ReInked

An ad hoc group of Bay Area residents took to the streets last week to counter the misinformation of BlueStar PR's high-profile pro-Israel ad campaign. Bus shelter posters alleging that a majority of Palestinians consider Israel a model democracy, activists were replaced with ones offering "A Closer Look at Israel's Democracy."

In response to the contention that: "All Israelis – Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Druze– enjoy Israel’s vibrant democracy. Alone in the Middle East, Israel offers its citizens freedoms of speech, religion, and press, women’s rights, gay rights…" the new poster points out that:

"Israel's Democracy:
- includes political parties that call for the complete expulsion of Palestinians from Israel and the Occupied Palestinian territories. (Source: http://www.moledet.org.il/english/)
- implements the Law of Return which gives every Jew in the world the inherent right to settle in Israel as a citizen. Meanwhile Israel denies Palestinian refugees their Right of Return guaranteed by international law.
- "operates separate school systems, one for Jewish children and one for Palestinian Arab children…Palestinian Arab students receive substantially less funding than Jewish students, and they attend schools with larger classes and fewer teachers than Jewish children." (Source: Human Rights Watch)
- Denies basic human rights to 3.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza through the longest-running military occupation in modern history."