Aliza Landes
Aliza Landes (b. 1987 or 1988) is an American-Israeli former Israel Defense Forces spokesperson who pioneered IDF's social media presence in 2009.[1]
Family[edit]
Her father is Richard Landes,[2] "a prominent American academic who coined the word 'Pallywood',[3] a derogatory label blending 'Palestine' with 'Hollywood'".[4]
Education[edit]
After leaving the IDF Landes earned a dual master's degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (MPP) and MIT Sloan Business School (MBA).[5]
Career[edit]
Landes has worked in the IDF in the spokesperson's unit where she founded the IDF's media department in 2009. She completed her dual master's degree, then joined Asia Times Online as Chief Marketing Officer. Landes is currently vice-president of lending at Celsius, an cryptocurrency company.[5]
IDF social media[edit]
In November 2012 The Atlantic and Tablet both ran stories on the IDF social media hub. Landes, who was 25 at the time, was featured. The IDF's forays into social media began with Landes' "brainchild', a "pet project" that gained momentum.[6][2]
Landes had already tried to interest her superiors in the IDF spokesman's office in pursuing a more pro-active and engaging social media strategy, but they did not take action until Landes' videos starting racking up significant numbers of views on YouTube, which had begun simply as a way for foreign journalists to access the videos. At first these were not intended for the public, but Landes began publicly posting routing information updates and moved onto commissioning the IDF film department to produce original video content. At the time, she was an officer on the North American press desk. During Operation Cast Lead of the Gaza War (2008–2009) Facebook and YouTube were relatively new in Israeli and not yet seen as a medium to disseminate information effectively, but rather simply as a leisure or time-wasting activity.[6][2]
In August 2009, Landes received a budget to run a new, new media operation. In January 2010, Israel dispatched emergency medical staff to Haiti after an earthquake. People sent the IDF requests for help via Twitter, which became a tool for rescue operations in addition to its use for public relations. Later that year Landes uploaded footage in near real-time from the Gaza flotilla raid, where Israel attacked six civilian ships of the Gaza Flotilla carrying humanitarian and construction supplies to the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, killing nine. Upon leaving in late 2010, Landes supervised a staff of 10 producing "polished material" in conjunction with other ministries. Even though some of the material provided "ammunition" for Israel's critics, Landes emphasized the importance of "staying in the conversation".[6][2] Landes represented the IDF at the 2011 Herzliya Conference on a panel titled "New Media as a Strategic Weapon".[7][8]
Podcasts with Carrie Keller-Lynn[edit]
Together with journalist Carrie Keller-Lynn, Landes produced two podcast series: One, Us among the Israelis covered media messaging by the Israeli government and military, among other topics.[9] Another, "Israel from Right to Left," covered Israeli civics.[10] Keller-Lynn and Landes maintain a close friendship.[7]
UNRWA/Wall Street Journal controversy[edit]
On 29 January 2024, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published an article by Carrie Keller-Lynn, "Intelligence Reveals Details of U.N. Agency Staff's Links to Oct. 7 Attack", asserted that the Journal too had reviewed a dossier intelligence reports claiming that at least 12 UNRWA employees had been involved in the October 7th attacks and that 10% of UNRWA staff had unspecified "links" to terrorist organizations.[11]
News reports included a photo (right) from an iTrek interview where the two women are hugging:
- An Al-Jazeera English report showed screenshots of multiple re-publications a photo while the narrator states "[Keller-Lynn is] seen here with an Israeli army spokesperson". Al-Jazeera showed a screenshot of the iTrek web page where the photo was published of which the headline identified Keller-Lynn and Landes. It also showed a screenshot of a tweet by Sky News Dominic Waghorn where he cites the iTrek page and asks "Is the @cjkeller8 behind WSJ report that 10 percent of UNRWA staff have Islamist links the same Carrie Keller Lynn who served in the Israeli military and is a close friend of a pioneering IDF propagandist?"[12]
- According to Brazil's Forum,(pt) Keller-Lynn is close friends "with the woman pictured"[7]
- Middle East Eye in an article republished the photo incorporating a tweet by activist Gary Spedding, part of a series where he retweets a post by journalist and media critic Sana Saeed, which also incorporates the photo. Middle East Eye also noted that X (formerly Twitter) users also commented on the friendship.[4]
References[edit]
- ↑ "The New Wave in the IDF's Social Media Strategy". i24 News English channel on YouTube. YouTube. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
at 1'00": Aliza Landes, who founded what is now the IDF social media empire
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "The 'Kids' Behind IDF's Media". Tablet (magazine). Retrieved 1 March 2024.
- ↑ Landes, Richard (24 May 2023). "The Invention of Pallywood". YouTube. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Media reports on Unrwa ties to Hamas face barrage of criticism on social media". Middle East Eye. 30 January 2024. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
Social media users on X noted that WSJ contributor Carrie Keller-Lynn is close friends with Aliza Landes, a former soldier in the Israeli military spokesperson’s office who helped boost the department's social media presence… Landes' father, Richard Allen Landes, is a prominent American academic who coined the word “pallywood”, a derogatory label blending "Palestine" with "Hollywood."
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Aliza Landes - VP, Lending at Celsius". The Org - Celsius. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Fung, Brian (20 November 2012). "Inside Israel's Social-Media Command Center". The Atlantic. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Sanz, Raphael (1 February 2024). "Quem é a "correspondente" em Israel que motivou boicote dos EUA e da França à UNRWA em Gaza" [Who is the "correspondent" in Israel who motivated the boycott of the US and France of UNRWA in Gaza]. Revista Fórum (in português). Retrieved 17 February 2024.
Há 12 anos, Aliza era apresentada como a porta-voz da IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) num seminário intitulado “Novos meios de comunicação como arma estratégica”. ("12 years ago, Aliza was presented as the spokesperson for the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) in a seminar entitled "New media as a strategic weapon"); serviu no exército israelense e manteve laços estreitos com uma ex-porta-voz governo, Aliza Landes – com quem aparece abraçada na foto ("She served in the Israeli army and maintained close ties with a former government spokeswoman, Aliza Landes - with whom she appears hugging in the photo")
- ↑ "Lt. Aliza Landes, IDF Spokespersons Unit- Herzliya Conference 2011". IPS (Institute for Policy and Strategy and the Herzliya Conference). YouTube. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
- ↑ Keller-Lynn, Carrie. "Us Among the Israelis". Us Among the Israelis. Podbean. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
- ↑ "itrek Leader Spotlight: Carrie Keller-Lynn and Aliza Landes - itrek Blog". itrek. 17 September 2020. Archived from the original on 30 January 2024. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
- ↑ Luhnow, Carrie Keller-Lynn and David. "Intelligence Reveals Details of U.N. Agency Staff's Links to Oct. 7 Attack". WSJ. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
- ↑ "Why is Israel targeting key UN agency UNRWA in Gaza? | The Listening Post (at 00':26")". Al-Jazeera English. 3 February 2024. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
This article "Aliza Landes" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Aliza Landes. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
