ACTION ALERT: AMP working with coalition opposing ads that denigrate Palestinians

Sign petition asking transportation agency to remove

(CHICAGO 08/14/2012) –— The American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) is working with a coalition of civil rights organizations that oppose new ads that appeared on MUNI buses in San Francisco last week that calls Palestinians ‘savages.’

The ads, paid for by noted Islamophobe Pamela Gellar and her American Freedom Defense Initiative, said, “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.”  Not only are they offensive, in today’s intolerant climate they could possibly incite someone to violence against Muslims, Arabs or other people of color.

AMP, the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Asian Law Caucus (ALC) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) came together to confront the transportation authority on the grounds the ad violated the free speech clause of the First Amendment as well as several regulations in the agency’s own policy regarding outside advertising.

“We have two issues here – in today’s political climate from presidential candidate Mitt Romney to right-wing pundits like Gellar, it has become increasingly normal to discard Palestinians as sub-human or unworthy of serious consideration,” Dr. Bazian said. “This makes it easy to ignore their daily suffering under Israeli occupation. The other issue is that this demonization of Palestinians is taking place within the larger context of demonizing all Muslims, which as we’ve seen recently, opens the community up to becoming the recipients of scurrilous acts of violence. There is no room in our American society for this kind of behavior. It is unacceptable. We are happy the San Francisco Transportation Authority listened to us and agreed to remove the ads.”

TAKE ACTION

The Transportation Authority is set to meet next Tuesday, Aug. 21, to take up the matter again. We must present them a unified voice that Gellar’s ad crosses the line and ventures into hate speech that could incite violence.

A petition condemning the ads is being circulated and will be presented at the hearing. Please sign the petition and share it with your friends.

http://www.change.org/petitions/commissioner-join-us-in-condemning-ads-that-are-hate-speech-and-promote-violence

Background

Not only was the ad inflammatory and deceptive, it painted Palestinians as savages; and its misuse of the Islamic term ‘jihad’ painted Palestinians and Muslims as violent people, thereby demonizing them and making then vulnerable to attacks against them.

In the past 11 days alone, eight acts of violence against houses of worship have taken place, according to Salon.com, including the deadly shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin that killed seven worshipers and the gunmen. The other seven incidents have been against Muslims and their mosques. These included the outer walls of a Morton Grove, IL., mosque being damaged by rifle fire, while worshipers were inside, and an acid bomb being thrown at an Islamic high school in the same state. Pigs’ feet were strewn on the lawn of a mosque in Calif., while teens pelted Muslim worshipers with eggs and oranges at another mosque there. A mosque in Joplin, Mo., was likely torched and it burned to the ground, while two mosques in Oklahoma and Rhode Island also reported incidents of vandalism.

After decades of Israeli occupation, Palestinians have lost their freedom of movement; are denied entry to Jerusalem where they could worship at their mosques and churches; have been cut off from jobs and economic opportunities outside the West Bank; are subject to random arrests and detentions and endure the demolitions not only of their homes but also of entire villages. Israeli Occupation Authorities control the borders, land and even water resources of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, while Palestinian citizens of Israel are relegated to second-class status and do not enjoy the same rights and privileges as their Jewish counterparts.