A detailed study just released here finds that “the pro-Arab lobby in Britain has not achieved much in terms of influencing British public opinion” and that the Palestine Liberation Organization “has been unable to enlist a broad-based grassroots movement in the country.”
The study, published here by the Institute of Jewish Affairs, the research arm of the World Jewish Congress, examines 10 anti-Israel pro-Arab organizations which are active in Britain Among the groups covered by the survey are the General Union of Palestine Students, the British Anti-Zionist Organization, and the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding.
The study finds that the pro-Arab information, campaign is backed by large resources and that increasingly sophisticated propaganda techniques are being used. The PLO, for example, employs polished public relations methods to put forth its case and has even acquired the services of a professional public relations firm, “The Main Event,” to do its design and printing as well as to advise them on the type of majerials to use.
STRATEGY OF THE PRO-ARAB LOBBY
In their informational activities, the pro-Arab lobby has opted for a “soft line” as a means of gaining recruits by promoting “issues with which the British public can identify,” the study reports. As a consequence, the initial maximalist position that Israel must be replaced by a Palestinian state, has given way to efforts aimed at highlighting positive aspects of the work of the PLO, such as its factories, hospitals and schools.
Because “anti-Zionism is not a mass movement in Britain,” the study detects a strategy on the part of the pro-Arab lobby directed toward influencing policy makers and opinion formers. Even in this respect, the report notes, their success has been moderate. In Parliament, for instance the pro-Israel MPs organized in the various political parties’ Israel friendship groups, outnumber avowed pro-Arab MPs by over four to one. To date the pro-Arab lobby “has not succeeded in drawing any of the major political parties or trade unions into its camp.”
The study warns that it would be false to conclude that “there exists a monolithic pro-Arab lobby in Britain.” What the survey shows, “is that the groups which currently promote an anti-Israel pro-Arab policy are very varied in strength, motive nature and scope, and that they are potentially dangerous far beyond their actual size.”
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