Jul
22
Wall football ad infuriates Palestinians
Filed Under Media
It lasts less than one minute, but a local telephone company’s television commercial is causing a furore in Israel. The controversial advert shows a fun game of football next to the security wall round the West Bank. It has led to a furious response from Palestinians.
Palestinian politicians are calling it disgusting and insulting. They are demanding it be withdrawn but Cellcom, the company behind the commercial, is not worried in the slightest.
Kicking a ball
The TV commercial kicks off with an Israeli army vehicle being struck by a ball from the other side of the wall. The soldiers decide to kick the ball back over. When the ball is immediately returned, they call for reinforcements. The scene develops into a friendly match between a whole army team and their unseen opponents on the other side of the wall.
The footie game ends with the pay-off: “When all’s said and done, what do we all want out of life? A bit of fun!”
Garden fence
The advert has unleashed a storm of criticism. Critics are slamming Cellcom for making use of the suffering of the Palestinians to sell mobile phones.
Arab member of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) Ahmed Tibi explains that “the wall separates families and stops children from going to school. The company behind this advert makes it look like a garden fence in Tel Aviv.”
Cellcom rejects all the criticism and is refusing to scrap the commercial. A company spokesman defends the advert as actually illustrating how people from different backgrounds want to have fun in exactly the same way. The message will actually help Israelis and Palestinians come closer together.
Vulgar humour
Critics dismiss this explanation as disingenuous. They argue that the ad is aimed at young Israelis doing their compulsory army service and that vulgar humour is more likely to get through to this target group than any fraternal message of peace. The fact that the Palestinians on the other side of the wall remain unseen is held up as an example of increasing the divide between the two communities.
Opponents of the commercial have started a group on the Facebook internet site, and there are spots on YouTube about the ad. One film clip shows the Israeli soldiers calling in air support after the ball has been returned; a Palestinian city is then seen coming under bombardment.
Cat and mouse
The protests are not confined to the Internet. Every week, hundreds of Palestinians and foreign peace activists protest against the construction of the wall in the Palestinian village of Bilin. Every week, the deadly game of cat and mouse with the Israeli army is repeated. The Palestinians throw stones and the soldiers reply with rubber bullets and tear gas. Several people have been killed.
After the commercial, the Bilin Palestinians decided to carry out a test. Rather than stones, a couple of footballs were kicked in the direction of the Israeli forces. Tear gas and water canons were used in response.
Reality
An activist explains: “We wanted to show how Israeli soldiers really behave rather than how they are depicted in the TV commercial. The protesters wanted to illustrate the reality surrounding the construction of the wall. That’s what we got in return: tear gas.”
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