A national nonprofit organization that fights antisemitism has put up three provocative billboards in San Diego that read: “Let’s be clear: Hamas is your problem too.”
One of the three fuschia-colored Clear Channel billboards is in downtown San Diego at the corner of Tenth Avenue and Broadway (atop the Hodad’s hamburger chain restaurant in East Village).
The billboard space was purchased by advocacy group JewBelong.
“The new slogan is in response to the antisemitism sparked by the Israel-Hamas war, which led to a 400% increase in antisemitic hate crimes in recent weeks and has been compounded by Americans who have shown support for Hamas,” according to a statement from JewBelong.
The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism reports that antisemitic incidents of harassment, vandalism and assault increased by 388% over the same period last year.
This isn’t the first time JewBelong has run a national campaign attempting to bring awareness to antisemitism.
In September, prior to the Israel-Hamas war in the Middle East, JewBelong posted several billboards around San Diego with the slogan: “Can a billboard end antisemitism? No. But you’re not a billboard.”
Prior campaigns have attempted to use humor to broach the topic. Other billboards have read:
- “So you eat bacon. God has other things to worry about.”
- “Judaism: Come for your girlfriend. Stay for the lack of hell.”
The seven-year-old JewBelong organization has advertised on more than 500 billboards across the country, reportedly reaching 250 million viewers.
National campaigns by JewBelong have sparked debate as well as controversy. A New Jersey billboard that read: “Hamas would chop your head off too” resulted in 100 calls to police and was taken down by the organization.
JewBelong says the San Diego billboards will stay up through the end of December 2023. SDSun
