Subscribe to Print Edition | Fri., November 28, 2008 Kislev 1, 5769 | | Israel Time: 19:48 (EST+7)
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Last update - 07:59 27/11/2008
Advertising firms censor signs for fear of vandalism
By Jonathan Lis
Tags: israel news, tzipi livni 

Kadima Party chairwoman and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni discovered last week that her portrait had been expunged from dozens of Kadima's campaign billboards in Jerusalem. The reason for this, her advisers explained to her, was the fact that the billboard company with rights for Jerusalem, Maximedia, forbids displaying pictures of women in the city for fear of offending ultra-Orthodox sensibilities. Livni refused to toe the municipal line, and ordered her adviser, Reuven Adler, to replace the signs at once with signs that include her picture. Wherever placing her picture should prove impossible, Livni ordered that her signs be removed altogether.

Livni is not the only one to have her picture censored in recent months from billboards in the capital. Pictures of women who ran for a spot on the city council, election slogans that were considered too blunt, and even photographs of children who are not wearing skullcaps failed to get approved for billboards.

Just a few weeks ago the High Court of Justice ordered the Egged bus company and Canaan, the company that has the advertising franchise for its Jerusalem buses, to advertise the pictures of women candidates from the youth party Hitorerut! Yerushalmim. Canaan and Egged were worried about ultra-Orthodox extremists vandalizing the buses.
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A few weeks earlier, city council members from Meretz were surprised to discover that their campaign advertisements on buses had also been censored. The reason for this was the slogan that Meretz had chosen - "Putting an end to Haredization," which Egged said was offensive to the ultra-Orthodox public.

"Two days after the campaign was launched, Egged took down our ads without informing us of anything," Meretz faction head on the city council, Yosef Papa Alalu, said yesterday. "They claimed they would have to guard the buses on a daily basis so they would not be harmed."

A compromise was reached only after the parties went to court, and the election slogan was subsequently changed to "Jerusalem Free or Haredi."

Jerusalem city council officials yesterday insisted there is no written "advertising code" that dictates censorship of ads throughout the city, or any "modesty control" for Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. Municipality spokesman Gidi Schmerling said this week that the municipality has a committee whose job is to examine controversial publicity but that this committee has almost never banned an advertisement submitted for its consideration. It is actually the various advertising firms which have internalized the need for sensitivity in Jerusalem, that are the ones who ban pictures and slogans even before they can take the street test.

The unofficial code stipulates that in advertisements intended for the Zionist Orthodox public, and especially the ultra-Orthodox public, pictures of women will not be used, even if they are dressed modestly, and that children will always be shown wearing skullcaps.

A response yesterday from Egged spokesman Ron Ratner stated: "We do not wish to cause displeasure and dissatisfaction among hundreds of thousands of passengers from the ultra-Orthodox sector. Therefore we will not allow nude or semi-nude women."

Egged appointed a committee to examine any controversial advertisements. "In most cases there was no problem," Ratner said, "The slogans 'Peres will divide Jerusalem' or 'Bibi is bad for the Jews' will not go up on buses because they send offensive messages. Nor will we call for draft dodging on the buses."

Maximedia did not respond to Haaretz's request for a response.
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  1.   No free speech in Jerusalem? 08:21  |  HAL 27/11/08
  2.   What is wrong with images of women? 09:21  |  Clickfool 27/11/08
  3.   Who censors the Haredim? 09:23  |  Hannah 27/11/08
  4.   For Hannah # 3 10:08  |  Clickfool 27/11/08
  5.   Ridiculous cases necessitate equally ridiculous treatment 10:46  |  H.H.M. 27/11/08
  6.   The female body as symbolic territory 10:50  |  Rowan Berkeley 27/11/08
  7.   Hal, what`s good for the Left is good for . . . 12:01  |  Zev Davis 27/11/08
  8.   Segregated buses 12:57  |  Mike 27/11/08
  9.   #7 Zev 13:12  |  HM 27/11/08
  10.   In Bnei Brak, not just censoring the politicians 18:32  |  Matan 27/11/08
  11.   For how long will be letting those fanatics dicatete the rules??? 19:10  |  Northern 27/11/08
  12.   Where are the protest against talibanism ? 20:05  |  David 27/11/08
  13.   Extremes (left and right) must go 20:07  |  Dennis MI VI 27/11/08
  14.   HM, I am not suggesting a total ban, but . . . 21:47  |  Zev Davis 27/11/08
  15.   Mike, wanna know something? 21:53  |  Zev Davis 27/11/08
  16.   This is the 21th century problem 04:25  |  kia 28/11/08
  17.   If there were no pics of men, I wouldn`t mind 08:24  |  Lisha Sterling 28/11/08
  18.   # 15 zev 12:57  |  Axel 28/11/08
  19.   women faces 19:40  |  me 28/11/08
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