B’nai Brith Canada has expressed its outrage over a decision by the British Advertising Standards Authority (BASA) to ban an Israeli Government Tourist Office ad promoting Israel which included clips of the Western Wall. BASA’s decision was reportedly based on the grounds that it considered the Western Wall “occupied” territory, as it is situated in the Eastern part of Jerusalem. In a letter to the British High Commissioner in Ottawa, B’nai Brith called BASA’s decision an “egregious insult” to the Jewish community and called for it to be rescinded.
“BASA’s decision to ban the Israeli Government Tourist Office’s use of Western Wall imagery in its advertisement is an egregious insult to the Jewish community, and we have called for it to be rescinded,” said Frank Dimant, B’nai Brith Canada’s Executive Vice President. “Jerusalem has been, and always will be, the historical, national, and religious capital of the Jewish State.
“With this most current British decision to ban use of imagery of the Kotel, Judaism’s holiest site, we cannot help but be reminded of the decisions of the British Mandate authorities who banned the blowing of the shofar at the Kotel on Yom Kippur while the area was under their rule and inexcusably denied refuge in the Holy Land to Jews fleeing the Nazi killing machine. As we get ready to celebrate Yom HaAtzmaut, the miracle of Israel's independence, we would have hoped that Britain would have learned from its past mistakes, but this most recent anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish decision by BASA seems to affirm that it has not.”
