top
Palestine
Palestine
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

BART Art Commemorates Palestine Land Day in San Francisco

by SF Truth Squad (sftruthsquad [at] gmail.com)
A guerrilla art squad hung Land Day posters in place of advertisements on BART in advance of this morning's commute
bart_art_1.jpg
Guerrilla artists took to BART this morning in observation of Palestinian Land Day. Over 150 unauthorized posters appeared in many trains this morning, replacing the usual advertisements.
The stark black and white poster shows a woman clinging to an olive tree, while a soldier lurks behind her in a jeep. “Thinking locoly/Acting globally” is the message, supplemented by the explanatory headline, “U.S. Funded Israeli Apartheid.”

“We wanted to give commuters a clear and disturbing picture of what our $13 million a day in military aid to Israel is doing,” said the poster’s creator. The artists hope those who see the poster will be moved to visit the website http://www.bdsmovement.net to learn about the growing international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions. No one at bdsmovement.net had prior knowledge of the plan to put up the posters.

The idea for the action came from the series of public service messages which were displayed in BART tunnels and stations last year promoting divestment and sanctions against Sudan, because of its human rights abuses in Darfur.

“We don’t have the funding that Save Darfur has, so we cannot afford to buy the space,” explained one activist. “But the principle is the same. People say we are singling out Israel, but in fact, it’s just the opposite. We are using the same standards and the same tactics to insist that Israel comply with its obligations under international and human rights law that have been applied to many other countries, including South Africa, China and Iran.”

Land Day is observed annually by Palestinians and their allies in commemoration of the events of that date in 1976. On that date, Arab citizens held a general strike to protest land confiscations by the Israeli government. The Israeli army and police attacked demonstrators, killing six Arab citizens and injuring many more. For the last two years, Land Day has been called as a Global Day of Action for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions by the Palestinian BDS National Committee.
§The Poster
by SF Truth Squad
bart_art_2.jpg
§Two posterers detained by BART police
by sftruthsquad
One team of two intrepid artists was forced off the train by four cops. Someone reported them at 12th Street, and even though they had gotten off the train they were on, the cops held another train at West Oakland to come looking for them! They were detained for twenty minutes and repeatedly threatened that they would be booked into jail, but were eventually released without charge. I guess speech is not free on BART.
Add Your Comments
Listed below are the latest comments about this post.
These comments are submitted anonymously by website visitors.
TITLE
AUTHOR
DATE
Robert B. Livingston
Mon, Apr 5, 2010 7:39AM
Robert B. Livingston
Mon, Apr 5, 2010 12:23AM
@
Sun, Apr 4, 2010 9:24AM
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$110.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network