In 2022, the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s Farsi-language Instagram account gained 700,000 new followers to reach a total of 1.1 million—over 90 percent of whom appear to be located in Iran itself. The account is part of Jerusalem’s vast digital-diplomacy initiative, which runs social-media accounts in 50 different languages to tell ordinary people around the world about the Jewish state. David Saranga describes these efforts:
Farsi has become the most popular language of all—even more than Hebrew and English combined. How did this happen? For one thing, unlike in other, more digitally cautious nations, Israeli diplomats can post both personal and professional content with relatively few restrictions. This openness suits a country [whose] technology and innovation are [its] greatest competitive edges. And the digital sphere is no exception—particularly when it comes to dealing with [people living under hostile regimes].
The woman behind [the] Israel-in-Persian accounts on Twitter and Instagram escaped Iran as a teenager and moved to Israel where she lives today. Persian food, holidays and Farsi are not just hobbies for her, they’re core components of her identity. . . . Both [the Arabic and Farsi accounts] create content that focuses on shared culture, music, food, and values. For Iran, this has meant postings celebrating Persian holidays like Norwuz alongside, more recently, content that publicly supports the thousands of Iranians protesting for their basic freedoms.
This approach appears to be working: in October 2022, the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs managed to conduct a poll inside Iran which revealed that over 70 percent of Iranian respondents expressed positive sentiments towards the Jewish State.
Before the latest protests, Israel in Persian covered everything from Israeli technology to Persian Jewish history to ongoing human-rights abuses of the Iranian regime. However, since the beginning of the demonstrations in September, the account has evolved into an unlikely voice for the Iranian people whose media options have never been more limited. Content today now focuses on the horrific beatings, executions, and violations perpetrated by the regime.
Read more on New York Post: https://nypost.com/2023/01/28/how-israel-is-using-digital-diplomacy-to-win-in-iran/