Asa Winstanley’s blog

Two of the UK’s bestselling lifestyle magazines aimed at gay men have published the controversial Israeli advert that wipes Palestine and Syria off the map. Last Sunday I wrote about the “Think Israel” advertising campaign underway here in the UK. The Guardian received hundred of complaints after running a glossy advert that included a map in which the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories appear annexed to Israel. But it has now emerged that Attitude and Gay Times have both published the same advert (December and January issues respectively). Below are scans of all four pages of the ad as it appeared in Attitude, as a fold-out inside the front cover.

Update: After “hundreds” of complaints, the Guardian has refused to publish subsequent ads from the Israeli tourism ministry. See full update below. An Israeli tourism map appearing in the Guardian last weekend rendered occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories as part of “Israel”. The map very much appears to be in breach of UK advertising regulations. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in 2009 upheld complaints against an Israeli tourism bilboard because it included a similar map, ruling the ad “must not appear again in its current form”. The three-page advertising spread from the Israeli tourism ministry in the Guardian Weekend is part of what increasingly looks like a major new advertising campaign in the UK.

The story of the floundering “Brand Israel” advertising campaign continues. An Israeli government ministry has established a propaganda website called Hasbara.gov.il – a Hebrew word often translated as “propaganda”. A notice was recently published on the site asking for volunteer “candidates eligible to conduct public diplomacy activities abroad”. The volunteers “will not be eligible for any remuneration” apart from “costs of travel, daily expenses and insurance”. The advert is also the latest episode in Israel’s cynical “pinkwashing” strategy. The ministry’s advert says it is looking particularly for “minority members” and “representatives of the gay community” to argue Israel’s case abroad.

As the second day of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine’s South Africa session was underway in Cape Town on Sunday, the tribunal’s website was taken offline by a sophisticated cyber attack. The internet consultant who founded the Russell Tribunal website says the attack was “no amateur attempt”. UPDATE, 9 November: The site is finally back up as of this morning. It took 1&1 four days to restore service.