SEMINARS Passia Seminar 1999 Media and Communication Skills

 

 

 

Public Relations: Experiences from Palestine

 

Dr. Albert Aghazarian[1]

 

 

 

What exactly constitutes public relations? Suppose that thugs attack an institution. The director might hide under the table, but the PR person will go out there and get knifed, even though a week later in the ceremony to mark the ‘glorious triumph’ the boss will get all the credit. A good PR per­son never challenges the authority, not because he or she is a coward, but because PR means supporting the system.

 

Being in a second line acting position actually has some advantages. In life, I have learned that one can be creative or one can follow the ground rules and that creative people, Mahmoud Darwish for example, usually ignore ground rules. I think one of the essences of PR is tafseel, which has two meanings in Arabic: to go into detail, and to tailor or cut according to the shape. Public relations is not one size fits all, which is why I did not come here with a written text and why, based on a certain expression, or some­thing that is said, I might change the whole course of my presenta­tion.

 

Detail is vitally important. We just held an international conference that could match anything held elsewhere in the world, and the secret of its success was detail. Detail means you have to calculate everything: if we are sitting here and we are smoking, we have to calculate that after half an hour there will be too much smoke in the room; if I am sitting here being interviewed for the TV, we have to consider the view behind me and whether it is fitting or not. At least 60 percent of the success of a confer­ence can usually be attributed to the little things that constitute the outside appearance. It is extremely important to go into as much detail as you can.

 

Public relations is not just a craft, it is a vision, a philosophy of life. You are all aware of the political trends in Palestinian society and you know I am a civil servant in my official function, which means I am like a bus operator who tells you that the first bus leaves at 8.05, the first stop is at 8.20, it costs 1 NIS per passenger, the bus is clean and insured, and I do not care a damn who boards that bus as long as the conditions are met. The truth of the matter is, we cannot build a civil society without having civil servants. Of course, I have my ideas, but in my official capacity, I am primarily a civil servant carrying out my tasks.

 

Having said that, there are times when people resort to violent methods and one has to stop and be prepared to fight, and fight brutally if need be. Currently, my only problem is with certain self-righteous people from the left; I am saying this against the background of an angry incident during which they held an Israeli team for almost three hours, which was totally unacceptable. Basically, it was one student who was responsible for something that could have resulted in Israeli or Palestinian forces entering the university and the destruction of the entire establishment, regardless of the fact that the future of our society lies in the Law Center at Birzeit, which is not a faculty of law, but the backbone of legislation in Palestine.

 

I think that in Arab society in general and Palestinian society in particular, there are three prevailing viruses, the first of which is stardom. In my expe­rience, nothing affects one’s behavior as much as fame, especially through the TV. Margaret Thatcher spent over two hours sitting in my house, but so what? When I was through with her I went to a coffeehouse at Jaffa Gate and sat playing cards with taxi drivers, and I enjoyed it just as much. The beauty of PR is that you deal with the manager and cleaners of a place with almost an equal rhythm and equal respect.

 

The second virus in Palestinian society is ‘shopocracy’ (the rule of shops), meaning it is fashionable today for a charismatic character to come up with a charismatic project which then revolves around that one particular per­son. The project could be implemented well and be of great value, or it could be implemented badly and be of no value whatsoever, but people accept it because of who is in charge. If, at Birzeit today, all the work has stopped because I am here lecturing at PASSIA, then I am doing a lousy job. If, on the other hand, someone is taking care of everything, that is an indication that I am doing my job well.

 

The third virus is ‘bickering’. Suppose I want something from Jordan TV and I go to Rami Khouri and somewhere there says, “Rami Khouri is noth­ing, you should deal with me”; by saying this, he is acting in a way that is selfish and clearly not in the best interests of his organization.

 

I know a lady who is the leading expert in the world on Burmese emeralds, and this woman used to enter the jungles of Africa and give a child a chocolate or cake and receive a crude emerald in return. I once asked her, “Suppose I wanted to join you in the jet-set world and deal with diamonds, would you allow me?” She told me that first she would need to see my breaking point, going on to say that people, like gems, all have breaking points. She said there are people who will run away with 50 dollars or a tiny diamond and there are those who will only consider running away with a million dollars or a huge and flawless diamond, but there is no one who, at some point or another, will not think of stealing. I absolutely agree.

 

I then asked the woman if she experiences any differences in her dealings with people of different cultures. “Sure,” she said, “the most practical peo­ple to deal with are the English, who know what they want, have an idea of the price, and are keen to make the sale. With the French, on the other hand, you have to endure a three-hour dinner before any mention of the business at hand is even made. With Arabs, it is a game; first of all the Arab will only be interested in what is being sold if he is interested in the seller, and from then on it is nothing but a game. As for the Japanese, you have to practically throw them on the floor and say let us make a deal.” I did not really understand what she meant until I was once sitting next to an Arabic-speaking senior Japanese diplomat during a dinner in Jakarta, and I mentioned what this woman had said about the Japanese. At first, he said that he did not know what the woman was talking about, but a few drinks later, he said something along the lines of, “Look, you want to sell me some napkins, take your money, and go home. As a Japanese businessman, I will ask you, how many napkins can you produce and how many boxes do you have now? Then, when you tell me that you have a truckload, I will buy the whole truckload there on the spot but whilst telling you that you have no right to sell to anyone else. In other words, I sort of hijack your decision-making process. Moreover, I will allow you to cheat once, but never twice.” It is quite amazing to consider the differences, not only between cultures but also between people. I would add at this point that it is very important to treat everyone as an individual. I often forget faces, but I would never admit to it or say, “I recognize your face, but I cannot remember your name.”

 

I was once very determined to visit Iraq but was keen to wait for an oppor­tunity to go there without being associated with the dictator. So, I went in 1992 to a conference and made the discovery that the Iraqi people is a people that displays the peak of humanity and civilization and the peak of cruelty. What I mean is that if you approach an Iraqi in the proper manner, he will give you the last piece of bread in his house and starve to death himself, whereas if you make him hate you, he could slaughter you without batting an eyelid. The other day someone hit my car from the back and immediately turned around and started yelling that I was responsible for the accident; two minutes later, he was helping me to push the car in the rain, simply because I had responded to him in what I con­sidered to be the most appropriate manner.

 

Three elements should exist in any operation. To begin with, one should be aware – and here I mean employers and employees alike – that there are punishments and rewards. Second, there should be respect. Third, and more important than the other two, one should be aware that in order to earn respect, one has to improve one’s knowledge.

 

Certain people look for comfort and pleasure whilst others enjoy intensity. Personally, I am at my best when I am under pressure and I feel more vi­talized. For example, I headed the Palestinian peace center at the Madrid Peace Conference and, despite working 20 hours a day, never felt tired, even though I slept for 14 hours when everything was over. Yasser Arafat, even at his age, does an incredible amount of traveling, and I truly believe that, putting aside our political positions, we are not doing much compared to him.

 

If you want to be the president of your organization, look for another job. Pub­lic relations is a supporting job, a logistics job, and you should never claim to know more than your boss nor say “I told you but you did not listen or implement what I told you to implement”; you are in his service and he will allow you to do what you want only if you make this very clear to him. Look at Arafat for example. Even when surrounded by thugs, he makes it very clear that he is the boss, which means should I decide to go and tell him that he need to build a strong civil society, I have to leave no doubt in his mind that I consider him our beloved leader.

 

I personally believe that Birzeit is an experiment in civil society, and one that has succeeded; the Islamic groups have been incorporated within the system and we are making it very clear to the Authority that we can be of most help if we are allowed to maintain our relative autonomy. I have al­ways appreciated the relationship between the BBC and the British gov­ernment: the BBC is an independent body that, in spite of getting its money from the British Government, does not wait for instructions from the office of Mr. Tony Blair when it comes to preparing the news or an editorial; the people that work there do so in the knowledge that although the choice of topics is up to them, their choice inevitably serves British interests and promotes the British image. 

 

With regard to the issue of human rights, frankly I see two versions of hu­man rights activists here. There is one group, including people like Bassem Eid and Raji Sourani, which I personally do not respect, and there is an­other, including people like Abdul Rahman Abu Arafeh and Ali Jirbawi in the Independent Committee, which I do respect because the members of this group criticize in order to rectify, not in order to condemn. Speaking as an educator, I say that if someone makes a mistake and you slap him, your objective should not be to hurt him, but to prevent him from making that same mistake in the future. If I say that everything that the Authority is do­ing is bad, I am not being positive in any sense. With all due respect to Edward Said, it is easy for him to constantly criticize the Authority whilst sitting in Columbia; I, on the other hand, cannot afford to do so, especially as I want to be functional and to contribute. Working in public relations in­volves far more than performing mechanically: it has to do with a vision that you develop and strengthen.

 

Afif Safieh, our Representative in London, decided that instead of sending stupid Christmas cards this year he would distribute 10,000 copies of a special brochure Voices from Jerusalem to which I, for the second year running, contributed. After mentioning our lengthy personal relationship, I analyzed the current political situation and I showed that it stinks. Why does it stink? Because the division in Israel is not over different approaches to the Palestine problem, but the result of different approaches to asserting Jewish hegemony over Palestine and facilitating the continuation of the concept of a land with no people; in other words, over how to continue the process of denial. As far as I am concerned, there is a real need for ‘heal­ing’, but the healing process requires that Zionists throughout the world realize that this land was not empty as they claim. Even people from the so-called Left, such as Peres, when talking about separation are talking about it from a position that is characterized by disgust – we are sending you out so that we do not become a bi-national state, in other words, you are germs, you are microbes, so we do not mind throwing you out. As someone who deals on a day to day basis with young people from 18 to 25, I do not believe that we have the legitimate right to tell them that we can do nothing to change this position. What we have to do is to set for ourselves achievable targets. One important thing to remember is that any­one working in PR has to believe in the commodity; just like a good writer, you have to believe in what you write about or what you promote.

 

With regard to the declaration of statehood, you do not announce a state; you build it stone by stone, step by step, each one in its right place. Why are we, as an Arab and Islamic nation, marginalized? Why does this whole region, from Afghanistan to Morocco, not count? Why do the five million people living here not count? I personally believe that this is also a public relations issue. As far as the ‘success’ of Zionism goes, most of the credit should go to the Arab national movement. The Zionists say that all the world ever wanted to do was to annihilate the Jews who, be they rich or poor, ultra-religious or ultra-agnostic, constitute one people. This, accord­ing to any established school of thought is absolute nonsense, yet it be­comes a reality when we respond by saying, “Therefore, we are going to set out to get you all.” We are the ones who should be blamed for making a reality out of a myth. Netanyahu is a clever man, and he knows about all the contradictions that exist. If a suicide attack takes place, he is com­pletely at ease with the situation because it is a clear case of ‘us against them’ and he can concentrate on furthering the image of the Palestinians as terrorists without dealing with all the gray areas. In all situations, you have black and you have white, but what is more important is that you also have gray areas, which is what really counts.

 

Engaging in the process of king-making is more exciting that actually being the king. I often find that having a good relationship with a restaurant waiter, for example, can actually be more beneficial than having one with the owner. It is very important to establish connections and to know how to deal with people. If you deal with people in an honest and respectful man­ner, using nice words, etc., it can open doors for you that would otherwise remain closed.

 

 

Discussion

 

Question: If my boss does not have the faintest idea about the importance of public relations, how can I be sure that even after telling him my plan and being told, “Yes, go ahead and carry it out,” he will not turn around later and embarrass me in front of others?

 

Albert Aghazarian: If you are unassuming he will not hurt you, no matter who he is. Sometimes, Rami [Khouri], who has known me for 20 years, visits Hanna Nasser, the President of Birzeit University and he will some­times look at me while addressing the president; I immediately look to­wards the president, which is my way of signaling to Rami that he should be looking at him, not at me, because if he keeps looking in my direction the president will not like it. If Rami continues looking in my direction, then I will go out and make sure that the coffee is ready or the door is closed, thereby reinforcing my message. Never try to surpass or go above the head of your director. Never get above yourself and think that are more important than the director is.

 

Question: But does working in PR not involve a lot of hypocrisy? For ex­ample, how could anyone go to Arafat and talk to him in flowery terms, calling him our “beloved president” etc, knowing deep inside that the presi­dent is not ‘beloved’ and that he personally hates him?

 

Albert Aghazarian: It is not that simple.

 

Question: Suppose that you have a big event, and your boss assigns a committee to help you prepare for that event, but in the end you discover that you are doing all the work because the members of the committee feel that as a PR man, it is your job to do everything. Is that okay? Are you supposed to complain about that?

 

Albert Aghazarian: Not only would I do everything, but also I would thank the members of the committee who did not even show up to help for their participation. Unfortunately, that is the way it goes, because part of my job is to make the committee seem important.

 

Question: But should not everyone be equal and mix and help each other out, not just at work, but in the society?

 

Albert Aghazarian: Amira Hess, an Israeli journalist who spent three years living in Gaza wanted to join the Arabic studies course at Birzeit, but we decided that there was no good reason for us to accept her at a time when our professors were unable to reach the library of the Hebrew University.

During my one and only visit to Yad Veshem, they brought us a German-Jewish professor who said, after speaking about what the Jews had gone through at the hands of the Germans, “but I do not feel that the Palestini­ans owe me anything.” I instantly turned around and said, “It is more like a case of what you owe the Palestinians!” Just look at the way in which they tread on us and then turn around and say, “It is okay, I don’t want anything from you.” Of course they do not; it is the Jews who owe us.

 

Rami Khouri: Working for Birzeit, is there one specific image or message that you would like to project, or do you send different messages to differ­ent people: the Americans, the Israelis, the Arabs, etc?

 

Albert Aghazarian: It is a bit like a factory: you have the main production and you have the special packages. The main production that I sell is the idea that universities are places where in addition to teaching you conduct experiments in pluralism, in diversity, in civic society, in transparency. In the case of Birzeit, this is an experiment that has clearly worked, judging by the fact that even students from the Islamic bloc are now playing according to the rules of law, having been successfully incorporated within the sys­tem.