Commuters in cities across the United States were surprised this month to find their daily trips to work adorned with posters and banners calling on their government to end military support to Israel.
The posters were rolled out in seven cities for the entire month of March, and are part of a broader awareness campaign by the US-based Palestine Advocacy Project, an activist group also known as Ads Against Apartheid focused on raising awareness about American complicity in the Israeli occupation.
Check out these San Diego photos from the new 7-city anti-occupation ad campaign by Palestine Advocacy Project! pic.twitter.com/0FCWzRPM2m
— UUJME (@UUJME) March 3, 2015
Messages decrying Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes, its incarceration policies targeting Palestinian children, and its construction of Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are among the themes tackled by the ad campaign, whose launch was timed to coincide with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the country earlier this month.
“American tax dollars help the Israeli government maintain a brutal military occupation of Palestinian territory, which has denied Palestinians their basic rights for decades. These ads show what Israel’s occupation and apartheid really look like, and it is important for Americans to see that,” project board member Jake Chase-Lubitz said in a statement released by the group.
The campaign is part of a broader push to ensure that Palestine remains on the radar of the US public, particularly as attention has shifted following the end of Israel’s massive assault on Gaza last summer.
– Read more: Pro-Palestinian Ad Campaign Takes over Walls of US Cities – Alex Shams, Ma’an