MBTA Bans Political Ads After Israel Controversy

The vote followed a contentious public meeting at which a number of speakers denounced the ad, which appeared this month on a wall at the Davis Square subway station in Somerville.

The ad was defended by representatives of The Palestine Advocacy Project, which said it was meant to criticize the governments of Israel and the USA, not the Jewish people.

The decision comes after other transportation agencies, such as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in NY, have banned political and religious ads, and continues a debate over whether public transportation is a proper forum for politicized speech.

“We have had a number of lawsuits about these issues in the past and by making this change, those lawsuits will be minimized”, Englander told the board.

To be noted, the total number of Palestinians who were killed by Israeli fire since the beginning of violent unrest across the Palestinian Territory and Israel in early October, 2015, has reached 97, including 21 minors and four women.

Three Palestinians, including a teenager, attacked Israelis with knives and a vehicle in the occupied West Bank Sunday and were killed when civilians and security forces intervened. A recent graduate of the Maimonides School in Brookline, Schwartz was studying in Israel.

The incident occurred only 24 hours after the last killing at the checkpoint, where a 16 year old Palestinian girl was run over and then shot dead by a prominent Israeli settler.

“The MBTA must not be intimidated by radicals”, Jacobs said, demanding the ad be taken down and the person who approved it be fired.

“The T is a public place, it should have public debate”, said Colbath-Hess.

Monday’s unanimous vote by the board that oversees the MBTA will ban all ads on political and social issues. The ads had already caused controversy a year ago, but the American Civil Liberties Union successfully pushed the MBTA to put up the ads again. “This is good for the American public”, said Richard Colbath-Hess, a board member for the Palestine Advocacy Project, the group that sponsored the ad. Colbath-Hess said that pro-Israeli groups should get their own ad so both sides can be in the public view.