StandWithUs BART ads to take aim at ‘Palestinian terrorism’
Thursday, January 6, 2011
The pro-Israel national organization StandWithUs announced Jan. 6 that it is launching a new ad campaign, placing posters in six BART stations.
The posters have received BART approval and will go up in the Berkeley, 12th Street/Oakland, MacArthur, Civic Center, Balboa Park and Embarcadero BART stations starting Jan. 17, a StandWitUs spokesperson said.
Dubbed "Say Yes to Peace," the campaign has been launched, organizers said, to counter a recent poster campaign co-sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace, a group often critical of Israel. Those posters, still on display at three BART stations (according to the StandWithUs release), depicted Palestinian and Israel fathers with their young children, along with the headings "Be on our side: We are on the side of peace and justice" and "End U.S. military aid to Israel."
The StandWithUs posters feature the image of a masked terrorist with the heading "Stop Palestinian Terrorism." Below that, there is a photo of Palestinian and Israeli children at an annual Palestinian-Israeli children's soccer game, and the heading "Teach Peace" with the address for a new website.
"The anti-Israel ad confuses and deceives the public," Roz Rothstein, StandWithUs CEO, said in the press release. "It declares it represents the side of ‘peace and justice' and shows happy pictures of an Israeli father and a Palestinian father with their little sons. These images and words appeal to all people of good will. But the real message is that Israel is the obstacle to peace and that the U.S. should stop all financial assistance to Israel. The ad tries to hide the real obstacles-Hamas, Palestinian terrorism, and decades of anti-Israel, anti-Jewish hate education. We cannot let this message, with its deceptive, velvet-gloved rhetoric, influence unsuspecting commuters who may not know the facts. Our ads will provide the needed facts."
Last month, StandWithUs allied with other pro-Israel groups to persuade Seattle's Metro Transit to reject proposed bus ads that StandWithUs viewed as anti-Israel.Source: JWeekly.com