An activist group claimed responsibility for vandalizing San Francisco billboards last week, on which anti-Israel messages were plastered over legitimate advertisements.
The group, calling itself the “California Department of Corrections,” claimed in an Internet posting to have struck billboards in nine city locations, including the Tenderloin, the Mission, the Haight, Potrero Hill and South of Market.
The bogus billboards, designed to resemble a Treasury note for $7 million, featured the heading “Thanks for the Blank Check, America” and an Israeli flag. The “small print” went on to excoriate Israel and to criticize the United States for its Israel aid package, purportedly costing $7 million per day.
Tony Alwin, a spokesman for Clear Channel Outdoor, which owns and manages billboards, knew of only one vandalized site, at the corner of Guerrero and 18th streets. He said the dimensions and location of the billboard made it an easy target.
“This particular product is different from most,” Alwin said Aug. 4 from the company’s Phoenix headquarters. “Most of our displays are very hard to get at, high off the ground with no easy access. This is called a junior poster, 5 feet by 11 feet, and not far off the ground.”
He said that illegal billboard would be taken down immediately, and that Clear Channel Outdoor takes the vandalism seriously.
“I talked to our management about the issue,” Alwin said. “Everyone’s pretty upset with it, and we’ll see what we can do to prevent it in the future.”
Yitzhak Santis, director of Middle East affairs for the S.F.-based Jewish Community Relations Council, noted past incidents of anti-Israeli vandalism on billboards and bus shelter posters.
“I think they are part of the revolutionary left in the Bay Area,” Santis said of the activists. “They call it guerrilla billboarding, where they put their own billboards and ads in shelters. Obviously it’s illegal, and we’re very concerned about this.”
Santis stressed the need, however, to put the incident in context.
“This is all part of the BDS [boycott-divestment-sanctions] campaign to demonize Israel,” he said. “Whether bus shelters or billboards, it’s all part of that campaign. The community needs to be aware of what is happening.”