When David Sarnoff, of Israel’s National Broadcasting Company, approached then Prime Minister David Ben Burion in 1952 about bringing television to the newly formed state, Ben Gurion offered a simple reply:
“Israelis are people of the book. We don’t need television.”
It took about 15 years for the Jewish state, which allowed its first experimental television broadcast in 1966, to reconsider, said Tasha Oren, assistant professor of English and director of film studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and author of “Demon in the Box: Jews, Arabs, Politics, and Culture in the Making of Israeli Television” (Rutgers University Press, 2004).
Oren discussed the history of Israeli television during a lunch and learn, “Jewish Television or Mickey Mouse Culture,” at the UWM Union on Friday, March 4. The event was sponsored by the UWM Center for Jewish Studies.
“My interest in television is in television as an idea,” Oren said. “Through the debate, we see what is important to Israelis,” she added, as well as “what it means to be a Jew.”
Oren did much of her research by combing through old records from the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, because similar research had not been done before.
When Israel was formed in 1948, Oren said the state was made up of mostly eastern Europeans who had a “very intellectual background.”
But the 50s brought more Jewish Arab immigrants to Israel, which created a “schism between classes,” Oren said, creating anxieties within the state.
Israel was worried that by having Arab television, it would prevent the immigrants from absorbing into Israeli culture, and instead promoting Middle Eastern culture, which Israel was opposed to.
Other concerns that Israelis had with television were that it would feminize Israeli soldiers, “dumb down” Israeli citizens, present anti-Zionist ideas, and, of course, jeopardize security, Oren said.
The Knesset had many ideas to discourage Israeli citizens from even owning television sets, Oren said, including 300 percent taxes, which were meant to “keep immigrants from buying” televisions, to “counter-programming” to keep Israelis from watching Arab shows.
Oren argued that it was actually the Six-Day War in 1967 that made television “a possibility” for Israel.
Oren said that one of the ways that Israelis prepared for the war was to allow foreign correspondents into the state, giving them “the sense they could go anywhere and do anything within the Israeli army,” she said, which was in “direct opposition” to what the Egyptian army would allow.
As a result, “Israel became the only place from which news was coming,” during the war.
“Israel learned that the media is an extremely powerful tool,” Oren said.
The first general Israeli broadcast aired on May 5, 1968, and featured only educational programming and news in the early morning and evenings, with nothing in between.
The government owned Israel’s single station until 1990. Now, there are three official Israeli channels, and “tons of cable” stations, Oren said, with a mix of “local, British and American programming.”
In fact, Israelis have even created their own versions of popular American “reality TV” shows, including the “The Ambassador,” which is one of the most popular shows on Israeli television.
In it, contestants compete to become the “ambassador,” whose job it is to sell a positive image of Israel to America.
According to Oren, the popularity of the show is no surprise.
“Israelis are obsessed with what their image is in the world…[and in the show] they get to hear the world talking about Israel.”
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