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Friday, May 01, 2009
Anti-Israel Billboards Removed
By Olivier Uyttebrouck
Journal Staff Writer
An outdoor advertising company this week removed 10 billboards calling for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel after receiving dozens of phone calls and e-mails objecting to the ad's message.
They featured photos of a Palestinian girl and an Israeli tank with the text, "Tell Congress: Stop Killing Children; No More Military Aid to Israel."
The billboards, which went up in early April in Albuquerque, were purchased by the Coalition to Stop $30 Billion to Israel, at a cost of about $3,200 for an eight-week contract.
The group wants to suspend a 2007 agreement that provides $30 billion in military aid to Israel over 10 years. It formed in January in response to a three-week Israeli military operation in Gaza.
Michael Mons, a general manager of Lamar Outdoor Advertising, said his office has received at least 75 phone calls in addition to e-mails from people expressing a range of opinions about the billboards.
"Judging from e-mails and voice mails I've received, it's a very emotional issue," Mons said Thursday.
"I realized it did not comply with our policy, because it was misleading and factually inaccurate, and that's when I decided to pull the ads," he said. "We do know that military aid is going (to Israel), but it is not going there with the purpose to kill children."
Mons said he plans to meet today with group members and attempt to revise the message.
Coalition member Lori Rudolph said Thursday that she disagreed with Mons' interpretation of the ad's message. "We didn't say (the money) is being sent to kill children," Rudolph said, "we're saying it is killing children."
She also said Mons should have met with coalition members before he decided to remove the ads. The firm had an obligation to fulfill the eight-week contract, she said.
Mons responded that the firm intends to honor its contract with the group. "They're going to get their full contract value," he said.
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