Sagi Balasha

Sagi Balasha Photo

Career

• Sep 2016 - Present, CEO, OgenOgen - Jerusalem District, Israel

• Jan 2016 - Oct 2018 - Co-founder & CEO, Concert - Together for Israel - Tel Aviv Area, Israel

• Sep 2011 - Dec 2015 - CEO, Israeli American Council (IAC)

• Jun 2006 - Sep 2011 - VP Finance & Development, Beit Hatfutsot, Tel Aviv - Jaffa, Tel Aviv District, Israel

• Nov 2001 - Jun 2006 - Director, Budget Department Director, Budget Department, Israel Ministry of Finance (when Netanyahu was Finance Minister)

• Sep 1999 - Sep 2001, Emissary to the Volga region in Russia, The Jewish Agency for Israel

• March 2018 Israel-IS Board of Directors

Education

• The Hebrew University of Jerusalem - MA, Public Policy, 2002 - 2005

• Ben Gurion University - BA, Economics and Geography, 1996 - 1999

Activities

Sagi Balasha is one of the board members, alongside Dore Gold, Yossi Kuperwasser, the former director general of the Strategic ministry and Ehud Danoch, the former Israeli consul general in Los Angeles, of Kella Shlomo, now Concert–Together for Israel a corporation “created” by the Israeli Government, and which received ‘$37 million from the Netanyahu government, and reportedly expects to raise the same amount through international donors, from “philanthropic sources” and “pro-Israel organizations”’The funding is aimed to “implement part of the ministry’s activities related to the struggle against the phenomena of delegitimization and boycotts against the State of Israel.” According to RT, in December 2017 the Israeli Government “approved plans to dedicate $75 million to fight the international Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.” Kella Shlomo will primarily target social media and online: engagement in the online space “the opponent directs most of his conscious and moving efforts to this space,” and will conduct ‘“mass awareness activities” and organize delegations of public opinion leaders “especially those who influence non-Jews.’

Concert - Together For Israel: Balasha is credited with being the co-founder and CEO of Concert. His LinkedIn page states Concerts mission: “to counter and undermine the global Israel deligitimization movement by providing the information, coordination and tools to enable the pro-Israel community to combat the demonization and hatred towards the State of Israel and improve dramatically the country’s positive perception and standing in world public opinion.”

He attended the 3rd steering group on 10th December 2020 which discussed:

• started working in Europe
• begin working in coordination with 10+ online pro-Israel groups
• building a high-tech platform, providing info to pro-Israel groups
• building a strategy
• building global tool for media campaigns
• setting up media centers in Europe

In a blog post for the Times of Israel, Balashs stated the history of Ogen: “Ogen was founded thirty years ago as the Israel Free Loan Association, just as Israel welcomed over a million new immigrants from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union to fulfill their Zionist dreams. Sadly, dreams don’t pay bills, and the new arrivals didn’t have family wealth to anchor themselves in the land of their forefathers. With financial help from Ogen, they were able to thrive in the Jewish state.”