Advertising Standards Authority: Complaint UPHELD!

By London BDS

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint made by a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) against Israel Lease Acquisitions Network (ILAN) Real Estate for its advertisement in the 24 June 2011 edition of the Zionist Jewish Chronicle ‘newspaper’.

The advertisement implied that the properties that ILAN offered were for sale in Israel, but Michael Shanahan, a member of the PSC, noticed that one of these featured, notably Efrat, was actually an illegal settlement.

The international community regard all Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal and not part of Israel.

Mr Shanahan commented:

“My interest in the matter goes back very many years; I read my history and discovered that the Palestinians had suffered the greatest of sorrows at a time when colonialism was being seriously  diminished. In present times, I am happy to meet many brave and honourable people of many different backgrounds who are prepared to speak out.”

The Jewish Chronicle: Misleading advertising.

The ASA’s adjudication stated that the Dekel development in Efrat is located in the occupied West Bank – in territory not internationally recognised as part of Israel – is likely to be highly relevant to consumers and that the omission of the information in the ad that was published in the Jewish Chronicle newspaper was misleading.

The ASA adjudication also noted ILAN’s violation of the Committee of Advertising Practice rules 1.7 (Unreasonable delay) and 3.1 and 3.3 (Misleading advertising).

ILAN Real Estate failed to respond to enquiries and thus Mr Shanahan’s complaint was upheld.

You can read the full adjudication here.

The Jewish Chronicle advertisement that was the subject of the complaint also mentioned that ILAN Real Estate had a stall at the Israeli Property & Investment Exhibition held in June at the Regents Marriott Hotel, near London’s Swiss Cottage that Londonbds.org covered in a post entitled Israel Property Exhibition – A Deserted Flop. This poorly attended event was picketed by human rights activists holding a banner that read ‘Stop Stealing Palestinian Land’. 

Outside the Israel Property Exhibition in June

The ASA decision is in line with its three previous rulings against the Israeli Tourist Board for advertisements that implied that the Occupied Palestinian Territories were in Israel.

In 2009, after receiving over six hundred complaints, Transport for London removed Israel Ministry of Tourism posters displayed at London Underground stations that showed a borderless map of Greater Israel that included the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights.

But no Gaza, West Bank or Golan Heights.

In addition, this UK ruling follows one earlier in the year by the South African Advertising Standards Authority which ruled that Israel could be referred to as an apartheid state in a radio advertisement that included the words, “Be on the right side of history. Don’t entertain apartheid. Join the international boycott of Israel” spoken by the UK’s Dave Randall of the band Faithless, which was broadcast on 5fm, the mainstream South African radio station with over 2 million listeners.

The advert was in support of the South African Artists Against Apartheid coalition. In the advert Randall says:

“Hi, I’m Dave Randall from Faithless. Twenty years ago I would not have played in apartheid South Africa; today I refuse to play in Israel. Be on the right side of history. Don’t entertain apartheid. Join the international boycott of Israel. I support southafricanartistsagainstapartheid.com.”

Listen to the South African Artists Against Apartheid radio advert:

BBC take note.

The resistance must be continuous.