Since October 7, certain Franco-Israeli personalities have been particularly active on social networks to defend the position of the Israeli authorities.
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Are Franco-Israeli “influencers” serving the Hebrew State’s communication strategy? Around ten of them were received a few days ago by the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, because according to the authorities, the war against Hamas is also being won online.
Among them: Julien Bahloul. The former journalist has his favorite targets: most of them belong to La France insoumise. “Mathilde Panot repeated a lie from Hamas about an Israeli strike on a hospital which would have left 500 dead, even though we know it was falsehe wants to clarify. Rima Hassan was not able to condemn Hamas even once. Danièle Obono described Hamas as resistant… It’s unbearable. And I am proud to be in front of them and to answer them every time!”he pleads.
Before specifying: “Someone has to do it. I think it has even more force if it’s someone like me, a simple civilian, who does it than if it’s a politician or the army. I don’t don’t think it’s up to the army to respond to Mathilde Panot, for example.”
“People need to understand.”
Except that Julien Bahloul is not a “simple civilian“. With his 90,000 subscribers on the X network, this former spokesperson for the Israeli army takes clearly patriotic positions: “I try to be the French-speaking voice of Israel that I would have liked to hear in the past. I would have liked the French to feel completely concerned. There are 42 French people who were killed (during the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023). There are still three French people who are hostages. People must understand that Hamas is a terrorist, Islamist, bloodthirsty organization. Yes, there is a lot of work to be done on that.”
A speech which is in line with the online communication of the authorities. One month, after the October 7 massacre, French influencers like Ingrid Cohen aka “the queen of good white blue tips”, 40,000 followers on Instagram, were invited to the kibbutzim attacked by Hamas on the edge of the Gaza Strip : “Look at the bullets, look at the shots in the wall”she detailed to her subscribers.
“It’s part of our social media strategy”
Lior Hayat, spokesperson for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, assures us: nothing is prepared. “We don’t pay them, we don’t control their message, we don’t give them a text to write. They see the atrocities with their own eyes.”he assures.
Before recognizing that this is in line with the communication from the authorities. “Through their eyes, their followers will understand our story and the story told by Israel. It’s part of our social media strategy. Journalism has changed a lot over the last decade.”
“It’s a way to reach hundreds of people, sometimes thousands, hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions, through a thought leader.”
Lior Hayat, spokesperson for the Israeli Foreign Ministryat franceinfo
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, nearly a thousand influencers of all nationalities have been approached and participate, in their own way, in Israeli propaganda.