A few weeks ago the Guardian’s G2 supplement ran a series of adverts for tourism in Israel. One of them, shown above, describes a holiday in Israel as a ‘unique experience’. Damn right its a unique experience; interrogation by surly airport security, sharing buses with hordes of armed to the teeth Israeli adolescents and the chance to see the old city of Jerusalem policed by racist goons with a quota of Palestinian residents to harass. For the more adventurous tourist there’s the deserted and terrorised streets of the old city of Hebron, daubed with xenophobic graffiti, the apartheid wall, collective puishmment, targeted assassinations, house demolitions, torture and repression – the possibilities are endless.
None of that was mentioned in the G2 adverts. Readers are presented with a picture of a couple enjoying the Dead Sea Coast – much of which is in illegally occupied territory (see https://corporateoccupation.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/kibbutz-kalia-part-1-a-holiday-in-israeli-apartheid/).
But its when you follow the links to the featured companies that things get really dicey. Longwood Holidays (www.longwoodholidays.co.uk) show a map of Israel which shows the yet unobtained zionist dream, the annexation of the occupied West Bank and Syrian Golan.
In April 2010 the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint about Israeli Ministry of Tourism posters implying that East Jerusalem was part of Israel (ironically this was picked up by the Guardian). The posters were banned.
Longwood Holidays advertise a trip taking in the occupied Syrian Golan and the West Bank settlements without once implying that the destinations are not in Israel. The company advertises ‘economy’ accomodation in the settlements of Kalia and Almog, helping to prop up the settlement economy.
Longwood Holidays can be found at:
3 Bourne Court Southend Road Woodford Green IG8 8HD
Explore (http://www.explore.co.uk/about-explore/), a travel company based in Farnborough, advertise a tour travelling through the occupied Jordan Valley to Qumran, a tourist site owned by the illegal settlement of Kalia and on to occupied Jerusalem. The image on the ‘Israel’ page includes the dome of the rock. Nowhere on the site is it explained that all of these places are in occupied Palestine.
Explore Worldwide Ltd Nelson House 55 Victoria Road Farnborough Hampshire GU14 7PA UK
Tourism and travel in Israel, unless with the aim of challenging Israeli apartheid, militarism and occupation, props up the colonial state and strengthens Israeli apartheid. The Guardian, one would hope, are all too aware of the true situation in Israel – however, G2’s advertising manager Mark Finney summed up their stance to one concerned reader: ‘we’ve received a number of complaints’ but the Guardian ‘needs the advertising revenue’.
10 comments
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August 21, 2010 at 8:11 pm
bjiqbal@yahoo.co.uk
Bickel Flowers Ltd
Macilvin Moore Reveres
7 St John’s Road
Deeside Industrial Park
Country: Uk
is this uk address for Bickel Flowrs any use?
August 24, 2010 at 2:23 pm
tomandersoncw
yes, thanks very much
where did you get it from?
August 25, 2010 at 7:43 pm
Karim Samer Moukaddem
Tom. You mean the Ad?
September 7, 2010 at 4:18 pm
tomandersoncw
yes
August 24, 2010 at 7:32 am
Karim Samer Moukaddem
This is absolutely disgusting. The Guardian is complicit in this but Longwood Holidays should be punished for misleading the public. Simply put, this is misinformation and therefore punishable. Could some of those that went on such a trip get a refund for unknowingly participating in the funding of occupied territories?
August 24, 2010 at 2:23 pm
tomandersoncw
worth a go…
August 26, 2010 at 1:20 am
cj arnold
Yes, indeed a trip to apartheid Israel….not on my list of things to do!
August 29, 2010 at 8:41 pm
Eileen
This is deplorable, the Guardian has been my paper for many years but I am rethinking this at present. The paper may lose more than it has gained when news get out about this advertisement!!
September 26, 2010 at 7:32 am
Dror Kamir
You have never been to Israel have you? I suppose you “boycott” Israel and then write about an imaginary “unpleasant” visit to it. Had you been honest you’d say: “I hate Israel and I don’t intend to visit it, therefore I cannot tell you whether it is racist or not”. But then again, had you been an honest person, you wouldn’t have been so hateful.
September 28, 2010 at 7:32 pm
tomandersoncw
I would have thought that if you have read this site at all it would be pretty obvious that we have been to Israel (and her various illegal settlements) a lot…
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