Over the weekend London Palestine Action, kicked off Israeli Apartheid Week by pulling off the amazing feat of plastering underground tube trains with 150 unauthorized posters screaming “APARTHEID IS GREAT BRITAIN” explaining in the remaining text:
British-made arms were used by Israel to massacre Palestinians in Gaza in 2014. Over 100 UK companies continue to supply military equipment to Israel. They directly profit from Israeli apartheid and contribute to the militarised collective punishment of Palestinians.
A separate ad targeted the BBC, the UK’s national broadcast renown for its bias towards Israel, citing Tim Llewellyn, former BBC Middle East correspondent “We have become used to the fact that, in the BBC newsroom, and Israeli life is worth the lives of an infinite number of Palestinians” and highlighting how the extrajudicial execution of Dania Irsheid by Israeli forces went unreported by the BBC:
Prime Minister Netanyahu and opposition leader Yair Lapid responded swiftly, both taking credit for the signs’ removal. Lapid bragged how he asked his friend, London’s mayor Boris Johnson to remove the the advertisements and Netanyahu demanded the British government to take them down.
One of the ads targeted G4S, a British multinational security company (the world’s largest) headquartered in London operating prisons in Israel and the West Bank:
According to the London Evening Standard a spokesperson for Transport for London called the London Palestine Action’s Israel Apartheid ad campaign “an act of vandalism” and stated “Our staff and contractors are working to immediately remove any found on our network.”
London Palestine Action, told Mondoweiss “Israel’s reaction has been obscene. The fact that MKs are calling the London mayor to talk about some posters makes it clear just how scared Israel are of being delegitimised. They’re scared of BDS, and terrified people will see their regime for what it is: occupation and apartheid.”
There no better way underscore that fear than the revelation of the Israel’s Ministry of Tourism secret anti-BDS summit (no journalists allowed) with p.r. mastermind Frank Luntz brainstorming with 150 pro Israel activists, scrambling to counter Israel’s crumbling image and the rapid spread of BDS.
However, since Israel refuses to change their policies and end the occupation, it appears every action taken to counter their image backfires:
Even Yair Lapid is promoting #IsraeliApartheidWeek tube campaign! pic.twitter.com/zF0QuKKr84
— LDNPalestineAction (@LondonPalestine) February 22, 2016
The Jerusalem Post reports MK Tzipi Livni called for “the entire political spectrum” to fight the anti-BDS movement:
“Israel has to isolate them and not let other protest movements join them,” she said. “Israel is not an apartheid state and we in the Zionist Union will make sure it will not be one, because we will separate from the Palestinians. We will have a Jewish and democratic state, and they will have their own state.”
When Livni? Because that would go along way towards improving Israel’s image. Maybe they could consider that during the next anti-BDS brainstorming summit.
The action comes days after the British government announced plans to criminalize support for BDS and block the boycott of Israeli products.
UK BDS activists have a history of creative Tube train advertisements. See last September’s Dismaland Artists Hack London Ad Spaces In Anti-War Protest:
Ads of a different type on the tube today… #StopDSEI pic.twitter.com/eNcdfsx6kl
— Joumana Medlej (@joumajnouna) September 15, 2015
Ahem, you have it that jpost claims Livni will fight the *anti*-BDS movement? I suspect she wants the whole political (Israeli Jewish) spectrum to fight BDS! Just a tiny error.
Don’t those Brits have style! How I admire them.
Of course, putting up signs in that manner is illegal, but sooooo ethical! And I’m sure quite a few British straphangers will have noticed both the signs and the pull-down.
So when will the American public be able to see similar posters in big cities too? It is always countries in Europe that initiate a campaign to release the Palestinian people from zionist occupation, stop the land thefts, and give these poor people who live in limbo, a state to call their own. Our entire nation should be flooded with posters and huge billboards.
We need to be released from zionist influence very badly, since they are stifling free speech and well deserved criticism of their apartheid policies.
Great signs of the times!
Not only are they vandals, they are thugs too. The thugs threatened Bassam Eid at University of Chicago.
https://www.algemeiner.com/2016/02/21/palestinian-human-rights-activists-receives-death-threats-from-anti-israel-protesters-during-u-of-chicago-lecture-video/