A new ad is appearing in buses and bus shelters in some Connecticut cities. It features the famous maps of disappearing Palestinian land, along with a quote from David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister:
“I favor partition of the country because when we become a strong power after the establishment of the state, we will abolish partition and spread throughout all of Palestine.”
The ads are thanks to Henry Clifford’s Committee for Peace in Israel and Palestine. In the spring Clifford ran this ad in the Hartford Courant (image thanks to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs), using the same Ben-Gurion quote then stating that the U.S. does nothing to stop the Israeli settlement project. “Our tax dollars assist Israel in doing what we ask them not to do.”
Ben-Gurion made the statement at a Zionist meeting in 1938, according to this book. The pro-Israel group CAMERA has disputed Clifford’s campaign by arguing that Ben-Gurion intended that Arabs would be a party to this process.
Clifford — a friend of this site — has been trying to raise consciousness on the east coast for years– like the disappearing-Palestine map ads at Metro North stations in New York in 2012 that got a lot of folks het up. He has one goal, to stir discussion so that people become more aware of the issues. You’ll notice that he puts his email address on all his pronouncements. hcliffordws@aol.com. So let him know what you think.
CAMERA has just launched a campaign pushing US Congress to stop C-SPAN from allowing callers on its 3 hour morning show, Washington Journal, from criticizing Israel. CAMERA says it’s been monitoring CSPANWJ since 2008 and has counted way too many anti-Semitic rants against Jews & Israel; it says CSPAN is impliedly complicit in anti-Semitism because the host does not cut the callers off, or voice the pro-Israeli stance and context. CAMERA is very careful to conflate criticism of Israel with its alleged anti-Semitism. Many comments on MW over the years have voiced criticism of CSPANWJ because they so often cut off callers who begin to criticize Israel. I can personally say I have seen this often, especially in the last few years.. Sure is a hot potato, eh?
So shortly after Mr. Weiss writes an article excoriating Michael Oren for supposedly lying by omission for not mentioning that a synagogue, which was blown up by an unknown assailant, had scheduled Kahane to speak because that somehow made the bombing not traumatic or anti-Semitic, has no problem with a bus ad that takes a quote out of context because it supposedly “raise consciousness” about the issue. Apparently what constitutes a lie on Mondoweiss has nothing to do with actual fact and everything to do which side is taken.
Are these the same misleading maps that have been used before?
https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2013/08/disappearing-palestine-ads-come-to-vancouver-public-transit#comment-588426
Good maps. Good ads. Great effort.
Many thanks to Henry Clifford’s Committee for Peace in Israel and Palestine~ you’re indefatigable!
Respect!
Thanks to this brave organization for daring to sepak truth to the power.