The left’s hatred for Israel is matched only by its love for Islamists.
The ACLU of Washington, representing a group that purchased a bus ad alleging Israeli war crimes, sued King County Wednesday over its decision to cancel the ad before it appeared.
The lawsuit in U.S. District Court claims King County violated the group’s First Amendment rights and asks the court to order the county to run the ad for four weeks on the sides of 12 buses, as Metro and its ad agency originally agreed to do.
Metro’s initial acceptance of the ad from the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign touched off an onslaught of complaints by e-mail and phone, and three other organizations said they planned to run counter-ads portraying Israel as a victim of Palestinian terrorism.
Metro and County Executive Dow Constantine initially said the ad was consistent with county ad standards and it would violate the sponsor’s free-speech rights to cancel it.
A few days later, Metro canceled the ad and said it wouldn’t accept any new noncommercial advertising until the county adopted a new ad policy. Constantine said in a statement at the time that he had been told by federal and local law-enforcement agencies the bus system “could be vulnerable to disruption” because of the ad and he approved the decision to cancel it.
The ad, which never appeared on Metro buses, showed children looking at a bomb-damaged building in Gaza and these words: “Israeli war crimes — Your tax dollars at work.”
HT: Ideocracy