Activist blogger Pamela Geller is petitioning New York federal court to force the city’s Metro Transportation Authority to accept an anti-Hamas ‘MyJihad’ ad campaign.
Geller filed the lawsuit against the New York MTA on Wednesday in Manhattan federal court.
Geller writes the ‘Atlas Shrugged’ blog and heads the pro-Israel American Freedom Defense Initiative. She is petitioning the court to force the MTA to accept a bus advertisement that includes the phrase “Hamas Killing Jews,” according to ABC News.
The MTA had rejected the ad last month, claiming it could incite violence. MTA director of safety and security Raymond Diaz released a statement on September 19, saying the ad “would lead reasonable observers to interpret it as urging direct, violent attacks on Jews, given turmoil in Gaza, Syria and Iraq and New York city’s heightened security concerns.”
Court papers indicate that Geller’s group planned to express its views with a series of ads on public issues, “including issues such as Islam’s hatred of Jews.”
According to Geller, the MTA agreed to display three out of four of the ads, Jewish Business News.com reported.
Excluded was one with the line, “Killing Jews is Worship that draws us close to Allah.” “That’s his Jihad. What’s yours?” Alongside the quote a face appears covered with a white and black-checkered keffiyeh.
The quote is a parody of an ad campaign by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) which promotes the concept of “MyJihad” – namely, that “jihad” or “Islamic holy war” is an individual personal struggle, and not necessarily always about violent terrorism.
Geller’s lawsuit cites “ongoing terrorism by Hamas operatives against Israeli civilians in the name of Islamic jihad” and says the rejected ad is therefore timely.
The suit adds that the ad has been displayed in other cities – including Chicago and San Francisco – with no violent reactions.