Community Corner

Train Station Ads Claim Israel Does 'Apartheid'

A group called American Muslims for Palestine has launched a new ad campaign involving 25 train stations, including Ardsley-on-Hudson, Hastings-on-Hudson, Dobbs Ferry and Irvington.

A group has launched a new advertising campaign that claims Israel is engaging in apartheid against Palestinians.

The organization, called American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), has the ads slated to run at 25 Metro-North train stations in New York City, Westchester and Fairfield counties, with Ardsley-on-Hudson, Hastings-on-Hudson, Dobbs Ferry and Irvington among them.

The ad calls on the United States to cease giving aid to Israel and features a quote from Desmond Tutu as part of its assertion that what's happening is analogous to the old racial caste system in South Africa.

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Kristin Szremski, a spokeswoman for AMP, says the purposes of the ad campaign include informing the public and to talk about "the occupation of Palestine."

The MTA notes that it does not condone the message of the ads, but that the group has a right under the First Amendment to run them.

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“The views expressed in these and other paid ads displayed on MTA property are those of the ad sponsor, not the MTA," stated spokesman Aaron Donovan. "MTA advertising spaces serve broadly as a vehicle for a wide variety of communications, including, at times, controversial ads that express viewpoints on matters of public concern. The First Amendment restricts the MTA’s control over the content and timing of the messages expressed in paid advertisements; the MTA cannot pick and choose which viewpoint advertisements it will run based upon the viewpoint expressed.” 

Szremski also explained that the ads are in response to advertising last year by Pamela Gellar of the group the American Freedom Defense Initiative, in support of Israel, whose work garnered controversy last year, according to media reports.

The campaign supported by Gellar ran in New York City's subway system, according to The Huffington Post (Patch's sister company), and included language saying, "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad."

Gellar's group also ran an ad with a photo of the World Trade Center's explosion on Sept. 11, 2001, The Huffington Post reported, with a verse from the Quaran next to it.

Gellar plans a response to the new ads, according to Newsday.

"I can assure you that this latest [Joseph] Goebbels-style demonization of the Jews will not go unanswered," she told the news outlet. "We are working right now to get ads responding to these ready for submission."

Scott Richman, who is the regional director for AJC Westchester, blasted the ads when he spoke to The Journal News.

“It’s an attempt to demonize Israel, linking it to the terrible apartheid regime that existed in South Africa,” he told the media outlet. “It’s a ridiculous allegation. With apartheid in South Africa, blacks were not citizens and could not vote. In Israel, Palestinians constitute 20 percent of the population. They are full citizens.”

The ads are not the first of their kind to run at the region's train stations. Last summer, a group called the Committee for Peace in Israel and Palestine ran a campaign across several stations, including Mount Kisco and Chappaqua, showing maps of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza strip and how lines changed over decades. 

Below is a copy of a list of the Metro-North stations for where the ads are scheduled, provided to Patch by the group:

  • Greenwich 
  • Cos Cob
  • Riverside
  • Old Greenwich
  • Stamford
  • Tremont
  • Crestwood
  • Hartsdale
  • White Plains
  • 125Th Street
  • Fordham
  • Woodlawn
  • Ossining
  • Philipse Manor
  • Irvington
  • Ardsley
  • Dobbs Ferry
  • Hastings
  • Yonkers
  • Riverdale
  • Spuyten Duyvil
  • Marble Hill
  • Chappaqua
  • Mount Kisco
  • Bedford Hills


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