A Pray for Gaza billboard on northbound Hwy 59 before the Westlayan exit near the the Israel Consulate in Houston.
A battle for the hearts and minds of Houston residents is presently being waged between proPalestinian organizations, and those who consider themselves proIsrael in the Houston area. They represent different sides regarding the siege of Gaza, one working to end it, the other preferring its continuation. Its continuation obviously maintains the inhumane conditions that have inspired world wide condemnation and efforts to end it.
The Houston Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine heads the proPalestinian effort, and describes itself as a diverse group of community members organized on democratic principles to promote justice, peace, human rights, liberation and self-determination of the Palestinian people through a range of inter-group initiatives focusing on communication, outreach, education and activism in the greater Houston area. They support justice and human rights, ending direct aid to Israel, and pressing for Israel to abide by international law and end its illegal occupation of Palestine.
SAVE GAZA FROM HAMAS. Teach PEACE, not HATE
The opposition to ending the siege is the proIsrael organization, StandWithUs, who have sponsored billboards like the above one in opposition to the proPalestinian groups. StandWithUs says that it is an Israel advocacy group whose focus is on public outreach and education, from a grass-roots perspective.
Strangely, it was hard to find local Houston news reports of the battle. But the Israeli newspaper Haaretz covered the story.
Texans have had occasion this week to witness the eruption of a billboard war waged between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel grassroots organizations vying to tell Houston commuters their side of the story.
…two pro-Israel groups put up two giant roadside billboards bearing the message: “Save Gaza from Hamas. Teach peace, not hate.” The signs – featuring a picture of two boys, an Arab and an Israeli, sitting arm-in-arm and smiling – was put up in response to an earlier roadside campaign by a pro-Palestinian group under the banner “Pray for Gaza,” featuring crying Arab children.
The 10 pro-Palestinian signs were put up throughout the city after January’s Operation Cast Lead by an organization called the “Houston Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine.” The billboards pointed onlookers to a Web site (www.pray4gaza.org) praising the intifada and quoting critics of Israel, such as Jimmy Carter and Richard Falk. According to the site’s “Facts” section, in carrying out Operation Cast Lead – launched in response to Palestinian rocket fire – Israel “broke first” the cease-fire it had with Hamas. The site’s “History” section says Zionists began as “an extremist minority” of Jews, and accuses them of “sabotaging efforts to place Jewish refugees in Western countries” during the Holocaust.
“We believe in confronting big lies about Israel head-on, and they don’t come much bigger than on a billboard,” said U.K.-born Michael Dickson from Jerusalem, head of the organization’s Israel branch. “Pray4Gaza, via their campaign and their Web site, deliberately twist facts and distort history to demonize Israel. People should pray for Gaza; pray for it to be free from Hamas’ tyranny.”
In the meantime, in Albuquerque, NM the ad below was taken down after only three weeks of display. But that’s another story.
In other news from the Houston area, again not from local newspapers, it was reported and pictured below that a Houston activist delivered aid to Gaza.
Sahar Abusada (holding flowers) returns to Houston after delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Palestinian-American activist Sahar Abusada returned home and was greeted by a welcoming crowd at the airport in Houston Feb. 28. Abusada had raised money in Houston to buy 140 large tents and 280 blankets for families in Gaza who are homeless due to the recent Israeli bombing.
When Abusada came through customs she was greeted with cheers and bouquets of flowers given to her by family and fellow activists.
They called it a war, but for those who followed the Gaza conflict over several weeks, it was a massacre of defenseless civilians, who are now being subjected to the inhumane conditions brought on by a siege. It is justified by “Hamas” laden propaganda. So which side is getting the right message out?
