Israel coordinates "freelance" hasbara

It appears that Israel is to coordinate this year's hasbara efforts to counter Israel Apartheid Week.  Here"s Ha'aretz:

New York City native Avi Abelow is leaving his job, his wife and four children in Efrat to visit the state of California for 10 days. His plan - and that of nearly 100 other Israelis who are boarding flights this week to 20 cities in Europe, Africa and North America - is to talk. And to talk a lot.

"This is definitely a very unique situation," says Abelow, a 37-year-old movie producer and independent advocate for Israel, whose "Israel Straight Talk" Facebook page boasts nearly 14,000 "likes." "I don't know how many other countries can have this phenomenon of people basically leaving their lives, not getting reimbursed for the time lost, and taking the time to talk about their country."

Abelow and his colleagues have been designated the "Faces of Israel" in a Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry initiative, which is deliberately timed to coincide with the eighth annual Israeli Apartheid Week in support of the Palestinian Civil Society's call for "Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions." A press release issued Wednesday by the ministry called it "anti-Israel Hate Week."

"Anti-Israel Hate Week"? I quite like anti-Israel week.

Israeli apartheid week

I have to try to redeem myself here because I missed Israeli Apartheid Week in London. Well, I missed the beginning anyway. It's not good to post mid-event but thankfully David Hillman in a comment to a post on an IAW past has given me a jog over the events in Oxford starting today:

Oxford

University of Oxford, Friday March 4- Wednesday March 9, 2011

*Friday March 4 “The Road to Justice: Boycotting Apartheid”

Speakers: Dr Karma Nabulsi and Omar Bargouti
Chair: Dr Marc Stears
Time: 8pm
Location: Nissan Lecture Theatre, St Antony’s College

Karma Nabulsi is Fellow in Politics at St Edmund Hall and University
Lecturer in International Relations. Her publications include
Traditions of War: Occupation, Resistance and the Law (OUP, 2005)

Omar Barghouti is an independent Palestinian researcher, commentator
and human rights activist and a steering committee member of the
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.
He is the author of Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: the Global
Struggle for Palestinian Rights (Haymarket, 2011)

Marc Stears is Fellow in Politics at University College and University
Lecturer in Political Theory. He is the author of Demanding Democracy:
American Radicals in Search of a New Politics (Princeton, 2010)

*Monday March 7 “Report Back from the Gaza Flotilla”

Speaker: Sarah Colborne
Time: 7:30pm
Location: Oxford Union, Gladstone Room

Sarah Colborne is the Executive Director of the Palestine Solidarity
Campaign. She was on board Mavi Marmara boat that was attacked as part
of the Gaza Flotilla convoy in 2010 and is a leading campaigner
against the siege of Gaza.

*Wednesday March 9 “The Egyptian Revolution and Palestine”

Speaker: Hussam Hamalawy
Chair: Dr. Abdel Razzaq Takriti
Time: 7:30pm
Location: Oxford Union, Gladstone Room

Hussam Hamalawy is a journalist and activist and a leading Egyptian
revolutionary voice. He publishes the popular blog www.arabawy.org
.

Abdel Razzaq Takriti is S.G. Younis Junior Research Fellow in
Political History at St Edmund Hall. His research focuses on Arab
revolutionary movements.