DC bus ads to target Netanyahu Congress speech
American Muslims for Palestine call to ‘stop the disrespect – end US aid to Israel’ on buses across the capital ahead of address
A new campaign attacking Prime Minister Netanyahu and calling to end US aid to Israel was unveiled Wednesday by a Palestinian advocacy group in the US, which plans to run ads on buses across Washington, DC as Netanyahu visits the city next week.
According to a statement released by The American Muslims for Palestine on Tuesday, the campaign aims to use the Netanyahu’s contentious address to Congress on the Iranian nuclear program next week to bring to focus the “detrimental impact” of US support of Israel.
The group’s campaign quotes comments made by Netanyahu in 2001, in which he reportedly said “America is a thing you can move very easily.”
The comments were made public in 2010, as a video surfaced in which the prime minister was speaking to a group of terror victims, apparently unaware he was being recorded.
In the recording, Netanyahu is heard bragging about how he managed to “terminate the Oslo accords” and get Washington to agree that Israel would not pull back from any militarily strategic sites in the West Bank, with him deciding what those sites are.
Later on he is heard saying, “I know what America is, America is a thing you can move very easily.”
Below the quote on the bus ads, the group calls to “Stop the disrespect – end US aid to Israel.”
“At a time when the United States is close to a deal with Iran, Mr. Netanyahu is coming to persuade Congress to trade in a peaceful, diplomatic solution for war,” said Dr. Osama Abu Irshaid, AMP’s national political coordinator.
The prime minister accepted an invitation last month from Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), the speaker of the US House of Representatives, to address Congress, but the White House complained that Boehner had not cleared the invitation with Obama or Democrats in Congress.
Netanyahu’s speech is controversial because it puts Israel on a collision course with the Obama administration as it negotiates with Iran over its nuclear program, negotiations that Netanyahu says put Israel at risk. The speech is also set just two weeks before the prime minister faces elections back home
This is AMP’s third ad campaign in the capital, and they say a multi-city national campaign is due out in late March.
The group is also part of the #SkipTheSpeech campaign, along with Jewish Voice for Peace, Code Pink, and several other left-leaning organizations.
The campaign garnered nearly 60,000 signatures for a petition sent to lawmakers asking them to boycott Netanyahu’s speech, according to AMP.
Marissa Newman contributed to this report.
