The nation of Israel is turning to a slightly unorthodox source to increase its citizens’ engagement in online public diplomacy – college students.
The Office of the Prime Minister plans on providing partial and full scholarships for students who agree to troll the Internet and post pro-Israeli statements on various social media sites.
“This is a groundbreaking project aimed at strengthening Israeli national diplomacy and adapting it to changes in information consumption,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement, according to the Associated Press.
While the pro-Israeli messages the students leave on the sites would be similar to those made by government officials, the students would not have to out themselves as a government employee while making their posts.
“Everyone who believes in the cause, and wants to join, can join,” an Israeli official told the AP.
According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, a student union will be in charge of recruiting up to 550 students from Israel’s seven universities for the project, including publicity for the project and the application process. In order to apply, students must submit a résumé, answer a questionnaire, pass translation tests that show their proficiency in languages other than English and Hebrew and pass an interview.
“The entire idea of the setup is based on activity of students and by students,” Daniel Seaman, the outgoing deputy-director general of the Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry reportedly said in a document to the government tender committee, according to Haaretz. “The idea requires that the state’s role not be highlighted and therefore it is necessary to insist on major involvement by the students themselves without any political link [or] affiliation.”
According to the AP, the Prime Minister’s Office has budgeted $778,000 for the project.
This isn’t the first time Israel has turned college students into “Internet soldiers” to promote pro-Israeli messages that combat anti-Semitism online. Just last year the National Union of Israeli Students reportedly paid Israeli college students $2,000 to spend five hours a week spreading pro-Israeli messages online.
