Freedom of speech is a constitutional right that all Americans have and sometimes this freedom leads to one sided propaganda. In Seattle, Washington a group who calls itself the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign has paid King County $1,794 so that 12 public buses that will carry the message "Israeli War Crimes. Your tax dollars at work", through downtown Seattle starting December 27, 2010, to commemorate the two year anniversary of the Israeli attacks on Gaza. Ed Mast, a Seattle man who is a spokesperson for the group, says it’s not meant to be an anti-Israel message, but a message designed to generate discussion and awareness. Along, with the text there is an image of a group of children standing amongst the ruins of a demolished building.
What would you think if you saw this campaign? What image of Israel would you have if you knew nothing?
What would you think if you saw this campaign? What image of Israel would you have if you knew nothing?
Link to read more: http://www.king5.com/news/local/Israeli-War-Crimes-signs-to-go-on-Metro-buses-112108154.html
This is pretty disturbing. The majority of the American population has little to no knowledge of what goes on in the middle east. This is very upsetting to me :(
ReplyDeleteWe need to educate people and let them know what the full scope of the situation is.
To be honest, this strikes me as the work of a fringe, conspiracy-theory-oriented group (sort of like the type that contends that 9/11 was the work of a US gov't plot). Still, it's disturbing to see that such an agenda can make it this far. Would the same access to publicity be granted to a 9/11 conspiracy-theorist? (Or, worse yet, a holocaust denier?) After all, the facts are, to say the least, quite badly distorted here. Israel is not a puppet of the US, as this ad may suggest - rather, the relationship is one of extensive reciprocation and cooperation.
ReplyDeleteI think this article raises a few questions or concerns.
ReplyDeleteShould the government even allow such "freedom of speech"?
If yes, how do we fight this?
Yes, the government should always err on the side of allowing the widest margins for free speech possible. This falls within those margins. Please do not make the classic mistake of comparing every opinion against Jews to the Holocaust.
ReplyDelete