British Jews responding to an online poll want to see a campaign to counter the negative image that Israel gets in the media.
According to the YouGov survey which had 2,018 responses:
87% agreed with a statement that “the Jewish community of Britain should run an advertising and publicity campaign to help provide information about Israel and its position when it feels that Israel or its position have been unfairly portrayed in the media.”
1% believed the British media is biased in favour of Israel
92% believed it to be biased against Israel.
98% felt the media had considerable influence in shaping public opinion of Israel.
The poll was conducted on behalf of StandUp4Israel, an organisation made up of various media professionals.
But, despite these results, YouGov warned:
"since this was a self-selecting sample survey, we cannot claim the findings to be ‘representative’ of any particular group."
Speaking to the Jewish Chronicle, Marc Cave, one of the founders said:
"We didn’t want to know what the outside world thought. The object of our research was to find out if the Jewish community agreed with StandUp4Israel."
"The results are clear. My question is now to the leaders of the community as to what they want to do. If they don’t know what to say to the British public at large, we will help."
"Whispering diplomacy has its place but it is demonstrably not working by itself. We believe that advertising has a very important role, and the response to the poll shows that there is a natural and intense pent-up frustration in the community about making the case for Israel."
Meanwhile, StandUp4Israel continues with its plans to raise £1m from the Jewish Community to buy advertising space on billboards, in the cinema and in newspapers.
On its website, is a link to a PayPal donation with the following text:
We need £4 from every Jewish person in Britain to build a campaign war chest of £1 million. This will buy a year's worth of adverts in the national press, billboards placed outside the offices of Britain's key media and political organisations, and a 60-second commercial for the cinema and internet.
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