Local authorities in Jerusalem moved to redact “foul language” in a far-left billboard ad, which called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the "[expletive] war” against the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip.
The authorities heeded a request from Chaim V’Chessed, the advocacy group for the holy city’s English-speaking community said on Tuesday.
The ad was posted on a building that houses offices of the Israeli Ministry of Finance at the entrance to the Jewish state’s capital, and it used an image of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
The radical Black Flag protest organization, which in recent weeks has launched a campaign under the slogan “Make Israel Normal Again,” reportedly paid for the ad.
Someone in Jerusalem (Israel) put this huge sign on a building, having Trump telling Bibi to end the f***ing Gaza war😬🥴 pic.twitter.com/intwETJ8wb
— ❄Lior❄ (@Lior_2025) January 14, 2025
Rabbi Paysach Freedman, CEO of Chaim V’Chessed, stated that he was “so shaken by the desecration of Jerusalem that we decided to take action.”
“This terminology would never appear on a public sign in the United States,” he said. “Why should we have to encounter it in the holy city?”
After an urgent appeal to Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, Deputy Mayor Yisrael Kellerman and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the “offensive sign” was partly covered up, Chaim V’Chessed said.
“It is a travesty that this expletive was posted in Jerusalem for even one day,” Freedman said. He added that “we intend to hold talks with relevant officials to prevent recurrences of this unfortunate episode.”
The Black Flag movement was formed by anti-Netanyahu protest leader Shikma Bressler in 2020 to carry out riots targeting members of Netanyahu’s coalition.
The organization disbanded temporarily in 2021 after Naftali Bennett took office.
In early January, the group launched a campaign to stop the war and reach a truce deal with Hamas, claiming that the fight for the Jewish state’s survival “no longer has any justification to continue.”
The left-wing group is arranging rallies across the Jewish state to take place on Jan. 18, on Shabbat afternoon, to protest against the conflict.
“We demand that the war in Gaza end, that all the hostages be returned, that the economy resume functioning and that we can all return to normal life,” it stated.
Israel’s Channel 13 reported in early 2020 that former Prime Minister Ehud Barak financed Bressler’s efforts to bring Netanyahu down.
