This summer, a group called the “Stop the $30 Billion Coalition”, made up of twelve New Mexico anti-Israel groups, put up ten billboards around Albuquerque, saying that the US should not give Israel $30 Billion to kill children. After much protest against the billboards, Lamar Advertising, which owns the billboards, took them down before the contract time was up, offering to put them back up if the Coalition agreed to different wording — that didn’t claim that Israel was given $30 Billion in order to kill children. The Coalition refused. Now the Coalition has expanded its efforts and had a fund raiser, where they showed a documentary called “Voices from Inside” at the Guild Theater at the beginning of Rosh Hashanah.
The movie was not an attempt to present a factual argument for their viewpoint, but was meant to be a subjective movie that presented the far left narrative about Israel, geared to emotionally engage a credulous audience, a movie intended to “energize the base”.
Rita Erickson, the organizer of the fund raiser and a leading member of the Stop the $30 Billion Coalition, kindly agreed to be interviewed for this article.
LP: You’re sponsoring this movie, “Voices from Inside”, to raise money for your billboard campaign, and the Stop the $30 Billion Coalition…
I’d like to know your reasons and what you want to accomplish with these billboards.RE: We want to end the cycle of violence between the Israelis and the Palestinians. I believe the military aid, rather than contributing to the peace effort, contributes to violence against human rights and international law. The human rights charter was created after WWII to protect the world against racism, violence and genocide. It’s ironic that Israel, the very people who suffered these things through the centuries, is now the main perpetrator. Pain not healed reproduces itself in violence.
There is a problem with this. Considerable aid is given to the PLO and Hamas, per capita about the same as Israel. There is no call to end that aid. Consequently this coalition demands that Arab organizations dedicated to eventually ending Israel as Jewish state be supplied money and arms, but Israel itself should be cut off in the interest of “peace”. How will an aid embargo against Israel, while continuing heavy aid to the Arab terrorist groups, the PLO and Hamas, bring peace?
LP: How do you feel about military aid in general—to all the countries in the world? Do you feel that military aid shouldn’t be given in general, or is this specific to Israel?
RE: Generally I am not in favor of military aid. For example, in Afghanistan, I would rather aid go for nation building.
LP: A lot of aid is also given to the Palestinians, and much of it is diverted towards weapons to attack Israel. Are you against aid that goes for weapons for Palestinians, or do you think it’s worth it?
RE: I don’t know if that happens very much, I haven’t heard much of that…
LP: It happens a lot, it’s a big problem. There is no real oversight or way to prevent aid that’s given to the Palestinian governments from being used for weapons.
RE: That isn’t good either, there needs to be oversight.
It’s commendable to recognize that diverting humanitarian aid to weapons isn’t good. However, this coalition and like-minded groups don’t concern themselves with how to solve the problem of so much aid to Palestinians going for nation destroying rather than nation building. The concern is apparently only with disadvantaging Israel, not nation building. It is a very negative movement.
LP: What do you hope to accomplish by putting up your billboards?
RE: We hope that the billboards will raise awareness. Most people are unaware of the issues. It has to touch them. We hope that even if they disagree, they will begin to study and look into the issues and find out the facts for themselves. We want to activate and energize the public to care about these issues.
LP: Why do you want the public to be active—what do you want the end result to be—to make a change in US policy towards Israel?
RE: Yes, we expect increased awareness will cause political action. Change comes from the ground up. Originally Reagan was against sanctions on South Africa, but the strength of the popular movement against South African apartheid forced him to change his mind and support sanctions.
It’s true that most people would not think of these issues at all if it weren’t for the hard work of anti-Zionists trying to “raise awareness” and embed an unjustified hatred of Israel in the public consciousness. That is the anti-Zionist goal in the US, to turn the majority public opinion against Israel and consequently to turn US policy against Israel. Without opposition, this effort would eventually be successful, to the detriment of justice and world peace.
LP: You know, a lot of people would say that these peace movements are naive and can’t work because the leaders, both Hamas and Fatah, have the final aim of destroying Israel, not peace, and because they educate the children to hate Jews and Israel, and to want jihad and martyrdom. What would you say to them?
RE: It’s not true that Hamas wants to destroy Israel.
LP: It’s written in the charters of all the Palestinian organizations, and they say it frequently, even now, in recent public speeches.
RE: It’s a mistranslation. To me it’s a misrepresentation of meaning. It’s metaphorical for regime change is needed. I met Israeli peace activists who read everything Hamas writes or declares and who find themselves agreeing with most of what Hamas says. Hamas wants, first for Israel to end the occupation completely, than we can negotiate the details for long term peace and security arrangements. It makes sense.
Palestinians don’t need to teach hatred. They pick it up naturally by what they see, how their parents are oppressed. They can’t farm or work, go to school or to religious services in their own homeland. My experience was that Palestinians work desperately to reduce the stress, fear and anxiety in their children’s lives which is a direct result of the occupation. They don’t want to contribute to a child’s stress, fear and anxiety by teaching them to hate.
The calls for the destruction of the State of Israel, for finally making it into an Arab Islamic nation are clear and direct, and well documented. Disagreement is only over the method and timing of the effort, whether it is best done militarily or politically. These things can’t be explained away or ignored, they are facts that need to be dealt with.
The Palestinian government sponsored practice of teaching children to hate Israel and emulate terrorists is also very well documented. Do parents not want to teach children to hate? Nevertheless, Palestinian children are purposefully taught false history and hatred of Israel. If children would come by this hatred naturally from their living conditions, then why the necessity to indoctrinate children in schools, on TV programs and in the mosque?
Minarets are everywhere in Israel, and Muslim prayer calls are far from silenced. Arabs even control the Temple Mount and control when non-Muslims can go there. To say Arabs aren’t allowed to worship is a mind boggling desertion of reality.
The most outstanding feature of the “Palestinian narrative” as proposed by Palestinians, and even more so by their western supporters, is that it is ripped out of real history and presented out of context, rolled up in a ball that doesn’t admit outside truth, and tossed out to willing hands in the world. When facts are presented that contradict the narrative, they are simply denied or deflected. Do you care what the truth is? Research it and learn for yourself. Don’t believe everything you see on a billboard.
