The Academic Friends of Israel
Why do only 259 people "like" the Board of Deputies of
British Jews?
With over 75% of the
internet population in America on Facebook, social media is becoming more and more influential in shaping opinions
throughout the world and especially about Israel. Social media also takes up a lot of one's
time, as some of us are constantly checking
Facebook and Twitter for the latest news.
Later this month the Board
of Deputies of British Jews (BOD) will elect a new President. The role of the
Board of Deputies, which was established in 1760, is to protect Jewish life in
Great Britain. To maintain its position
as the leading representative body for Anglo-Jewry, the Board of Deputies has
like everyone else a website, a Facebook page and a Twitter account. Last summer's fighting in Gaza between Israel
and Hamas war highlighted how powerful a propaganda tool social media had
become. For example the posting by
Amnesty International UK "Gaza :
Stop the arms, Stop the killing " had
32,000 "likes" and 13,500 retweets. At the time I thought, "Wow, with all
those retweets and "likes"
this certainly gets your message out there."
With this in mind I looked at
the number of "likes" on the Facebook pages for a selection of both pro-Israel
and Pro-Palestinian organisations. The results
of my survey are certainly not a foolproof guide to their popularity and reach,
as one can "like" more than one organisation and the figures can be
massaged.
The number of
"likes" are important because if you go to a Facebook page looking
for information, a large number of "likes" could influence whether
you accept or not the information displayed on the page as correct.
If you or your organisation have a large number
of "likes" you can be a force to be reckoned with. On the other hand
if the number of "likes" on your page is minimal you are in trouble
especially if you are a large organisation.
This is what I found, it's
not a complete survey but it raises a number of questions.(figures downloaded
on 26 April 2015)
Pro-Palestinian
organisations
Palestine Solidarity
Campaign 397,000
"likes"
The Stop the War campaign 112,000
"likes"
Friends of Al Aqsa 351,000 "likes"
War on Want 29,000 "likes
"
Pro-Israel
organisations
Sussex Friends Of
Israel 14,500 "likes"
Campaign Against
antisemitism 7,100 "likes"
Zionist Federation 2,000 "likes"
Jewish Leadership Council 422 "likes"
The Board of Deputies of
British Jews 259 "likes"
My first reaction to these
figures was to question whether the figures for both the pro-Palestinian and the Anglo-Jewish organisations are genuine, as there is such a disparity
between the two. Could it be true that
only 259 people "like" the Board of Deputies and that the number of people who "like" the Palestine
Solidarity Campaign (PSC) are more than the total number of Jews in Britain.
Then I looked again at Amnesty International UK and found that they only
have 235,728
"likes".
This poses the question are the PSC's figures genuine or not? Is it realistic
to say that they have more supporters and reach than Amnesty International UK ?
If these figures are correct and the PSC has more support than Amnesty International
then we are in serious trouble- who is responsible for dealing with this? Who
should? Are the people who "like" them mainly Muslims or the general
public? I am no lover of Amnesty International but what does this say about British
society today?
According to the PSC annual
review, "The number of people ‘linking’ PSC on Facebook rose from 60,000
before summer with 18.6 million people being reached in one week alone." Was
increase in the number of "likes" solely the result of the Gaza war? If
you wanted information about Israel and the war last year you didn't go to the
Board of Deputies website but elsewhere.
Are the 259 "likes" for the Board of
Deputies a reflection of them being out of touch with Anglo Jewry and social
media? The Jewish community certainly thought last summer
that the BOD did very little to support them and Israel. Why do the Sussex
Friends of Israel, have more "likes" than the rest of the community
organisations combined? Why is it pro-Israel grassroots groups such as Sussex Friends Of Israel and the Campaign
Against Antisemitism, both of whom stepped up to the plate last summer when the
leaders of Anglo Jewry dithered, have a significant
presence on the Facebook and Twitter and
are able to react to events with direct action?
Consider this, 2,378 people
like the Facebook page of the South
African Jewish Board of Deputies. That's
nearly ten times as many as the UK in a country with only 70,000
Jews as compared to 280,000 in Britain.
When it comes to
Twitter, Anglo-Jewry seems to have got
their act together a lot better, the PSC has 20,000 followers, the BOD 6000,
the JLC 4000 and the Sussex Friends of Israel 8300.
How is it that the BOD can
have 6000 followers on Twitter and only 259 "likes" on Facebook, it
doesn't make sense? What I do know is that Facebook and Twitter are very
powerful tools when it comes to getting your message across and standing up for
Israel. Could it be something to do with the fact that the BOD's primary role
is to defend the rights of the Anglo-Jewry and Israel comes a poor second? They need to acknowledge that the two are
inextricably entwined. Maybe they also need a better understanding of how
social media works and the need to react immediately? Whatever the reason the new President of the
Board of Deputies will have his or her work cut out to ensure the BOD more actively
supports Israel on social media when the
next conflict erupts and they need more than 259 people to "like" the Board's Facebook page.
Ronnie
Fraser
Director
Academic
Friends of Israel
