The anti-Israel advertisements that were scheduled to be posted on Seattle-area buses won’t appear after all, KING-TV reports:
According to Metro officials, non-commercial advertising will temporarily be added to the list of currently restricted ad campaigns, except for certain government ads. Non-commercial ads that had already been cleared with Metro prior to the halt will not be affected.
By the end of January, Executive Constantine said further work will be done to determine a sound policy that abides by First Amendment rights and protects Metro passenger safety.
Unfortunately it apparently took the threat of an equally nasty ad campaign to prompt this action.
Last week, a group called the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign proposed a billboard ad to run on the side of 12 buses, reading “Israeli war crimes: Your tax dollars at work.”
In response, a group called the David Horowitz Freedom Center proposed a similar billboard to run on 25 buses, reading “Palestinian war crimes: Your tax dollars at work.”
Why equally nasty? Because the reference to “Palestinian war crimes” is just as much an offensive smear on an entire people as “Israeli war crimes.” And despite the claim of David Horowitz that “[t]he U.S. government gives the Palestinians about a half a billion dollars a year… which is basically a subsidy for rejectionism and terror,” there is no evidence that “the Palestinians” whom the US is currently aiding are involved in acts of terror against Israel.
And despite what Amin Odeh says, it wasn’t only “rightwing” Jews who objected to the anti-Israel ad.
