US ٍSupreme Court won’t hear appeal over anti-Palestinian ad

The US Supreme Court rejects an appeal from an anti-Muslim group that wants to put ads on Boston-area mass transit that authorities rejected as inflammatory.

The justices on Monday let stand court rulings that upheld rejection of the ads by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. The agency says ads from the American Freedom Defense Initiative using the word “savage” to describe Palestinians and Muslims were “demeaning or disparaging.”

The group, which bills itself as pro-Israel, claims the rejection violates its right to free speech and shows a double standard on the part of the transit agency because it allowed a pro-Palestinian group to run a subway ad.

The ads in question described the conflict as between “civilized man and the savage.” The MBTA accepted a different version that was critical of people engaged in “savage acts.”

— Agencies