David Keyes officially named PM’s new English spokesman

Human rights activist David Keyes is officially named as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new foreign media adviser and spokesperson.

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office saying he would start in the position “very soon.” In January reports emerged that Keyes has been tapped for the job.

Keyes thanked the prime minister “for the great honor to serve the State of Israel in light of the many challenges facing it,” the statement says.

David Keyes, executive director of Advancing Human Rights (Courtesy)

Keyes, who is fluent in Hebrew and Arabic, currently serves as the executive director of Advancing Human Rights, an umbrella human rights organization operating Movements.org, a crowdsourcing platform connecting dissidents in closed societies with those who might be able to help all over the globe.

He is also the director of Cyberdissidents.org, which he founded while working for former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky in Israel. The site “highlight the voices of democratic online activists in the Middle East,” he told The Times of Israel during an extensive interview last year.

Clips showing Keyes “Punking Iran’s Nuclear Negotiators in Vienna,” and other protests have been taken down from YouTube in the past two months.