[van-announce] RELEASE: Ad Series Brings “Disappearing Palestine” to Vancouver Public Transit

[Charlotte Kates]

Ad Series Brings “Disappearing Palestine” to Vancouver Public Transit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 27, 2013

 Contact: Martha Roth, Palestine Awareness Coalition, 604-733-2237,
martharoth at earthlink.net

Charlotte Kates, Palestine Awareness Coalition, 604-837-4217,
charlotte.kates at gmail.com

The realities of Palestinian land loss are on display in Vancouver, as a
new series of transit ads has been posted at the Vancouver City Centre
SkyTrain station and on 15 TransLink buses, on August 27, 2013. The ads,
created by the Palestine Awareness Coalition, made up of seven
Vancouver-area peace and justice groups, depict the “disappearance” of
Palestine due to Israeli occupation over the past 66 years.

“The goal of the advertising campaign is to make the Canadian public aware
of Israel’s steady absorption of Palestinian territory from 1946 to the
present day and the constant oppression that accompanies that occupation,”
said Martha Roth of Independent Jewish Voices, one of the groups in the
coalition.

The advertisements, which have rolled out on buses around Vancouver and on
a large wall mural at City Centre, feature a simple design that has been
used in billboard and transit advertising in Westchester County, NY,
Portland, Seattle and other places in the United States and throughout the
world in similar advertising campaigns. They feature four maps (1946, 1947,
1967 and 2013) which show Palestinian land loss due to occupation over
time. “The progression is breathtaking: one sees the Palestinian territory
shrinking to a few patches of green on the greater map of Israel,” said
Roth.

The groups involved in the coalition are Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign
(BIAC), Building Bridges Vancouver (BBV), Canada-Palestine Solidarity
Network (CanPalNet), Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), Necef Sabeel
(Near-East Cultural and Educational Foundation), Seriously Free Speech and
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights at the University of British
Columbia (SPHR-UBC).

The Coalition says that it is still engaged in general fundraising which
will be used to extend the run of the advertisements. For more information
on the transit ads, or to make a donation, please visit:
http://palestineawarenesscoalition.wordpress.com/






-- 
Charlotte L. Kates     charlotte.kates at gmail.com