The skeptics told us that this would never happen – and we were not too sure ourselves.
Last year, members of the Chicago-area Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine (CJPIP) began developing a new public education campaign. After a decade of creating successful events, we were concerned that our audiences were largely made up of people who already understood the situation on the ground in Israel/Palestine and the role of U.S. policy in the conflict.
How, we asked ourselves, could we spend less time “preaching to the choir” and more time reaching fellow-Chicagoans who don’t have access to information about the U.S. role in perpetuating the conflict? Inspired by the Albuquerque Stop $30 billion to Israel billboard campaign, we decided to take the issue of military aid to Israel directly to tens of thousands of Chicago area commuters who travel the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) system.
We designed an ad campaign with a simple, thought-provoking graphic and text message that runs counter to the false dichotomy that requires people to be either “pro-Israel” or “pro-Palestine.” Our ads show side-by-side photos of Israelis and Palestinians together with this three-part invitation: “Be on our side. We are the side of peace and justice. End U.S. military aid to Israel.” The ads direct people to our website: www.TwoPeoplesOneFuture.org, which contains content and action ideas for newcomers to the issue, as well as for issue-veterans.
As our target date approached, we could not get confirmation that the ads would go up for our announced date in early October. Maybe the skeptics were right – this campaign would never see the light of day. Undaunted, we were insistent on a response – positive or negative. Our persistence paid off, and the ads went up as scheduled.
Our CTA “ad buy” bought posters both on train cars and in underground waiting areas in downtown Chicago – sites that thousands of Chicagoan commuters pass through daily. We chose October as our launch date to get the message out to as many people as possible. Between the crowds on the trains for the annual LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon on October 10 and the massive outpouring for the annual Columbus Day parade on October 12 in downtown Chicago – we couldn’t get much better exposure.
Our central message is this: U.S. military aid is counterproductive for Palestinians, Israelis, and Americans and will not lead to a just and lasting peace. We also want to alert the public that the U.S. government had signed a “Memorandum of Agreement” to provide Israel with $30 billion of military aid between 2009 and 2018. Obviously, this is a blank check allowing Israel to do whatever it wants with impunity—even if it runs against the interests of the American taxpayer who foots the bill.
To build the campaign, we drew on the expertise and enthusiasm of other Chicago area individuals including members of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Chicago Middle East Program, Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago (JVP), Chicago Arab-Jewish Partnership, and the Chicago Faith Coalition on Middle East Policy. We also are grateful to the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation which has allowed us to link to invaluable action and informational resources.
The response has been terrific. In just a few weeks, thousands of visitors have flocked to the website and hundreds of people have joined our active Facebook page, which posts new information or action steps every day. Interest in the campaign extends far beyond the Chicago area; coverage on popular blogs (including Mondoweiss) has drawn visitors to the website from 48 countries around the globe.
As the ad buy ends, we are keeping the momentum going. We have produced packages of 4” x 6” full-color Pocket Cards based on the popular Fast Facts page on the website. We encourage people to use these cards for “guerrilla marketing” by passing them along to friends and acquaintances or using them as “leave-behinds” in high-traffic public spaces such as airports, libraries, cafes, university buildings, doctor offices, etc. Information on picking up the cards in Chicago or in having them sent outside of the city is found on the Pocket Cardpage on the website.
The campaign is spreading beyond Chicago. One of the most popular pages on the website is Bring the campaign to your city. This page contains four basic “how-to-get-started” steps for launching the campaign in other areas of the country. Since the ads and website are already created, we think of this as a “campaign in a box” that can be replicated in other media markets by activists who, like us, want to reach past the “usual suspects” to find big, new audiences.
Here in Chicagoland, we’re already raising the funds to make another ad buy on the CTA. Many people have already made contributions to the campaign because they are excited to see that we have pushed the door open for a robust public debate on the tragic consequences of U.S. military aid to Israel.
Caren Levy-Van Slyke is a founding member of the Oak Park, Illinois-based Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine (CJPIP), which will be sponsoring the Tenth Annual Walk for a Just Peace in Spring, 2011. Be on Our Side, a project of CJPIP, can be reached via the campaign website at Contact Us.