The T already banned ads for political candidates and ballot questions, and has for a variety of other things including alcohol, tobacco and firearms.
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Both sides faced off during the public comment portion of a meeting of the MBTA’s fiscal control board before the board voted unanimously to revise its advertising policy, banning such ads.
The decision comes after other transportation agencies, such as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in NY, have banned political and religious ads, and continues a debate over whether public transportation is a proper forum for politicized speech.
John Englander, the MBTA’s general counsel, said the policy change had been under discussion before the current controversy, and was consistent with policies in NY City and Chicago.
To be noted, the total number of Palestinians who were killed by Israeli fire since the beginning of violent unrest across the Palestinian Territory and Israel in early October, 2015, has reached 97, including 21 minors and four women.
Charles Jacobs, director of the group Americans for Peace and Tolerance, said the ad puts “the Jewish community here in danger”.
“At a time when Jews and Israelis around the world are facing mounting violence and anti-Semitism, this false and deceptive advertisement can only be construed as hostile and dangerously provocative”, the council said in a statement.
A prominent Israeli settler ran over a 16-year-old Palestinian girl and then shot her dead, claiming that he believed she meant to carry out a stabbing attack at Huwarra checkpoint in the northern occupied West Bank district of Nablus, there are no reports of any Israeli injuries, Israeli media reported. A recent graduate of the Maimonides School in Brookline, Schwartz was studying in Israel.
No Israelis were reported injured during the incident.
“The T is a public place”.
Richard Colbath-Hess of the Palestine Advocacy Project, the group behind the ad, defended the ad and said if the MBTA takes down his, they will be put in the position of defining what is and isn’t political.
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“We appreciate the MBTA board’s dilemma around political ads”, he said. Even if the MBTA eliminates political ads, there will still be lawsuits.
