One of Israel’s greatest challenges is its international public representation. Israel is constantly fighting a PR war against a sometimes biased media that sees Israel as
the number one aggressor in the Middle East. The idea for “Broadcast Israel” was born as an attempt to tackle this problem.
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“Broadcast Israel” is the brainchild of a group of students from Haifa who are a part of the StandWithUs fellowship program. The project is a worldwide contest asking anyone who wishes to participate, to create a short two-minute video clip that shows a beautiful and positive side of Israel, an angle that goes beyond the Middle East conflict.
Group leader Tom Alexandron explained how he came up with the idea: “I searched the word 'Israel' on YouTube and the first six clips that came up were anti-Israeli clips, showing the conflict, showing wars, showing Israeli soldiers in a demonic way. It was horrible.
"I wasn’t surprised but I said we must make a change. There’s no second chance for a first impression. If someone lives around the world and the first images they see are negative it would be very difficult to change their mind about Israel. YouTube seemed like the perfect venue to launch a large scale international video contest that will show the sides of Israel many people don’t think about.”
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Videos can be about anything – from science and art to tourism, landscape, and innovation - as long as they don't speak about the conflict. The creator of winning video will receive two tickets for a five-day, all expense paid trip to Israel sponsored by El Al and Dan Hotels. The winner and his/her guest will be given a tour of Israel and have an opportunity to meet Israeli leaders and different members of parliament.
The contest's poster
The Broadcast Israel group also enjoyed the support of celebrated actress Moran Atias, who filmed a promotional spot for the project, the Jewish Agency, and the Mano Shipping Company.
On July 1 the students will hold a fundraiser to raise money for the project at the Sarangeti bar in Haifa. Entrance is NIS 20 and all proceeds go towards making the project's dream become a reality.
“My dream is that some child, maybe in Venezuela can type the word 'Israel' and up will come all sorts of amazing, beautiful images and clips that illustrate Israel’s contribution to the world," said Alexandron.
StandWithUs International is a non-profit organization dedicated to showing the positive aspects of Israel to the world. The StandWithUs Fellowship program is comprised of students from leading institutions in Israel who, throughout the program, are given the tools to better speak out for Israel and its policies. As a final culmination the fellows must create a project whose main goal is to improve Israel’s image.
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