Anti-Israel ads back in Boston transit

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said it was restoring dozens of ads critical of Israel to its transit system that had been taken down following public complaints.

On Oct. 24, the transit system said the 80 ads would be put back in the Greater Boston area and that there had been a “miscommunication” with its advertising contractor Titan, according to the Boston Globe.

The ads, which went up Oct. 21, were removed several days later by Titan following the complaints.

“There was a breakdown in our established procedures for handling complaints about specific ads,” a transit spokesperson said.

The ads consist of four maps that show what is called “Palestinian loss of land – 1946-2010.” A message alongside the maps reads “4.7 million Palestinians are Classified by the UN as Refugees.”

Connecticut resident Henry Clifford, chairman of the Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine, paid for the $40,000 campaign.

Similar ads are currently running in the Vancouver transit system, sponsored by a local anti-Israel group, while the Toronto Transit Commission has rejected such as ads as potentially anti-Semitic.

The pro-Israel group StandWithUs paid to have pro-Israel ads run in the Vancouver transit system to counter the anti-Israel ones.

Other ad campaigns with comparable ads have caused a stir in Washington, D.C., and New York, but the ads there were never removed.