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 Advertisements: "Stop Palestinian Leaders From Teaching Hate & Violence"

by dave id
"Stop Palestinian Leaders From Teaching Hate & Violence - Say Yes to Peace," read the text-only advertisements currently found in several BART stations in San Francisco. The ads purport to advocate "peace" between Israelis and Palestinians, but attacking those with whom one claims to want peace is an odd way of doing so. The ads are just wrong on many levels.
israelihateandviolencebartad_021211a.jpg
Of course, the ads are not really about promoting peace. They are a tool to denigrate the Palestinian people in the eyes of U.S. citizens, to paint all Palestinians with a broad brush as anti-semitic terrorists. If low-information voters see these ads, they might buy into the myth, or have it reinforced for them, that Israelis are currently suffering at the hands of Palestinian terrorists, unaware of Israel's ongoing campaign of racist ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories. As long as Palestinians are all seen as evil, or less than human, Israel can continue with its colonial expansion unabated, subsidized by American taxpayers. There will be no pressure from the U.S. for a real peace.

While the ads promote a supporting website in large print, smaller type reveals the advertisements to have been paid for by a Los Angeles-based pro-Israeli lobby called Stand With Us. In a disingenuous attempt to portray the ads as a fair-minded plea for peace, the Say Yes to Peace website's About Us page, as it acknowledes that the ads are a project of Stand With Us, omits a key line from the Stand With Us website's mission statement: "we strive to ensure that Israel's side of the story is told." The group is called Stand With Us (implying "not them") after all. The misinformation on both websites is too much to detail here, but it is especially galling that the Say Yes to Peace site completely ignores the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian land and declares that "Israel has recognized Palestinian nationalism. Now the Palestinians must also accept Jewish nationalism."

The anti-Palestinian ads are a response to earlier BART ads sponsored by Northern California Friends of Sabeel, American Muslims for Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace that demanded an end to U.S. military funding of Israel. Complaints from the public about a previous version of the Stand With Us ads -- which depicted the eyes of a menacing-looking Arab "terrorist" with the message "Stop Palestinian Terrorists" -- led to it being pulled by BART officials. The ones running now are apparently okay with the transit agency. If you find the ads misleading and offensive, you can find BART contact information at http://bart.gov/siteinfo/contact.aspx.

Add Your Comments
Listed below are the latest comments about this post.
These comments are submitted anonymously by website visitors.
TITLE
AUTHOR
DATE
Aaron Aarons
Mon, Jun 6, 2011 4:26PM
miles
Wed, Feb 16, 2011 2:53PM
umm
Wed, Feb 16, 2011 12:48PM
??
Wed, Feb 16, 2011 6:03AM
Aaron Aarons
Wed, Feb 16, 2011 4:49AM
Zionism Is Racism
Tue, Feb 15, 2011 10:35AM
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