Ad Wars Escalate in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In response to a wave of anti-Israel advertisements appearing on Bay Area buses, Israel advocacy group StandWithUs  recently sponsored a 4 week run of their own ads.  The ads were displayed on 20 buses, throughout the city. StandWithUs has countered anti-Israel messaging on  Northern California public transit eight times since 2011. 

Nothing upsets the forces of darkness as much as when the Jews fight back. This  counter messaging upsets the local extremist Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC) who have called for a public meeting to pressure the San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority to stop accepting these ads.

From Facebook:

NO MORE RACIST BUS ADS!

Bay Area Community Meeting

Thursday, October 27th
6pm
518 Valencia Street, SF

Upset at seeing racist ads on SF Muni buses? Want to do something about it? 

Join us on October 27th for a community meeting.

What is the history and organizing behind these racist ads?
What are strategies that have been used to challenge them in the past?
What do we want to do to stop these racist attacks?

In this climate of heightened anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia, most recently with the targeted racist attacks on community leaders on college campuses, Arab and Muslim families continue to have to face the inclusion of hate speech and racist attacks against them on public transportation. For years the Bay Area community has fought back against these ads and their violent nature. Yet time and time again, we find that the city continues to allow them to drape buses throughout San Francisco. We will not let this go unchallenged. Let's come together to figure out how we want to challenge racism in SF.

Lara Kiswani and her colleagues at AROC understand full well that the pro-Israel messaging ads on MUNI is in direct response to the propaganda war their associates have launched against the Jewish state.  

As StandWithUs CEO Roz Rothstein has explained in the past:

“StandWithUs will not allow anti-Israel campaigns to go unanswered, no matter where they appear.  Our goal is to set the record straight, and to inform the public about Israel’s challenges and extraordinary achievements in helping make the world a better place.”  

In addition to San Francisco, SWU  ads have appeared in New York City; Houston, Texas; Missoula, and Helena, Montana; Washington, DC; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Chicago, Denver, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 

The ads and billboards will stop when the anti-Israel messaging stops. Its that simple, AROC.