West European Public Relations Group for Information on Behalf of Israel

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The West European Public Relations Group for Information on Behalf of Israel was a propaganda outfit set up by Eric Moonman in the early 1970s.

Origins

In 1972 Eric Moonman was at the World Jewish Congress in Switzerland. He approached Stephen Roth, who was then director of the European Jewish Congress, and told him that changes had to be made in the way that Israel and the Jews represented themselves abroad. Roth gave him permission to start up a commission on Israel and in 1974, Moonman convened the first gathering of Jewish professionals to work out propaganda strategies.[1]

Activities and Funding

The group subsequently met twice every year, once in Europe in the summer and once in Jerusalem in the autumn. Moonman was the “the founder and guiding light” of the organisation which became the West European Public Relations Group for Information on Behalf of Israel. The group was initially funded by the World Jewish Congress which later withdrew its funding. From 1980 it was funded instead by the World Zionist Organization and from 1985 also by the Israel Foreign Ministry.[2] The group was active until at least November 1991 when the The Jerusalem Post reported on its Jerusalem meeting[3] - one of only two references to the group in the English language press.

'The group is not', reported the Jerusalem Post, 'a branch of any central organization, which as far as Moonman is concerned is "a relief". There's no servicing and there are no costs involved. "It cuts right across the formal structure."'[3] A third of the people at each of the gatherings were reportedly 'newcomers, some of whom are receiving their first exposure to the variety and scope of the problems confronting Israel and the Jewish people.'

In 1991 there were representatives from Israel and 13 European countries. 'Among the newcomers' were Benjamin Gil, the director of the Brussels headquartered Centre Europeen Juif d'Information (Ceji) and Laszlo Koranyi, President of the Budapest chapter of B'nai B'rith. While Leif Wellerop, director of the Norwegian branch office of the International Christian Embassy, was there 'for the second time'.[3]

Also mentioned in the Jerusalem Post article, was the Institute for Countering Anti-Israel Propaganda, though it is not clear if its director David Olesker attended the meeting.[3]

Notes

  1. Greer Fay Cashman, ‘Selling Israel’, The Jerusalem Post, 26 November 1990
  2. Greer Fay Cashman, ‘Selling Israel’, The Jerusalem Post, 26 November 1990
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Greer Fay Cashman, 'A Jewish guru in new Poland', The Jerusalem Post, 25 November 1991