A new Israeli project seeks to provide Israeli diplomats with solid public diplomacy messages to counter the BDS movement. Photo: Mohamed Ouda via Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Top Israeli legal experts came together this week to formulate a new strategy to bolster the public diplomacy efforts of Israel’s government.

The project, promoted by Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), seeks to provide Israeli diplomats with solid public diplomacy messages to counter anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement worldwide, as well as the Palestinians’ attempts to have the International Criminal Court launch a war crimes investigation against Israel over last year’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.

Hotovely, Foreign Ministry Director General Dore Gold, former chief justices Aharon Barak and Dorit Beinisch, former deputy attorney general Mike Blass, Israel Prize recipient in legal studies Prof. Ruth Lapidoth, and Hebrew University Law School Dean Prof. Yuval Shany, among others, convened Tuesday in an effort to craft talking points that could stand up to legal scrutiny in international fora where Israeli diplomats appear.

The two-hour meeting delved into legal issues pertaining to Judea and Samaria’s Jewish communities, land and human rights, rules of war, and Israel’s right to defend itself.

“We have to update Israel’s legal instruments, and to that end, Israel’s senior jurists, the best we have in the field of international law, have come together to assist the Foreign Ministry in its struggle,” Hotovely said, Israel Hayom reported.

“The State of Israel has to form a legal Iron Dome to fight international delegitimization efforts, the majority of which focus on two issues, Judea and Samaria settlements and military ethics,” she added, referencing Israel’s highly successful missile defense system.

The group of legal experts is scheduled to reconvene in the coming weeks.