London tube ad wipes Palestine off the map! – PSC call for action
The call for action has been successful – see below!
Posters have recently appeared in London Underground tube stations advertising Israel as a tourist destination. The map on the advert depicts Israel as incorporating the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. Please write to London Underground, the Advertising Standards Agency and CBS Outdoors – the company which manages the poster sites – asking for the removal of these posters, which deliberately deny the existence of Palestine. Contact details are at the bottom of this email.
A draft letter is included below. You can use this letter as it is, or take the information from it to write your own. Please make sure to forward all responses to PSC.
DRAFT LETTER:
Dear …
I have noticed with concern a poster which is currently being displayed on London Underground’s advertising sites.
The poster has been produced by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism as part of an advertising campaign to attract visitors to Israel.
The map on the advertisement portrays Israel as an area which incorporates the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights.
However, none of these areas are part of Israel, but instead have been subject to military occupation or blockade by Israel since 1967.
UN Resolution 242 calls on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, which are Palestinian territories, but Israel remains in violation of this resolution, and also maintains its illegal occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights.
Israel has sealed off the Gaza Strip since 2005, making access virtually impossible, resulting in severe shortages of food, medicine and clean water, which has left the Strip’s 1.4 million Palestinians facing a humanitarian crisis. Any ‘tourists’ would be unable to visit the Gaza Strip, as Israel prevents even humanitarian aid workers and lawyers from entering.
In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israel continues to build settlements in direct contravention of international law, taking land from the Palestinians to do so and demolishing their homes and farms in the process.
In addition, Israel is in the process of building the Apartheid Wall through the West Bank, which, when completed, will expropriate 50% of Palestinian land in the West Bank, depriving farmers and families of their livelihoods and water supply, and making movement for Palestinians almost impossible.
The Wall breaches numerous international agreements, including the Fourth Geneva Convention’s articles on the destruction of land and/or property (article 53) and on collective punishment (article 33).
The Israeli Ministry of Tourism’s assertion, through the map displayed on the poster, is insidious and wrong, and I urgently call on you to remove it from all its sites to avoid being complicit in this deliberate misinformation.
I look forward to your response.
Yours
CONTACT DETAILS:
1. Transport for London
Email: enquiry@tube.tfl.gov.uk
Tel: 0845 330 9876
Post: Customer Service Centre, London Underground, 55 Broadway, London SW1H 0BD.
What will happen: The complaint will go to the appropriate section and you will receive an answer.
2. CBS Outdoor Ltd
Email: The customer service manager, Richard Ashman
richard.ashman@cbsoutdoor.co.uk
Tel: 020 7482 2863
Post: 28 Jamestown Road, Camden Lock, London, NW1 7BY
What will happen: CBS approves advertising internally, but seek advice from the Committee of Advertising Practice. CBS also works in connection with the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA). It can be asked to remove advertising from its sites by the ASA.
3. Advertising Standards Agency
Email: new.complaints@asa.org.uk
Tel: 020 7492 2222
Post: Advertising Standards Authority, Mid City Place, 71 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6QT
What will happen: The complaint will be considered within the codes of practice, and you will receive a reply within 10 days.
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Update (Friday 22 May 16.30)
We have just received this statment from the PR company representing CBS Outdoor, regarding removal of the posters:
“Instructions to remove the campaign came through to CBSO from Posterscope acting on behalf of Total Media. As a result of this instruction we stopped posting on Wednesday night (20/5) with approximately 109 sites out […]