(JTA) — A group known as the American Freedom Defense Initiative has submitted two advertisements to the Seattle transit company to counter an anti-Israel ad campaign on the city’s buses.
The ads from the group’s Stop Islamization of America program come in response to the ads being placed by the Seattle Midwest Awareness Campaign on 12 buses beginning Dec. 27 — the day that Israel entered Gaza two years ago in a bid to stop rocket attacks on its southern communities.
The Seattle Midwest Awareness Campaign ads feature a group of children looking at a demolished building under the heading "Israeli War Crimes: Your tax dollars at work."
One of the counter ads reads, "One Billion Dollars to Hamas: Your Taxpayer dollars at Work" and shows scenes of Hamas’ anti-Israel and U.S. rallies.
According to Seattle’s King 5 News, the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign paid $1,794 to King County Metro Transit to run the ads. Pamela Geller, the executive director of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, said the transit authority quoted her organization a price $1,000 higher for its ads.
Meanwhile, the transit authority told King-TV that that the agency had received more than 1,200 e-mails about the anti-Israel ad as of Tuesday, mostly against it. Most of the comments came from outside the Seattle area, according to the report.
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