10 Dutch advertising companies refused to publish Israeli propaganda ads, coinciding with the start of the Tel Aviv trial at the International Court of Justice (in The Hague, Netherlands); On charges of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Since last October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza that has caused the martyrdom of more than 23,000 Palestinians, the wounding of about 60,000, most of them children and women, massive destruction of infrastructure, and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.
The Directorate of Public Diplomacy in the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that “10 companies in The Hague, Rotterdam and Schiphol Airport refused to publish Israeli propaganda advertisements.”
The directorate explained that “an appeal was sent to more than 10 different companies for billboards in The Hague, Rotterdam, and Schiphol Airport.”
She continued, “While working with a company, I agreed on the design and message that would appear, but when the billboard was scheduled to run, a message arrived from the company stating that the advertisement had been cancelled.” She explained that her campaign aimed to “raise awareness about the 136 hostages who have been in the hands of the Palestinian resistance for nearly 100 days.”
In response to daily Israeli attacks against the Palestinian people and their sanctities, including the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Palestinian resistance, led by the Al-Qassam Brigades, launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7 against military bases and settlements in the Gaza vicinity, killing hundreds of Israeli soldiers along with civilians, and capturing about 240. It exchanged approximately 110 of them during a truce with Israel, which holds more than 8,600 Palestinians in its prisons.
An insult to Israel
According to the head of the Israeli Public Diplomacy Directorate, Moshek Aviv, in the statement, he “will respond to attempts to silence the voices of the hostages with a loud voice,” he said.
Criticizing the companies that refused to publish Israeli advertisements, Aviv continued, “Even before the court in The Hague, there are those who choose an aggressive and outrageous method to remove a media campaign from among hundreds of billboards throughout the Netherlands, including in The Hague.”
As for the CEO of the Israeli government advertising agency, Moriah Shalom, he said, “Refusing to publish ads constitutes a severe insult to freedom of expression and Israel’s right to speak out loudly against the terrorism that its citizens suffer from.”
Today, Thursday, the International Court of Justice concluded the first hearing in a complaint submitted by the Republic of South Africa, accusing Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza, which the latter denies.
Until the case is decided, South Africa requested an urgent “temporary order” for Israel to “immediately suspend its military operations” in Gaza.