Pro-Israel War Ads on Municipal Buses

Here is the information about the SFMTA Board of Directors. Please contact them to express your outrage at these ads. I am opposed to censorship, even of very unpopular positions, but these ads dehumanize Muslims by referring to them as savages. These ads paid for by Islamophobic, fascist, racists like Pam Geller cross into hate speech. What's next? Ads referring to homosexuals as degenerates, African-Americans as monkeys, Asians as the yellow peril?

SFMTA Board of Directors contact information:

Board of Directors
• Tom Nolan, Chairman
• Cheryl Brinkman, Vice Chairman
•Leona Bridges
•Malcolm A. Heinicke
•Jerry Lee
•Joél Ramos
•Cristina Rubke

About the SFMTA Board members

Edward D. Reiskin
Director of Transportation
Municipal Transportation Agency

Roberta Boomer
Board Secretary
One South Van Ness Avenue, Floor 7
San Francisco, CA 94103-1267
E-mail: Roberta.Boomer [at] sfmta.com

Contact information for the Office of the MTA Board of Directors:
Phone: 415.701.4505
Fax: 415.701.4502
E-mail: MTABoard [at] sfmta.com

Tear down those mother-fuckin' ads from the racist anti-Arab anti-Muslim Geller.

Please call, write all 11 members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to demand that these ads be removed immediately. They all have voice mail so you can leave a message at any time.
From:
http://www.sfbos.org/index.aspx?page=1616

John Avalos
District 11
(415) 554-6975 - Voice
(415) 554-6979 - Fax
John.Avalos [at] sfgov.org

David Campos
District 9
(415) 554-5144 - voice
(415) 554-6255 - fax
David.Campos [at] sfgov.org

David Chiu
District 3
(415) 554-7450 - Voice
(415) 554-7454 - Fax
David.Chiu [at] sfgov.org

Carmen Chu
District 4
(415) 554-7460 - Voice
(415) 554-7432 - Fax
Carmen.Chu [at] sfgov.org

Malia Cohen
District 10
(415) 554-7670 - Voice
(415) 554-7674 - Fax
Malia.Cohen [at] sfgov.org

Sean Elsbernd
District 7
(415) 554-6516 - Voice
(415) 554-6546 - Fax
Sean.Elsbernd [at] sfgov.org

Mark Farrell
District 2
(415) 554-7752 - Voice
(415) 554-7843 - Fax
Mark.Farrell [at] sfgov.org

Jane Kim
District 6
(415) 554-7970 - Voice
(415) 554-7974 - Fax
Jane.Kim [at] sfgov.org

Eric Mar
District 1
(415) 554-7410 - Voice
(415) 554-7415 - Fax
Eric.L.Mar [at] sfgov.org

Christina Olague
District 5
(415) 554-7630 - Voice
(415) 554-7634 - Fax
Christina.Olague [at] sfgov.org

Scott Wiener
District 8
(415) 554-6968 - Voice
(415) 554-6909 - Fax
Scott.Wiener@sfgov

this is an image of the ad that a zionist judge ruled in favor of in New York

By BENJAMIN WEISER
Published: July 20, 2012

A federal judge in Manhattan ruled on Friday that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority violated the First Amendment rights of a pro-Israel group when it rejected an advertisement the group wanted to place on city buses on grounds that they contained demeaning language.

The group, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, had proposed an ad that said, “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man.”

Then, between two Stars of David, the ad said: “Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.”

The transportation authority said the ad violated its prohibition on ads that demeaned individuals or groups on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin and five other specific categories. The group was given the opportunity to revise the ad, but it refused, and claimed in a lawsuit that the agency’s “no demeaning” language restriction was unconstitutional.

The judge, Paul A. Engelmayer of Federal District Court, ruled that the rejected ad was “not only protected speech — it is core political speech,” expressing a “pro-Israel perspective on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict” and implicitly calling “for a pro-Israel U.S. foreign policy with regard to that conflict.”

As such, the judge held, the ad “is afforded the highest level of protection under the First Amendment.”

Pamela Geller, executive director of the group that sought to place the ad, called the decision “a victory for freedom-loving people.”

Ms. Geller is an outspoken blogger and critic of Islam whose group ran ads on city buses in 2010 that opposed construction of an Islamic center near ground zero.

Judge Engelmayer said he would delay the effect of his order for 30 days, to allow the transportation authority to consider its appellate options and alternatives to the current rule.

Aaron Donovan, a transportation spokesman, said on Friday that the authority was reviewing the decision, and that it was also “evaluating its existing advertising standards in light of the court’s ruling.”

A statement by the authority also cited portions of the opinion, including one in which the judge said that “the court does not impugn in the slightest” the agency’s motives in devising its “no-demeaning” standard or applying it to the proposed ad.

“Quite the contrary,” Judge Engelmayer wrote, noting that testimony and evidence in the case showed that the authority “has aspired to hold ads on public buses to a standard of civility.

“Its goal of preventing ads on city bus exteriors from being used as a medium for abuse and division in this diverse metropolis is entirely laudable,” the judge wrote. “It appears likely that M.T.A. drafted the standard in question with an eye toward the groups it felt most likely to be targeted by demeaning ads, without adequately considering the First Amendment implications.”

The judge said the authority had “reasonably read” the ad as referring to Muslims as “savages.”

But, he added, it was “well settled that, where a violation of the First Amendment is concerned, the government’s benign, even noble, intentions are no cure.”

The judge noted that the authority’s rule barred only ads that contained language that demeaned on the basis of the nine listed categories, which included ancestry, gender, age, disability or sexual orientation. Outside that list, the judge noted, the rule would permit demeaning ads.

He even offered examples, like “Southerners are bigots,” “Upper West Siders are elitist snobs,” “Fat people are slobs,” “Blondes are bimbos” and “Lawyers are sleazebags.”

Under the standard, he wrote, an ad could even accuse a private citizen of being a child abuser or running a Ponzi scheme.

“Whatever weight might be assigned to the governmental interest in banning demeaning speech on the exterior of New York City buses on an evenhanded basis,” Judge Engelmayer said, “there is no good reason for protecting some individuals and groups, but not others, from such abuse.”

The “no-demeaning” standard, he said, was, “therefore, inconsistent with the First Amendment.”

The group whose pro-Israel ad was rejected had sought to run it on about 318 city buses for four weeks, at a cost of about $25,000, the judge noted.

The ruling came two days after the transportation authority announced that it would sell advertising space on the front of MetroCards. Mr. Donovan said on Friday that the authority “does not intend to open MetroCards to noncommercial advertisements,” a decision that was reached, he said, before Friday’s ruling.

The authority has said in court papers that it received $116.4 million in revenue in 2011 from advertising sold throughout its subway, commuter rail and bus systems; of that, it received $4.65 million from noncommercial advertising, which included political ads.

“M.T.A. is cash-strapped,” the judge wrote. “It regards the money it receives from such ads as an important source of revenue.”

Tear down these racist ads.

The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) is the central public affairs and community arm of the organized Jewish community. Representing synagogues and Jewish institutions throughout the Bay Area, JCRC promotes a just society and secure Jewish future. American Jewish Committee (AJC) has, for over 100 years sought to advance the peace and security of the Jewish people around the world. Through high-level diplomacy, strong legislative advocacy, and effective interreligious and interethnic coalitions, AJC has made a significant impact on issues critical to the Jewish people. Together, they have issued a press release condemning the recent Muni Bus ads paid for by New York Blogger, Pam Geller.

Press Release from the Jewish Community Relations Council and the American Jewish Committee regarding Pam Geller's Muni Bus ads


San Francisco – Last week, a new advertisement appeared on Muni buses in San Francisco, placed by the American Freedom Defense Initiative. The Bay Area’s organized Jewish community takes great offense to the ad’s inflammatory and anti-Muslim language. We are steadfast in our support of Israel and our concern about the growing threat of Islamic radicalism, and steadfast in our opposition to anti-Muslim stereotypes.

We have long been concerned that the repeated appearance of offensive anti-Israel ads would turn our local public transit system into a battleground for the Israeli-Arab conflict; we are no less concerned by offensive anti-Muslim ads. We urge all transit authorities to reassess their policies and to construct advertising policies consistent with laws governing protected speech that preserve public transit as a safe space for all passengers.