Source: Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Israeli Tourism Adverts Wipe Palestine From the Map - Take Action Now!
Posters have recently appeared in London Underground tube stations advertising Israel as a tourist destination. The map on the advert depicts Israel as incorporating the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights (see photo below).
Please write to London Underground, the Advertising Standards Agency and CBS Outdoors – the company which manages the poster sites – asking for the removal of these posters, which deliberately deny the existence of Palestine. Contact details are at the bottom of this email.
A draft letter is included below. You can use this letter as it is, or take the information from it to write your own.
DRAFT LETTER:
Dear …
I have noticed with concern a poster which is currently being displayed on London Underground’s advertising sites.
The poster has been produced by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism as part of an advertising campaign to attract visitors to Israel.
The map on the advertisement portrays Israel as an area which incorporates the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights.
However, none of these areas are part of Israel, but instead have been subject to military occupation or blockade by Israel since 1967.
UN Resolution 242 calls on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, which are Palestinian territories, but Israel remains in violation of this resolution, and also maintains its illegal occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights.
Israel has sealed off the Gaza Strip since 2005, making access virtually impossible, resulting in severe shortages of food, medicine and clean water, which has left the Strip’s 1.4 million Palestinians facing a humanitarian crisis. Any ‘tourists’ would be unable to visit the Gaza Strip, as Israel prevents even humanitarian aid workers and lawyers from entering.
In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israel continues to build settlements in direct contravention of international law, taking land from the Palestinians to do so and demolishing their homes and farms in the process.
In addition, Israel is in the process of building the Apartheid Wall through the West Bank, which, when completed, will expropriate 50% of Palestinian land in the West Bank, depriving farmers and families of their livelihoods and water supply, and making movement for Palestinians almost impossible.
The Wall breaches numerous international agreements, including the Fourth Geneva Convention’s articles on the destruction of land and/or property (article 53) and on collective punishment (article 33).
The Israeli Ministry of Tourism’s assertion, through the map displayed on the poster, is insidious and wrong, and I urgently call on you to remove it from all its sites to avoid being complicit in this deliberate misinformation.
I look forward to your response.
Yours
++++++++++++
CONTACT DETAILS:
1. Transport for London
Floor 23, Empress State Building
Empress Approach
London SW6 1TR
Tel: 020 7222 5600
Email: enquire@tfl.gov.uk
London Underground Customer Service Centre
55 Broadway
London SW1H 0BD
Tel: 0845 330 9880
Email: enquiry.tube@tfl.gov.uk
What will happen: The complaint will go to the appropriate section and you will receive an answer.
2. CBS Outdoor Ltd
Email: The customer service manager, Richard Ashman
richard.ashman@cbsoutdoor.co.uk
Tel: 020 7482 2863
Post: 28 Jamestown Road, Camden Lock, London, NW1 7BY
What will happen: CBS approves advertising internally, but seek advice from the Committee of Advertising Practice. CBS also works in connection with the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA). It can be asked to remove advertising from its sites by the ASA.
3. Advertising Standards Agency
Email: new.complaints@asa.org.uk
Tel: 020 7492 2222
Post: Advertising Standards Authority, Mid City Place, 71 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6QT
What will happen: The complaint will be considered within the codes of practice, and you will receive a reply within 10 days.
Israeli Tourism Adverts Wipe Palestine From the Map - Take Action Now!
Posters have recently appeared in London Underground tube stations advertising Israel as a tourist destination. The map on the advert depicts Israel as incorporating the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights (see photo below).
Please write to London Underground, the Advertising Standards Agency and CBS Outdoors – the company which manages the poster sites – asking for the removal of these posters, which deliberately deny the existence of Palestine. Contact details are at the bottom of this email.
A draft letter is included below. You can use this letter as it is, or take the information from it to write your own.
DRAFT LETTER:
Dear …
I have noticed with concern a poster which is currently being displayed on London Underground’s advertising sites.
The poster has been produced by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism as part of an advertising campaign to attract visitors to Israel.
The map on the advertisement portrays Israel as an area which incorporates the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights.
However, none of these areas are part of Israel, but instead have been subject to military occupation or blockade by Israel since 1967.
UN Resolution 242 calls on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, which are Palestinian territories, but Israel remains in violation of this resolution, and also maintains its illegal occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights.
Israel has sealed off the Gaza Strip since 2005, making access virtually impossible, resulting in severe shortages of food, medicine and clean water, which has left the Strip’s 1.4 million Palestinians facing a humanitarian crisis. Any ‘tourists’ would be unable to visit the Gaza Strip, as Israel prevents even humanitarian aid workers and lawyers from entering.
In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israel continues to build settlements in direct contravention of international law, taking land from the Palestinians to do so and demolishing their homes and farms in the process.
In addition, Israel is in the process of building the Apartheid Wall through the West Bank, which, when completed, will expropriate 50% of Palestinian land in the West Bank, depriving farmers and families of their livelihoods and water supply, and making movement for Palestinians almost impossible.
The Wall breaches numerous international agreements, including the Fourth Geneva Convention’s articles on the destruction of land and/or property (article 53) and on collective punishment (article 33).
The Israeli Ministry of Tourism’s assertion, through the map displayed on the poster, is insidious and wrong, and I urgently call on you to remove it from all its sites to avoid being complicit in this deliberate misinformation.
I look forward to your response.
Yours
++++++++++++
CONTACT DETAILS:
1. Transport for London
Floor 23, Empress State Building
Empress Approach
London SW6 1TR
Tel: 020 7222 5600
Email: enquire@tfl.gov.uk
London Underground Customer Service Centre
55 Broadway
London SW1H 0BD
Tel: 0845 330 9880
Email: enquiry.tube@tfl.gov.uk
What will happen: The complaint will go to the appropriate section and you will receive an answer.
2. CBS Outdoor Ltd
Email: The customer service manager, Richard Ashman
richard.ashman@cbsoutdoor.co.uk
Tel: 020 7482 2863
Post: 28 Jamestown Road, Camden Lock, London, NW1 7BY
What will happen: CBS approves advertising internally, but seek advice from the Committee of Advertising Practice. CBS also works in connection with the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA). It can be asked to remove advertising from its sites by the ASA.
3. Advertising Standards Agency
Email: new.complaints@asa.org.uk
Tel: 020 7492 2222
Post: Advertising Standards Authority, Mid City Place, 71 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6QT
What will happen: The complaint will be considered within the codes of practice, and you will receive a reply within 10 days.
15 comments:
well you can't blame them for denying the existance of Palestine. Mainly beause Palestine does not exisist. Tell me: who is the leader of this so called Palestine, who is the secratary of state, when did they declare independance, what does their constition say? Whether or not you like it, Palestine does not exsist.
I dont think that i would even go there with a paid ticket and hotels because I dont want to be contaminated by the evil of the criminal Israelis, they repulse me, they give you aids, they give you all kinds of bad things. Dont go there, stay home!!!
Also suggest contacting the travel company, Longwood Holidays (www.longwoodholidays.co.uk) who are on the poster.
Dan - The fact is that people like you don't want Palestine to exist hence you deny its exitence and would happily see every native Palestinian ethnically cleansed from their homeland just like so many of them were in the Nakba of 1948 by the terrorist Stern group.
Palestine doesn't have the apparatus of a state because successive Israeli Government's have chipped away at the original Palestine by illegally seizing land, illegally settling people on that land and denying the native Palestinians basic human rights and decency.
Go do your homework and read up on your history before you post again.
To the 1st Anonymous Poster - I have posted your comment only because I want to send a warning message to all people who decide to post comments on this site.
I do not agree with your comment about "criminal Israelis" and "they give you aids" because these comments are directed at Israeli people in general and this is wrong and unacceptable.
Some of my posts on this blog are directed towards the Israeli Government, its policies & actions towards the Palestinians and the Settler Militias who terrorise the Native Palestinian population from their West Bank outposts.
There are many in Israel who do good work for the Palestinians, B'Tselem is perhaps the best example, there are other Israelis equally repulsed by the actions of the Israeli Government and the Occupation therefore you can not make generalising statements like the one you posted.
Any similar posts in the future will not be published.
Completely agree with your thoughts. Thank you for making it so easy to take action.
I emailed all listed above with the draft letter.
No I agree with the first anonymous poster mainly because no Israeli citizen is innocent of the suffering of the Palestinian people; every Israeli citizen (male or female) is required by law to serve the army and become a Palestinian killing machine! Damned terrorists!
Thank you Rami
Please do pass this onto your contacts as well.
To anonymous poster number 3 (please post under a different name in the future if you would rather not use your real name).
I have published your comment because I feel that you have highlighted an important point that Military Service is compulsory but I would disagree that this turn every Israeli into a "Palestinian Killing Machine".
You need to realise that there are some like Refuseniks who see the error of their ways and the criminality of the Israeli State. I'd like to point you to previous post of mine about Captain Yonotan Shapira who called Israel's actions in Gaza what they really were - "war crimes"
http://thinkingoutoftheblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/yonotan-shapira-ex-israeli-air-force.html
Outrageous...but not surprising! And so continues the horrible reality of human manipulation and greed. Its a shame that people are not aware that arabs and jews did live side by side once upon a time. Nowadays, life seems to be surrounded by power, money and war. How pathetic that the human race has advanced so much in knowledge, science and techology and yet cannot learn to get along with their neighbors. So outrageous!
Also, to Anonymous poster 3 and #1: when you make such racist comments you destroy all that Palestinians are working for and you operate with the same logic of Zionism. They turn all palestinians and Arabs into scum and you are turning all Israelis and/or Jews into scum. We are better off when you stay silent. Benaam, nice post, first time on your blog...my advice though is that you don't bother accepting such useless chatter. You can make the point without giving these racists their moment of fame...we must marginalize the racists on our side who think all Israelis are the same. In the end, to achieve a just peace we will need to work together with Israelis to overcome Zionism. Anonymous 1 and 3 will be part of the people we will need to fight along with zionists.
I suppose one could be happy that the map depiction of Israel isn't consistent with the Zionist vision of a homeland extending from the rivers Nile to Euphrates.
FINALLY!!! They replied to my email promising to remove the ADs... As I dont live in London, please update me if you still see them... Here's the email I got...
from Richard Ashman Richard.Ashman@cbsoutdoor.co.uk
to Rami Saad theramisaad@gmail.com
date Thu, May 21, 2009 at 7:06 PM
subject RE: COMPLAINT - London Tube Advertisement
hide details May 21 (3 days ago)
Reply
Follow up message
Re: Israel Tourist Board
Thank you for your correspondence regarding the Israel Tourist Board advertisement.
CBS Outdoor is not a media owner; however in representing our numerous franchise partners including London Underground, we have a responsibility to review posters on their behalf prior to posting.
Creative’s are checked by the CBS Outdoor Copy Approval team to ensure they adhere to the standards set by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). Where necessary we may seek further advice through the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP).
CAP enforces strict industry copy approval guidelines, represented under the British Code of Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing.
Advertising copy is looked at very closely and CBS Outdoor has some of the strictest guidelines in the media industry and as a result we receive a very small number of complaints.
We take our responsibility very seriously and all decisions regarding what could be contentious are considered thoroughly. All complaints received are recorded and passed through to our franchise partners and are considered when looking at future designs.
I apologise if you have been concerned by the content of this advertisement. We are aware that the ASA has already received a number of complaints and as the result of an instruction from the client we are in the process of removing the advertisements , however, should you also wish to complain to the ASA their details are provided below:
Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)
Mid City Place
71 High Holborn
London
WC1V 6QT
Telephone 020 7492 2222
Yours sincerely
Richard Ashman
Richard Ashman
Customer Service Manager
CBS Outdoor Limited
Camden Wharf
28 Jamestown Road
London NW1 7BY
T: 020 7428 2863
F: (020) 7267 9113
M: 07966 816863
www.cbsoutdoor.co.uk
Thank you for posting your reply Rami.
You'll be pleased to hear that the number of complaints has prompted the removal of these offending posters from the London Underground Network.
This serves to show us that we can influence change when we have the facts on our side.
It also teaches a lesson to opponents of Palestine that their lies will be exposed and defeated.
This has been a very significant blog indeed. I’ve acquired a lot of helpful information from your article. Thank you for sharing such relevant topic with us. I really love all the great stuff you provide. Thanks again and keep it coming
Post a Comment