[wvns] Holland: The Perfect PR Disaster
The Perfect PR Disaster
From Palestine to Rotterdam
By RAMZY BAROUD
www.counterpunch.com
In Rotterdam, Holland's third largest city, thousands of Palestinians
gathered on May 5 for the annual Palestinians in Europe conference. I
too opted to participate only to witness a PR disaster, which could
have not possibly taken place at a more critical time. This article is
another attempt at self-critique and reflection, and is hardly
intended as chastisement for its own sake. I believe that time is
simply too precious to indulge in self-deception.
Despite the clear factional attitude that pervaded the conference
championed mostly by Islamists with Palestinian 'secularists' invited
as a gesture of kindness, an attitude that still saturates Palestinian
activism everywhere - the organizers were well-intended: they wished
to emphasize the centrality of the Palestinian refugees' problem and
their right of return, and to focus the international community's
attention to the ongoing humanitarian and political crises fuelled by
the US-led sanctions imposed on Palestinians in the Occupied
Territories for electing Hamas to power in January 2006.
Indeed, the organizers did their best to attract media attention by
inviting Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to speak.
Scores of Dutch journalists descended on the conference hall in
Rotterdam, where an estimated 3,000, mostly Palestinians living in
Europe attended. The Dutch government's unmerited denial of entry to
Haniyeh, coupled with the dramatic episode in which PA Sports Minister
Basem Naim was not allowed to disembark at Brussels' international
airport on his way to Rotterdam - his visa which he had earlier
obtained from the Dutch Embassy in Tel Aviv was revoked, apparently
after Israeli and American pressures. Dutch, Arab and international
media was eagerly watching and listening: every word uttered, every
banner raised and every leaflet handed out were painfully analyzed,
often leading to some outrageous conclusions. Take Haaretz and AP's
report on May 6, as an example: "Organizers said the protest was
against the occupation of the West Bank, but the posters advertising
the event advocated what could be construed as a call for the
destruction of Israel, such as 'Palestine free from the river to the
sea,' and 'Stop the 60-year-long catastrophe.'
Another headline grabber was the presence and the poignant statements
made by Former Dutch Prime Minister Dries Van Agt, who audaciously
acknowledged Holland's 'biased' pro-Israeli stances, demanding an end
to the boycott in which EU members are part and parcel. "We
automatically pardon the occupier and sanction the occupied nation,"
he told reporters at a press conference which I also attended. This
and other strong statements made by Van Agt coincided with a visit by
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to the Occupied
Territories in which he criticized the embargo; they were both
excellent indicators of positive change in Europe, though slow and
slight, but is still welcomed.
But media and PR achievements are not made by good intentions alone,
and a particularly encouraging statement by an official or two, but
the outcome of incessant, decided and preset strategy that engage in
the subject of shaping public opinion with utter care and obsession
with the details. This was hardly the case in Rotterdam.
The conference had no central message, but several messages which were
hardly related. While the conference purported to address the issue of
the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees, the key and recurring
topic of all the speeches was the sanctions. Thus literatures and
leaflets, which were sparse, spoke of one issue, while the speakers of
another.
When I requested the media package in English, I discovered there was
none: only Arabic and Dutch were available, I was told. Why hold an
international conference if the organizers are not prepared to appeal
to an international audience and speak to international media using an
international language? I was dumbfounded, if not furious.
The speakers were mostly Palestinians from the Occupied Territories,
speaking Arabic. As eloquent as they where in their own language,
their fiery words were translated into Dutch only. Neither English nor
French were apparently needed. The conference of Palestinians in
Europe lacked the contributions of some of the most brilliant and
eloquent Palestinian scholars and activists in Europe - they are
simply many but overshadowed by angry speeches of angry sounding,
Arabic speaking men - female participation was almost non-existent:
all leading to the most fantastic contribution to stereotyping Arabs,
whose culture is readily depicted by the media as man-dominated,
inherently angry and innately irrational.
Of course, the conference was not a conference at all: no papers were
submitted nor expected to be published, hardly any written material
that was at all meaningful was present, no serious or purposeful
discussion; even the 'workshops', that were announced but whose time,
place nor topic were made available, were cancelled without a mere
announcement. Potential participants roamed the conference for hours
seeking information but received none. None of the organizers seemed
to know much about anything. The disorganization and mismanagement
were flawless.
Although the publicity that was generated by Haniyeh's denied visit
and Van Agt's attendance was the perfect opportunity to present the
media with a solid case for Palestinian rights and the need for an
immediately lifting of the sanctions, the media attention that was
giddily welcomed was hardly exploited. There were almost no media
experts whatsoever, as if the object was the mere presence of
journalists, regardless of what they write and how their articles and
news reports will damage the image of Palestine and the Palestinians.
The date chosen for the conference was deliberately elected to
coincide with the country's Independence Day, when the Netherlands was
liberated from the grip of the Nazis, a bad choice by any standards
considering the hardly subtle insinuation that the Nazi occupation was
reminiscent of Israel's. Though one can indeed mitigate the
similarities, the extremely sensitive parallel, if it must be invoked
at all, should've been handled by those who possess the eloquence and
the smarts to do so. The media was simply furious, giving the
pro-Israel elements within a heyday.
Toward midday, a group of teenagers were instructed to gather in a
central point in the conference hall and wave Palestinian flags; the
euphoria eventually lead them to start running around the building,
jeering and laughing, and behind them Dutch camerapersons. The PR
disaster was now perfect as was my discontent. I hurried out of the
building seeking comfort in a large cup of strong coffee, never to
return.
Ramzy Baroud is the author of The Second Palestinian Intifada: A
Chronicle of a People's Struggle. He is also the editor-in-chief of
PalestineChronicle.com . He can be contacted at:
editor @ palestinechronicle.com
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