Israeli, Palestinian groups place ads on TriMet trains, buses
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Tensions in the Middle East are being played out on Portland's mass transit system.
A pro-Palestinian group recently paid for an ad on buses and trains about the plight of Palestinian refugees.
A pro-Israeli group has responded with ads describing opponents of Israel as "savage" and carrying the words: "Defeat Jihad."
The new ads (see both below) started running Tuesday. They were purchased by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, a group run by blogger Pamela Geller.
Portland's mass transit system is the fourth to become a forum for the conflict, following New York, San Francisco and Washington.
Geller says the ads will be placed "anywhere" the anti-Israel ads run.
TriMet marketing director Drew Blevins says court rulings require the agency to accept all ads regardless of content.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
It's interesting to do some research on the person who paid for the Pro-Israel ads. She is a far right wing extremist who has been cited by the Norwegian mass murderer and has been invited by German neo-nazis to speak at their events. "In 2009, Geller was invited to address the German far-right organization Pro Köln [Cologne], described as a successor group to the neo-fascist German League for People and Homeland." The Southern Poverty Law Center has an extensive profile of this hate monger. http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/profiles/pamela-geller
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There is no comparison between the two ads in question. One cites United Nations and International Law, and the other uses hate and inflammatory, 18th century language that in the U.S. was the language of genocide ( "savages").
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Whatever one may think about the conflict, anyone can see that the it's offensive and disrespectful of our First Nations neighbors and citizens to use inflammatory language of genocide on public buses in our city.
As long as they allow multiple sides to advertise their propaganda, I don't have an issue with this.
There will never be peace in Israel till one of the two are dead. They both like fighting too much to stop it.Â
Tri-Met allows this kind of advertising??? Seriously?? These vehicles belong to us. Not the agendas of foreign countries !!
 @Rob C 503 They don't belong to private businesses either, but they're allowed to advertise, don't see how this is any different.
I don't care how many adds the Palistinians place. In '78, I was in Israel when they hijacked two buses, blew them up with the people inside. 30+ men, women, and children (civilians all) were incinerated Every day, they send rockets and mortars into southern Israel. As long as they continue to murder innocent civilians, they deserve nothing.
The middle eastern political way of life nor their religious views are compatible with the western way of life.....We are the "infidels and their goal is to destroy us...
 @FreerideNOT Isn't that what they say about us?
Quick history trivia: Does anyone know who the Palestinians sided with during WWII? Â The Nazis, that's who, THEY are the terrorists, not the Israelis.
 @archon312 Many Americans also supported the Nazis prior to entering WWII.
Blevins says that they must accept all ads, regardless of content? I wonder if the KKK or a pedophile group approached Trimet about posting ads on their buses, that they would be signing the same tune? I highly doubt it. And since when is anti-semitism, or referring to a ethnic group as savages, considered advertising? Way to support prejudice, and further the cause of ethnic hatred, Trimet. Doing your part, one bus stop at a time.
Palestinians were the first terrorist and are still praticing terrorism.
 @sortbait Look at the map. Look who is taking the land. The IDF gets free USA state of the art weapons. They keep Gaza a enclosed prison and take more land every day in the west bank.
What would you do ?, lay down and be a doormat ? I would love playing poker with you.
If Blevins and TriMet had any backbone or ethics, they would refuse to post this kind of dangerous propaganda and challenge any laws (if in fact there are any, which I doubt) that require them to accept it.
This isn't advertising, it's propaganda. Tri Met should recognize the distinction and disallow this kind of inflammatory BS.
@Old29 .....on this we agree.
There are two choices. Either you are against terrorism and back Israel or believe that terrorism is OK and back the Palistinians who support terrorism.  There is no middle ground.Â
 @boomer 'There are two choices.'
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Well, there's a good excuse to be late for work..."Sorry boss, my normal bus didn't support my views,...can't be too careful with the potential for terrorists now that buses could be targets."
 @boomer I'm having a difficult time backing the story that something written in the bible gives an organization the right to evict people from their land and occupy it all because 'it was written'. That strip of land conveniently covers a strategic area of sea and air, to defend a wealth of resource.
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Is it coincidence that Israel became a nation right around the time the wealth of oil fields were discovered in the region?Â
 @boomer Propaganda at it's finest. Keep drinking the government kool-aid.
Drew Blevins is being completely untruthful. That's a total cop out. There are no blanket generic court rulings to that effect. Particularly when the content is inflammatory and potentialy exposes Tri Met riders to harm. Why don't they just put a cartoon strip of the prophet Muhammed on the bus and take bets on when it will blow up?
 @shorin And the buses are private property. No law requires a private company to accept any and all propaganda on its property.
If only the Israelis treated the Palestinians civillyÂ
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7lLluBf0xs
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@B Smizzle Is that video the documentary regarding the border crossing? I watched that a few weeks back, most of the interactions were polite, although some of the front line guards seemed a bit clueless. The one instance I recall where they were rude they still let the guy through. Iâve had a tougher time crossing the Canadian border. There are better examples of Israelis mistreating Palestinians.
 @JTesla  @B But it is also doubtful you and I will solve this problem in 2-4 messages on the KATU message board!  If we do, I say we run for pres against the two clowns bickering like little kids on my TV!
 @JTesla  @B Either this is a different video, or you are clueless.  If you're clueless, I hope you don't breed!
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"There are better examples of Israelis mistreating Palestinians."
No this is the core issue....if you mistreat and humiliate an entire people, restrict their freedoms and movements on a daily basis and treat them like prisoners on their own land don't expect them not to act like prisoners! Â Like I said above, when you kick a dog every day don't cry, whine and blame the dog when it bites you one day.
@B Smizzle Oh, Iâm sorry, I thought we could have an intelligent discourse on the matter obviously I was wrong. I even went so far as to watch the entire video when it was posted before, and in essence, I was agreeing with you that the Palestinians are mistreated. Iâve also noticed that you and I tend to have similar ideologies and Iâve agreed with more of your posts than disagreed, so why you need to resort to petty insults is beyond me.
Awesome! Ancient death cults fighting a modern turf war on our buses.
Does anyone even read these ads? Most of the folks have their heads down texting or getting media updates!
@jpk I was going to say that people driving by the buses would see them, but they also have their heads down texting or getting media updates.
Hmmm, This gives me ideas...."TriMet marketing director Drew Blevins says court rulings require the agency to accept all ads regardless of content."
That Israeli poster is absolutely disgusting. let them fight their own damn wars, we give them too much support already.
Palestinians like to blow up a bus with women and children in them. Â They are not refugees
 @sortbait Look at the map. Who is taking Palestinian land ? What would you do if your land home and loves ones were expelled by force ? Lie down and be a doormat ? Let's get together and play a game of high stakes poker.
 @sortbait And Israel likes to bomb them with planes, tanks and white phosphorous (war crime) and take their land.  Then they like to treat them as second class citizens on their own land (West Bank)...you can't kick a dog 100 times then cry and blame the dog when it bites you!
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7lLluBf0xs