Pasted below is a copy of a letter, mailed today, from New York City Councilman Lew Fidler to the MTA, urging them to disallow and/or remove a series of planned anti-Israeli subway ads. The ads, by a group called Two-Peoples-One-Future, beautify an ugly political message and the Councilman is requesting, in the interests of not provoking subway riders, that these ads not be allowed in our subways.

September 12, 2011

President Thomas F. Prendergast
MTA New York City Transit

2 Broadway
New York, NY 10004

Re: TwoPeoplesOneFuture.org Transit Ads

Dear President Prendergast:

I am writing this letter regarding the ‘Be On Our Side – End US Military Aid to Israel’ ad campaign, by the group TwoPeoplesOneFuture.org (‘TwoPeoples’) that will be appearing in New York City subway stations in a few weeks. These advertisements, which are part of a larger campaign, have an underlying biased political message that is repugnant and potentially inflammatory and have no place in our transit system. I would urge you to disallow and/or remove these advertisements.

A few months ago, a group affiliated with TwoPeoples (not only does two TwoPeoples link directly to the other group, Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign, calling it a ‘related’ campaign on their website but they are also both member organizations of the same coalition, dubbed ‘The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation’) tried to put their own ads up, as part of this same general campaign, in the Seattle transit system. There, after a public outcry, the transit system properly rejected the ads and a Federal Judge, in February 2011, supported the denial, noting in his decision that the Supreme Court has upheld the discretion of transit systems to accept advertising or not, since a bus or a subway station is about commerce and not per se a public forum.

The Seattle ad campaign was to feature violent images of destruction, initially including a destroyed building. Now this wider transit campaign has reached our City, albeit with prettier window dressing, but we should be no less diligent in rejecting it. This is a highly political campaign with a controversial underlying anti-Israeli message. That message can be dressed up with glossy photos of smiling people and mislabeled as peace or justice, but the same ugly message remains below the surface. The captive customers of our subway system should not be forcibly exposed to political advertisements that would provoke or anger them.

Therefore, I am writing to request that these advertisements be barred from appearing, or removed if already present. I hope you will maintain the subways as a place for as peaceful a commute as possible and I thank you for your time.

(YWN Desk – NYC)