The In Their Own Words series was created to spark conversation on U.S. college campuses seldom featured in the mainstream media. Thus far nine college campuses, including University of California-Berkeley, have agree to publish ads in their campus newspapers.
PalAd intern Maggie Liu said, "As a college student living on a politically-active campus, I know firsthand how little young people know about the reality of the situation. I hope these ads will bring some much-needed dialogue to campuses across the country."
Palestine Advocacy Project notes that during this election cycle American politicians have condemned Donald Trump's racist, inflammatory rhetoric but they let Israeli politicians off the hook time and again because both the Democratic and Republican establishments pander to the Israel lobby:
Because, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put it, "I know what America is. America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction."One of the ads features Israel's explicitly racist Minister of Justice, Ayelet Shaked. Liu points out, "If you do your own research, you'll quickly find many more hateful quotes." She's absolutely right.
One of the ads features Israel's deputy defense minister, Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan, who heads the army's "Civil Administration" (occupation) of the West Bank supervising the theft of Palestinian land as well as granting and revoking entry and travel permits for Palestinians. He says Palestinians are beasts:
Farida El Hefni, a student at University of Rochester in New York states, "It is beyond disturbing that someone in a position of power can say these things and not even flinch," and asks "How are these politicians that are so quick to accuse people of being anti-Israel or anti-Semitic the same ones using fascist language to describe an entire group of people?"
Remember former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon's inflammatory reference to amputating organs"?:
PalAd intends to continue exposing the hypocrisy surrounding the U.S.'s relationship with Israel. Their 2014 "One Word" campaign showcased the daily violence Palestinians are subjected to. PalAd's recent poetry campaign brought Palestinian Poet Laureate Mahmoud Darwish's work into public spaces. And their new campaign, focusing on the violent rhetoric of upper echelons of Israeli political leadership — backed by US politicians — synchronizes with our election cycle. There's no better time to have a national dialogue about our relationship with Israel.
Check out more of these violent statements here. The campaign is also accepting donations here.
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