SEATTLE, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Jewish groups in Seattle are outraged by plans for a bus ad campaign accusing Israel of war crimes.
The ads ordered by the Seattle Mideast Awareness Coalition are scheduled to go up next week, The Seattle Times reported Tuesday. The group said the date was selected because it is the second anniversary of Israel's invasion of Gaza in late 2008.
Richard Fruchter, head of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, said the ads could put Jews in the area at risk and appear to violate Seattle Metro's own policy against advertising derogatory of one group. In 2006, a Muslim man killed a woman and wounded several other people at the federation's office.
"I think that this is an ad that's designed to insult Israelis and the 50,000 members of the Jewish community, many of whom support Israel," Fruchter said.
The ad, to appear on the sides of 12 buses on routes serving Seattle, includes a picture of children looking at a collapsed building with the headline "Israeli War Crimes Your Tax Dollars At Work."
The group said it opposes any kind of racism and argues that opposing Israeli policy is not the same as being anti-Semitic.
A county spokesman, Frank Abe, said legal advisers say Seattle Metro cannot reject the ad if it continues to run other messages.
