israel to grant journalists independent access to Gaza.

They noted that no independent media outlets have been allowed access to Gaza since the start of the Israeli war, increasing pressure on local journalists and creating a space for disinformation and misinformation to flourish.

“More than 100 journalists have been killed since the war began, and those who remain are working in conditions of extreme deprivation,” the groups said in the letter.

“Journalists from outside Gaza must be given independent access to Gaza so they can judge for themselves what is happening in this war — rather than being spoon-fed through a handful of organized tours by the Israeli military,” noted CPJ CEO Jody Ginsberg.