Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that 400 international delegations with more than 5,000 participants will visit the Jewish state by the end of the year, as part of a new campaign to fight the widespread anti-Israel narratives in world media.
Participants will include statesmen, public figures, journalists, influencers, intellectuals and cultural and religious figures, according to Hebrew-language outlet Walla News.
On an average year, the report continued, the ministry invites only 25 delegations.
The initiative, titled “Airbridge to Israel,” is estimated to cost NIS135 million (~$40 million), and was planned on the basis of studies that demonstrated the effectiveness of invitees who get to experience Israel’s challenges in first-hand accounts, the report read.
The ministry pointed to American influencer Caitlyn Jenner who visited Israel during its 12-day war with Iran in June. Jenner’s social media posts during her stay reached millions of people worldwide, illuminating Israel in a positive light.
A bipartisan delegation of 250 lawmakers from the U.S. is slated to arrive in Israel in September, with subsequent visits of one thousand American religious leaders and a large German delegation to mark 60 years since Jerusalem and Berlin signed diplomatic relations, Walla reported.
Meanwhile, Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism held a tour on Thursday for a delegation of content creators in English and Arabic with large social media followings in the Kerem Shalom humanitarian aid crossing on the Gaza side.
The influencers were able to witness Israel’s humanitarian efforts in the Strip, which contradict Hamas’s claims about intentional starvation, according to Walla.
On July 27, the Israel Defense Forces announced a series of humanitarian measures aimed at refuting “the false claim of deliberate starvation” in Gaza, including “tactical pauses” in the war on Hamas.
While emphasizing that “combat operations have not ceased” across the Strip, the IDF said pauses in military activities would be instituted in Al-Mawasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City “every day until further notice.”
The decision to cease fighting in those areas between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. was coordinated with United Nations officials and other international organizations “following discussions regarding the matter,” it stated.
According to Amichai Chikli, the Israeli diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism minister, surging antisemitism across Europe and the United States since Oct. 7 is a modern manifestation of millennia-old, virulent Jew-hatred.
“In the past, religious blood libels led to torture, burnings at the stake and pogroms,” Chikli told JNS. “In the 20th century, horrific racist theories spawned the Holocaust.”
The same libels “are directed not at individual Jews, but at the Jewish state” today, he said. “Israel is accused of deliberate starvation, genocide against Palestinians, apartheid, colonialism and more.”
