Sign Wars: the Pro-Israel Billboard Near Arcata Has Been Vandalized Again
The replacement pro-Israel billboard at the Samoa Boulevard and Highway 101 on-ramp in Arcata, defaced with graffiti just days after being installed. [Photo by Ryan Hutson]
The billboard was first noticed at the busy freeway on ramp location on February 5th. The first message to be posted on the billboard, although short-lived, read, “call me a Zionist it only makes me prouder.”
![Observed February 5, the first billboard message was posted. [Photo by Ryan Hutson]](https://kymkemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/image1.jpg)
On February 5, the first billboard message was posted. [Photo by Ryan Hutson]
![Observed February 8, the first billboard message was ripped down, left in shreds at the base of the billboard structure. [Photo by Ryan Hutson]](https://kymkemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/image4.jpg)
Observed February 8, the first billboard message was ripped down, left in shreds at the base of the billboard structure. [Photo by Ryan Hutson]
![Observed Wednesday, February 26, the second message was posted. [Photo by Ryan Hutson]](https://kymkemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/image3.jpg)
Observed Wednesday, February 26, the second message was posted. [Photo by Ryan Hutson]
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the destruction of the first billboard.
Earlier:
- Crowdfunded Pro-Zionist Billboard Rises in Arcata, Critics Say It’s Provocative
- Pro-Zionist Billboard in Arcata Torn Down Overnight
- New Pro-Israel Billboard Replaces Vandalized Sign on Highway 101
Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules
Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/
Return of the jedi
Return of the bigoted vandal(s).
Don’t worry, the empire strikes back.
Is it really a surprise that pro-Zionist bigotry provokes a response?
Why not? You were apparently surprised that anti Israeli bigotry provoked a response.
I guess you don’t get the.concept.of freedom.of speech.
Agree.or disagree.people.have a right.to their opinion even if you don’t agree.
I guess you’re mistaken — I know reading comprehension is tough but I never said people don’t have a right to their opinion — just don’t be surprised if others have opinions also.
It’s not free speech to vandalize private property.
Cool. Can we now go after politicians’ campaign people when they plant signs in yards without permission?
Did I say it was?
Too bad reading comprehension can’t be taught — you either have it or not.
Eh. Not sure if it’s the same person(s) but I’ve seen the “parade” (and also, “aware”) in many places from here down to as far as Ukiah, so the bigotry might not be a thing, rather just something to tag because why not, it gets attention and a little self promotion.
Exactly, the whole culture of tagging is just about getting your name up.
I agree CsMis & Thatguy. “Aware” has been around for quite awhile. “Parade” and “lookin” are new, to me at least. Trying to make a name, establish a territory perhaps? There are no freight trains up here anymore, but this billboard definitely got them in front of our faces, and possibly beyond the Emerald Triangle and Redwood Curtain. It won’t last though, not like a tag on a train trestle. In my opinion (having known some who have been in the graffiti culture), these taggers and the previous billboard shredders are different people with different motives.
Yep, a billboard that has so much predictable media attention is like red meat to a dedicated tagger. Has nothing to do with the content of the billboard
It has everything to do with this billboard.
Only because the taggers knew there would be photos of it all over the local news
I mean, is you really want to you can go out any night at like 3 or 4 in the morning. The local taggers are out doing their thing around then.
If this was about the content of this billboard then they would have painted something relevant. They just put their name up, cause that’s what taggers do.
Totally predictable.
I can’t say I’m shocked.
Every single time
Jews from the Bay Area posting up here a very controversial message…Thanks a lot- Not! I have a few local friends of the Jewish faith who also do not appreciate the billboard. It’s not a peaceful message, not in the wake of the carpet-bombing campaign. I’m not even saying Israel was wrong but jeez- bombing hospitals for peace is a complex issue not resolved but inflamed by a billboard! Bay Area money directed up here to make us fight each other is not peaceful and not helpful for anybody here.
i think destruction any property that represent things you don’t agree with is a pro palestine protester brain construct issue.
Agreed 100%
There are a lot of things I do not agree with, but so what others are allowed to express their opinion.
Just because it is not mine or popular does not matter.
When we start limiting speech we are going to be screwed.
Your free speech might invoke a free response.
And it’s okay if the free response is criminal?
“but so what others are allowed to express their opinion.”
….IF they can afford it! Jewish groups are well funded from around the world. Palestinians like many minority and disadvantaged groups are not.
This is where we get into the dangerous issue of ‘money as speech’ a premise that undermines the foundations of ‘free and equal speech’.
A significant issue here, is the question of outside money stirring up OUR community! When, such as in this case, it’s a long standing violent culture and pattern being supported, that’s provocation!
Free speech if crucial… rumors of more language policing ahead? Scary stuff… I hope it isn’t true
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/fda-staffers-told-that-woman-disabled-among-banned-words-white-house-says-its-an-2025-02-20/
You can say that again! Actually, can you say that again?
Pro Palestinians protest the destruction of property by Israel?
brain construct issue, should have taken the red pill.
I understand. Good luck with that, I hope it all goes ok.
talking to you neo
If you don’t understand the history from 1921 forward, how can you participate in the discussion. It’s not new for Oct 7, it’s over 100 years of racist attacks on the indigenous population.
ignorance is obviously your strong suit. try using an “of” the next time you want to be a bigoted racist nazi supporter. 🙂
We aren’t “of the Jewish faith.” We’re “of the Jewish tribe” if you want to stick with that sentence construction. Stop reducing Judaism to merely a religion.
Yeah yeah I was writing fast. My friends also call it “the tribe”. They’ve had me over for passover, also their Palestinian friend they are of the liberal wing…good people I have learned from
Only leftists have a problem.
Guess free speech is not allowed in Humboldt County. Why can’t we just leave it alone?
That billboard wasn’t free. $40,000, now $80,000. That’s how much billboard speech costs I guess. More than my annual income! Actually!!! HEY LADY! you can put up a bill board at my place for a few days!
Put the billboard up on my place for free. My friends and I could use some target practice.
Because it is an intentionally divisive piece, placed by an unpopular minority, supporting the retaliation upon native populations taking action against a prolonged campaign of colonization. The area was called Palestine until Zionist terrorists seized political control. They then solidified the military hold on the territory using donated U.S. WWII surplus tanks and equipment.
Not sure, You sound like a masogynistic terrorist telling lies because your scared that your sick twisted thoughts will cause your dick to rise if you see a womans skin. Heathen. Evolve already will ya?
And you are letting your lizard brain loose on the world. How incredibly toxic and purposely rude showing the maturity level of those who support this divisive public display. You haven’t done your “cause” any good here. I suggest spending more time studying, broaden your outlook, travel.
….and all three of the above posts just show how effective billboard advertising is. Get’s people talking (or tagging) and that’s what it’s supposed to do.
Yeah, yeah, his statement was his opinion said in a sane manner.
Yours, not so much.
“An unpopular minority”
Damn dude, just say “Jews”
If you have an intractable land dispute between well armed neighbors and one side has offered deals while the other side promotes the destruction of the stronger side and a refusal to compromise then at some point you should expect the stronger side to tire of the situation and eliminate the weaker party completely. Maybe the Palestinians need to realize that this is the direction their leaders are taking them.
Both the billboard and it’s vandalism are exercises of free speech. The vandalism is actually restricted speech that will be punished by the government if the speakers can be identified.
Violence or destruction is not an appropriate response to free speech. If you don’t like the message express your beliefs with your own speech but do so peacefully.
The graffiti isn’t violent or destructive. It’s just someone responding to words on a page with their own words on the same page.
You might not be so supportive of graffiti if they tagged your car (or house, or fence, or…).
I have had my fence tagged and a commercial vehicle that I own is tagged regularly. I understand why people hate graffiti.
I’m not “so supportive” of graffiti, I just don’t pretend it’s the end of the world. It’s a medium that makes sense within it’s context. It’s often annoying, it has toxic aspects of it’s subculture, and it produces astonishing beauty.
It is what it is. It isn’t violence
It’s quite obvious that you have no clue or understanding of the First Amendment as far as free speech is concerned.Would it be okay to use your car as a billboard to paint a message?No. The right to spray-paint my message (Free Speech ) ends when it infringes on your rights,your right to own property that’s free of vandalism
For $40k yes! Hit me up Scandalize it, then we’ll vandalize it!
You explained very clearly how none of this is a first amendment issue.
It’s an issue of property rights.
That’s why the only government actions involved are looking for the people who destroyed or defaced the property.
In the broader sense, as in not speaking about the legal issues of the first amendment of the American constitution, the question of a provocative billboard and the way community members respond to it is absolutely a free speech discussion.
Problem is, their message left the confines of their “property” and entered the eyes and brains of thousands of drivers. Not all crimes are immoral.
Freedom of speech doesn’t mean you are exempt from responses to that speech.
Too bad peopke supporting the ProPalestinian movement thinks they should be. Vandalism is a criminal response. So let the criminals pay for their crimes.
Won’t disagree with that point, there should be consequence for it. It’s just that some folks seem to think that freedom of speech equals freedom from consequences of that speech.
Well, honestly that’s just run of the mill graffiti. Those throw-ups probably would have gone up over any billboard. Good chance the ruthless villains never even read the billboard, or pay attention to news.
I can attest to that, being a survivor of flipping off the Hells Angels as a teenager.
That sounds like a good story
The HA’s like to say “When in doubt knock em out”. Never dis one, especially if there’s more than one
Free speech goes both ways, and it has consequences.
Allowing one side to post propaganda, which disallowing the other side to respond, is not “free speech.”
$40,000? What a terrible waste of money.
Was it? It got a thousand people talking on a thousand internet forums as it went viral in places beyond Humboldt. It got awareness and that brings in more dollars downstream in the marketing. That’s how it works. Getting attention is 1/2 of the battle for eyeballs and comments. The rest is osmosis.
IDK why won’t israel stop murdering unarmed Palestinians? Why wont the IDF stop r@ping palestinian women in custody? Why wont the IDF stop using crying baby drones to kill innocent unarmed civilians? Why is israel still forcefully sterilizing Ethiopian jews?
So much for free speech. It’s dead in Arcata
$40,000 for the billboard. Probably two or three cans of spray paint, so…$15? This comment section is free, but could go away without an occasional donation.
It’s actually called “incitement, and it’s illegal in most countries.
This is the USA and the First Amendment backs it up.
Please explain what the first amendment has to do with a private billboard and graffiti?
You can’t be that dense.
Can you explain it?
Pushing it.
“You can’t be that dense.
Is that considered pushing it?
It’s only a First Amendment issue if the government refuses to arrest and prosecute the vandals. Or worse encourages them. Because the First Amendment is a restrictions only on the government. Not on the citizen. Only if a citizen’s speech veers into the criminal does the government play a part.
Everything else is just embarrassing chutzpah on both parties parts.
Miguel from Albania?
LOL free speech is dead because someone disagreed with a billboard.
That university has done a great job destroying your brain I see.
Sick of socialists
Maybe you may have killed too many brain cells in your youth. Vandalism is not speech. It is action and criminal. Someone didn’t disagree with a billboard. They vandalized it because they didn’t like the message. The message is speech. The vandalism is criminal. It’s sad that you are laughing out loud. This thread has degenerated to a point where it’s deeply troubling and deeply concerning. And by the way, I’m pretty sick of socialists also, and of the new woke society that believe shutting other people up by criminal actions is somehow commendable.
Vandalism is speech. At least graffiti is. Vandalism like property destruction, as happened to this group’s last billboard isn’t speech its violence.
Illegal speech is still speech. The whole debate around free speech is about what counts as legal speech.
Cutting the billboard down wasn’t violence. The unspoken message of the billboard is promoting, in my opinion, apartheid violence. So removing it is fair game. For a lot of people it was a relief not to see it.
For Instance, if some goon put up compromising pics of your sister, taking them down would not be violating his free speech, it might be protecting your sister’s right to dignity.
Destruction of private property is “fair game”? If you have no respect for other people’s property just might just be a Marxist.
Gaza? Canada? Crimea?
The tarp on a billboard is a message. It’s an expensive provocative poster. Cutting off the poster is different than kicking your garden gnome.
I think that most definitions of violence include property destruction.
A person may think violence is warranted in a given situation, but it’s still violence. Which is distinct from speech
But for 40 racks you can put anything up on my property for two nights!
Get rid of all the damned billboards.
YES! Thank you. They’re an eyesore and a distraction. Stupid and outdated, trashing the environment and causing this kind of conflict is just unnecessary. THIS one in particular is annoying and very disturbing. Take the whole danged thing down and burn it.
This particular one is on private property. If you want it gone, contact the owners about removing them as they are permitted to be there. But if you don’t want conflict then don’t put up that type of content. But I can assure you removing billboards will NOT keep people from finding ways to get awareness or stir up controversy for you and I to see. If an owner allowed this on the side or roof of a privately owned barn would you want to see it burned down? (example: drive around Shasta or Lassen counties).
Get rid of israel and peace will reign in the middle east.
A bit late for that now.
But return Israel to their 1967 borders and even Hamas said they’re willing to make peace.
Like they made peace in 1967? Oh, wait… there was a war then, wasn’t there? You shouldn’t believe everything said to you.
Is it still 1967?
Wow. My calendar must be way off.
The one on my wall suggests that 1967 was 58 years ago.
If that’s in fact the case, I wonder if circumstances might be different now.
This article from… (checks date) yep, last year, suggest hat they are.
https://apnews.com/article/hamas-khalil-alhayya-qatar-ceasefire-1967-borders-4912532b11a9cec29464eab234045438
Why did you say something so off the point? No one said it was 1967. Only that It’s clear that the 1967 borders did not create peace. So what has changed enough that any sensible person think it would be different now? Hamas says? Really that’s your reasoning? The same people who snatched infants, children, foreign guest workers, etc and held them hostage?
There were Arab Palestinians attacking Jewish settlers in 1890s when the Jewish presence was miniscule and by law they could not own anything. Just the fear of Zionism was enough. In a place where WWI had just lost the Ottoman Empire Islamic control of the Middle East, paranoia, vengeance, nationalism and fear was looking for a battle to win. Zionism was the place it settled.
Zionism is scary. And the single minded pursuit of a Jewish State is off putting to Americans. But don’t fool yourself that Islamists have not had the exact same agenda for themselves. Islam is a religion that spread by military conquest from its origins. It’s sense of ownership is deep. Just because Israel has been organized and unified enough to take from them in a cold war world does not mean those others are innocent victims. They are just the current losers.
Americans joining the propaganda war as proxy for their own issues is worse than bad. Until the world stops seeing is in those terms, peace will be a casualty. This is just the latest stage of a 3000 year old battle which Jews have lost everything many times. Islam is still in the arrogant adolescent stage in history. A mix of complaint, rebellion and violence. There are no good sides in this.
Yes, it is still 1967 for Palestinian Arabs in the occupied territories illegally held by Israel from then until now.
The 1967 war began as a preemptive strike by Israel which seized the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, the Golan heights and the Sinai — the latter was returned to Egypt as part of a peace treaty, Gaza remains an open air prison under Israeli control and Israel continues to occupy the rest in defiance of UN Resolution 242 adopted in 1967 — currently Israel has extended it’s illegal occupations to include parts of Syria and Lebanon and is blatantly violating terms of the Gaza ceasefire agreement — look for Netanyahu to relaunch the genocidal assault on Gaza at any moment.
The criminal occupation of the West Bank is compounded by allowing 1 million Israeli settlers in the West Bank which is itself a war crime.
That’s just plain incorrect – I was around in 1967; were you? I was just a kid but I remember what happened. Several Arab states attacked Israel with no warning. In the process of responding, the Israelis drove the Arabs farther back than they started from.
I’m no fan of Netanyahu, or the Israelis building settlements (even one) on Palestinian territory. And the Arabs got royally shafted in 1948. They should have been granted a country in the first place. Although politically, Israel would certainly not go along with it at this time, the only possibility for peace in the longer term is a two state solution. I don’t blame the Palestinians for not liking occupation. But what happened on October 7 is no way to get what they want. They were downright stupid to think Israel wasn’t going to lash out ferociously in response.
You’re getting your wars mixed up – the Yom Kippur War of 1973 was the Arab surprise attack — the Six Day War of 1967 started with an Israeli preemptive strike which destroyed most of the Egyptian and Syrian air forces on the ground and ended with Israel in control of the West Bank, Gaza, etc. — the 1973 war was an effort to reclaim the territory lost in 1967.
I stand corrected – google agrees with you. My apologies.
No apology needed — we all make mistakes — but not all are willing to acknowledge it — thanks for standing up.
would love to know how hamas had a cease fire in 1967 when they didnt exist until 1987
Or the hundred other times Jerusalem was burned to the ground. Or Jericho. The library of Alexandria, other places destroyed by “scorched earth” policies of wars and ancient governments. I’m surprised that locations like Petra still exist.
Never too late. Like retroactive abortion.
Tell that to Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt , etc who have conducted wars on each other long before Israel existed. There has never been peace in the Middle East… I was going to say since the Roman Empire but wars between empires where constant previous to ancient Roman. The closest to peace was when a mighty empire imposed some from outside.
It’s like that the only unity in the area exists because of both sides hatred of Isreal. And that only seems to last as long as the situation is dire. Given a hint of peace, various factions of Islam return to attacking each other in their proxy wars.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia%E2%80%93Sunni_relations
Wars have always existed everywhere.
The history of conflict in the Middle East is little different from that in Europe, Asia, or really anywhere for that matter.
And wars are always fought for the same reasons- control over land and resources.
Religion is just given as an excuse.
The current situation in the Middle East is the same.
Most people there don’t hate Jews for being Jewish,
they are opposed to Israel seizing territory.
Most people? You mean most Islamic countries? Because being Jewish or Muslim is not separable from inside either Israel or Islamic Palestine at the moment. Both the majority Israelis and Palestinians agree with that and both say differently only when engaging in disingenuous public rhetoric. Otherwise it just keeps slipping out. Hello? Even you can’t talk about Israel or Palestine in any other terms. Except for the same cases of disingenuous public rhetoric. Sort of like America and Europe too.
I’ve tried to pinpoint why antisemitism seems to outlast so many other ethnic and racial conflicts. Why do jews always seem to maintain a core identity for millenia and why It triggers such hostility in other people. I don’t know but it does. Maybe there is a genetic factor that creates such stubborn unity where other people seem to mix and change more thoroughly. Thinking that could be a delusion of the nature of the times and the US. IJDK.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_antisemitism
https://extremism.gwu.edu/antisemitism-middle-east
There will never be peace anywhere as long as two humans remain….
The billboard says Seeking Peace. Who can disagree with that?
Depends on one’s definition.
At the moment, it seems as though Israel’s definition of peace is to drive most Palestinians out and keep the rest under a state of crushing subjugation.
It is understandable that many Palestinians may not agree to peace under those terms.
They’ll come down the minute California approves advertising directly streamed to your car’s dashboard.
Which is coming.
During the protest/ vandalization on campus people are all “free speech” doesn’t matter what you are saying you should be allowed to say it. Now because it’s a bill board and not a bunch of easily persuaded cause joiners, the sign shouldn’t be allowed? Slippery slope Arcata, slippery slope. I wouldn’t push too hard on a direction restricting freedoms, you probably won’t like where that political road ends.
$40,000, and you can put what you want on a billboard. Nobody is stopping you.
But, if you disagree, then you are definitely stifling MY free speech. Let me talk to your supervisor.
You’d be surprised, maybe not, at how many entities have to approve your billboard copy before you’re allowed to hang it.
They’re a pretty conservative lot.
Can’t imagine them approving a ‘rebuttal’ billboard supporting Palestine..
No matter how much you paid.
Point!!
Palestinians are descendants of Jews who never left in the diaspora, what we are witnessing is actually antisemitic genocide by a false political entity imposed by caucasian countries USA, UK and France and a small group of billionaires
Very little is a superficially naive as that statement. Caucasian countries? Imposed? Hello? Black Hebrew Israelites cult much? “In late 2008, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) wrote that “the extremist fringe of the Hebrew Israelite movement” has a Black supremacist outlook. It wrote that the members of such groups “believe that Jews are devilish impostors and … openly condemn Whites as evil personified, deserving only death or slavery”. ”
Actually Jews and Palestinians share a lot of DNA, whether part of the Diaspora or not. “A 2010 study by Atzmon and Harry Ostrer concluded that the Palestinians were, together with Bedouins, Druze and southern European groups, the closest genetic neighbors to most Jewish populations.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_Palestinians
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hebrew_Israelites
Don’t get yourself lost in Some Bay Area Black Muslim rabbit hole!
One could argue that there was a possible alternative motive for European post-colonial powers to encourage Jewish migration to a former colonial territory…
Haha, you are associating me w the black muslims, the other guy w black israelites, refer to above for more content LOL
Thats weird that you associate me with the black hebrew israelites yet agree that Palestinians and Jews share alot of DNA. The fact is that many Jews stayed in the area and had to convert to christianity and islam, and are rejected by Israel on the basis of religion as a pretext for taking their land, with military and financial support mainly from USA,UK and France
Tootie was distracted, and Muldoon was asleep
Ooh Ooh…
https://youtu.be/3y5lOlcHHhM
Sorry, Palestine is not an eternally Jewish nation. The Zionists have about as much of a right to live there as I have to go back to Europe and take over my great grandparents farm. Which is none whatsoever at all.
Any time you let religious ideology govern your politics, you are doomed to this kind of divisiveness. And it does not matter what that religion is. All of it sucks when it controls the government.
Like the atheist Bolshevik Revolution revolution didn’t split into violent divisiveness within a few years. Or the same in China, South East Aia, South America, India or even English or French speaking Canada. Hello? Me and Mine are as innate to human behavior as breathing and, if there is no useful division to align with immediately, we make one up. Religion is not needed. It’s just useful if it is suitable. We are competitive creatures just like almost every other species.
Christian values are what or nation was based upon.
Allow you and yours to become racial victim in the US, then you very well may be singing a different song. You will be claiming indigenous rights as you escape persecution. Certainly the anti Israeli agenda in the US has been fueled by recent islamic immigrants cobbling alliances with longer existing disaffected civil rights groups.
Sigh. Those of us whose ancestors have been so long in the US that we have lost any specific immigrant identity and we no longer have a specific place of origin to view with nostalgia are screwed. The US is our only home. We can’t claim being the victim of a specific villain to create our group unity. We are stuck with being American. Which certainly puts a limit on tolerance for being used for foreign agendas. Or should anyway. I suppose in the absence of a strong origin myth, we create them like we created St. Patrick’s Day.
It’s really enlightening to travel to a country where as Americans we see as “being from” only to have the local ridicule the pretense. Too large a foreign born population is really a problem for America.
The “anti Israeli agenda in the US”?
What is that?
The US has supported Israel at every turn for my entire life, the majority of states explicitly restrict their agencies or contractors from boycotting Israel (I’m not aware of any other nation that enjoys that questionably constitutional protection), and the federal government has explored the same protection. We currently have, arguably, the most aggressively pro Israeli president in history.
So what exactly is this anti Israel agenda? Just some protestors who express their dislike of Israeli behavior?
A current “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” alliance does not eliminate the historical bias (in this case the enemy was the Soviet Union) that holds that the US is manipulatd by some Jewish Cabal. “The most persistent form of antisemitism has consisted of a series of widely circulating tropes and stereotypes in which Jews are portrayed as being socially, religiously, and economically unacceptable to American life, because of their inferiority to white Christian society or because of conspiratorial thinking in which Jews are accused of plotting to undermine the racial and economic hierarchies which make up the historical fabric of American society. ” meanwhile Jews also come into the anti white sentiment among minorities too. “However, those three surveys all revealed that negative attitudes towards Jews were stronger among African-Americans than they were among the general population at large.”
In fact the only demographic that seems to be more likely to be blamed in any hate related issue is women.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_the_United_States
Again, what?
When has Israel ever not received supremely preferential treatment from the US?
Of course there are people who are biased against jews. In a nation of 350 million people as diverse as this one you’ll find every bias imaginable. And anti Jewish bias has a long history in Europe that has moved over here.
There’s a vein within the black civil rights movement that blames the jews who were prominent in the movement for introducing a communist angle to the movement that some see as ultimately unhelpful. And of course, as a minority that is ultimately more prosperous than average, some people who identify as a minority that is less prosperous than average will have have issues with them in addition to those who just lump them in with white people at large.
I wouldn’t say that the presence of bigotry in a population of our size is evidence of an agenda, especially when the actual power in our country is so universally aligned in support of Israel. Whatever vein of anti Israel sentiment exists in the public at large is meaningless when they are among the largest recipients of our military, political, and financial support.
Okay. Simply put. The Soviets engaged in encouraging Egypt to invade In 1967. To disastrous results. Eventually the Egyptians, Anwar Sadat (think Suez Canal) started turning a cold shoulder to them at least in public. “By the 1970s, with the loss of Soviet influence in Egypt, the Soviet Union sought better relations with Palestinian militants, and Soviet arms and training were provided to militant groups.”
“Between 1956 and 1990, Soviet–Palestinian relations were part of the then-ongoing Soviet–American confrontation.” It’s one of the proxies so active in the area.
The USA countered the Soviets by supporting Israel. Then came the Iranian Cirsis, Oil Wars 9/11 and other issues to cement the alliance. . As I said, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. They might fight a common enemy together but they are not likely trust each other at all. This is your “preferential treatment.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine-Russia_relations
But Israel the counterweight tool to the Russian aggressions is not the same as internal antisemitism. And that seems to be the issue with so much ProPalestine protestors. The enemy of their enemy is the majority of America, whether right wing conspiracy theorist, Palestinian immigrants, peace advocate or minority rights interests. As I said, the Middle East is full of proxy fights and somehow the old Jewish Cabal idea seems to turn up in each one.
Especially black and Native American support for Palestinians existed well prior to the current war so that can be discounted as “the” reason. “The influential column described Israeli colonialism in Palestine and linked the Black American struggle to the Palestinian struggle. Stokely Carmichael and a delegation of other members of SNCC were hosted by the Palestine Liberation Organization.” As I said too many times now the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Identifying with Palestians because the Israel territorial grabs, makes identifying with that group that has no other commonality a proxy for American issues. It doesn’t mean they are wring about Israeli settlers. It just means that grievance is all they have in common.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-Palestinian_solidarity
So your “anti Israel agenda” is actually just some disparate disinfected groups who also support Palestinian rights or oppose Israeli actions?
Sure seems like the overt and material support of Israel from our government is a bit more of an impactful agenda. And it’s not just geopolitical convenience (although that’s surely part of it), there’s also a powerful vein of Christian zionism that runs through the American political class. A not insignificant number of legislators hold religious beliefs that align with the goals of the Israeli state.
*disaffected
The anti-Israeli agenda has produced the BDS movement or hadn’t you heard?
BDS was originated in response to the apartheid regime in south Africa. There are people trying to apply the same approach to Israel, but that is explicitly curtailed in the vast majority of states in our country and the federal government has passed legislation explicitly denouncing it and continues to work on legislation explicitly banning it.
So yeah, there are people in this country who are opposed to the behavior of Israel. They are a generally powerless minority though. The power system is ardently pro Israel
Well, only Americans don’t understand the reality of what Israel has done to Palestine so if you live in that bubble and are unable to ask yourself why does every other nation in the world know about the atrocities they commit but not us, then there is no discussion to be had.
If I were the owner of the billboard or the business putting up that sign, I would say a big NO to putting up a sign that divides our community. But I guess money speaks more to some….
Billboard media owners aren’t in it to take sides. They provide a medium for the messages, that’s it. Put up the money, and they’ll plaster it up for you. They do have some standards but again, they aren’t in it to pick sides. That’s for you and me. The billboard is merely the battleground for the factions.
CALLED IT!!
Which side am I supposed to be on again?
Oh, right, the “I dont give a fuck about Israel or Palestine” side.
Those with money dictate the narrative of “free speech.”
It looks like it says “Parade”, but I’m not seeing the other graffiti as “lookin”, it’s not very clear…
No way to devise some way to prevent would-be vandals from scaling the structure (similar to keeping squirrels off a bird feeder?)
Controversial billboards like this are we sure to get vandalized…
Is there method to their madness…???
Perhaps it IS a lucrative moneymaker, after all…???
Could it be a sure fire insurance scam…???
Ya never know…
Kinda like taking candy from a baby…
Cha ching, cha ching…!!!
https://www.mkinsure.com/specialty-programs/billboard-insurance/
I renamed Arcata Al Queda long ago. Ken Fisher, financial guru, calls it a wingnut community, based upon his college experience there. I boycott it entirely.
Likewise. For all the alleged “education” awful lot of dim bulbs.
Expectations for earning college/university grades (and thus degrees) have changed greatly through the years.
Now mostly worthless?
Keep it up, blessed rebels of oppressive forces! We salute you!
These billboards were put up to provoke, not to inform or foster discussion. In a small community like Arcata, where there’s already strong awareness and activism around this issue—especially at Humboldt State—this kind of messaging does nothing but create unnecessary division. Regardless of where someone stands on Israel and Palestine, a sign like this isn’t about education or dialogue. It’s about staking a claim, knowing full well it will stir up anger. And that’s exactly what happened.
Vandalizing the sign isn’t the solution, but neither is putting it up in the first place. If outside groups want to support their cause, they can do it in a way that actually encourages real conversation, not just a billboard that functions as a giant middle finger to part of the community.
Instead of vandalizing, people should crowdsource for an opposition board… ??♀️
I’ll wager that the cowardly bigoted vandals were wearing masks.
שאלוהים ימשיך לברך את ישראל.
It says Israel has God on it’s side.
And yes, God is on the side of Israel.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V0lFNwlLpd4
Being pro-genocide Is not “free speech” it is pro-genocide.
Zionism is no different than Nazism.
You should post the graffiti blurred out. You’re kind of creating an ideal situation for a tagger – a lot of people would have seen it on the freeway and now a TON of people are going to see it on your post… People are going to hit this billboard now with the hopes of getting up like this dude.
Blurring it out defeats the purpose of accurate reporting if you “vandalize”, or alter it to your liking from what was originally done. You know, you made a new fake.
Also a TON of people see it already everyday. You can’t miss it. As for people “hitting this”…well….not any different than they do already.
OMGeneratorOperatorDestroyer
Sun Day Sermon
https://youtu.be/l661_UFmPDc
?♀️??♀️??♀️
ALERT!! Enough of this manufactured hasbara deflection. Israel is still killing Palestinians: The Genocide Continues. In Gaza, Israeli blocks shelter and aid from entering in defiance of the Ceasefire conditions. As a result Palestinian children are freezing to death. The Genocide has spread to The Occupied West Bank where 45,000 Palestinians have been Ethnically Cleansed, told that they cannot return home. Israel has invaded and claimed part of Lebanon and also Syria.
We all know that the ICJ and the ICC have ruled that War Crimes amounting to Genocide are being carried out by Israel and its leaders. Don’t let the Israeli Counter-Intelligence Project (in Hebrew, Hasbara) deflect us from seeking accountability for this historic crime and for ongoing Israeli atrocities and terrorism. Thousands of Palestinians are being tortured in Israeli prisons, including doctors and medical personnel who have not been charged but are held for months.
We must keep our eyes on the prize: End Apartheid in Israel, end the illegal Occupation of Palestine, and create a democratic society which does not favor one religion or people over another. Being anti-Zionist means being against anti-Palestinian racism and for democracy and freedom in Palestine for All.
What’s happening in Gaza and the West Bank is an extension of what happened in 1948-49 when the modern state of Israel was created by a systematic campaign of terror, armed conquest and ethnic cleansing.
From then until now the theocratic apartheid State of Israel has worked assiduously to oppress, marginalize and displace Palestinians from their homeland — all the while being propped up economically and militarily by the United States.
If the US ever applies “America First” policies to the Middle East the Zionist colonizer domination of Palestine will crumble.
Yeah, right. The Arab Palestinians are such beacon of democracy and not the least interested in religious war. Nor racists, nor homophobic nor misogynistic. And never resorted to anything like genocide. They will happily accept your guidance on this. You want to detail how to affect this change? Without genocide on either side?
There is only one party carrying-out genocide and the ICC and ICJ have determined that it is Israel. But we already knew that. Even if we didn’t know it was genocide at first, we all saw the mass murder and mass destruction. War Criminal Netanyahu started up the hot genocide again, refusing to enter into Stage 2 of the Ceasefire.
Compare Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud Party Platform with the Hamas Charter updated in 2017 and then decide which has supremacist religious goals and who has inclusive democratic goals. The Likud Platform lays the basis for Israel’s demographic destruction of Palestinians, it’s Genocide of Palestinians in Occupied Palestinian Territory and also for its illegal military invasion and seizure of land in Lebanon and Syria. The 2017 Hamas Charter lays the basis for what I think is going to be the only viable solution of this Occupation and the Resistance to it—a single state with democratic rights for all people of all faiths and beliefs.
Likud Platform:
“The right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is eternal and indisputable… therefore, Judea and Samaria will not be handed to any foreign administration; between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.” —Likud Party Platform, 1977
Hamas Charter (2017):
“16. Hamas affirms that its conflict is with the Zionist project not with the Jews because of their religion. Hamas does not wage a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish but wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine. Yet, it is the Zionists who constantly identify Judaism and the Jews with their own colonial project and illegal entity.
17. Hamas rejects the persecution of any human being or the undermining of his or her rights on nationalist, religious or sectarian grounds. Hamas is of the view that the Jewish problem, anti-Semitism and the persecution of the Jews are phenomena fundamentally linked to European history and not to the history of the Arabs and the Muslims or to their heritage. The Zionist movement, which was able with the help of Western powers to occupy Palestine, is the most dangerous form of settlement occupation which has already disappeared from much of the world and must disappear from Palestine.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hamas-2017-document-full
“The charter defines the struggle to be against the Jews and calls for the eventual creation of an Islamic Palestinian state in all of former Mandatory Palestine, and the obliteration or dissolution of Israel. The charter has been criticized for its use of antisemitic language, which some commentators have characterized as incitement to genocide. Hamas’s 2017 charter removed the antisemitic language and clarified Hamas’s struggle is with Zionists, not Jews.”
But the original intention was only changed in words. And only words. Hamas’s intentions have remained the same as they can no more separate Jews from Zionism than Israelis can. Hamas can not help sliding back into their original intent when they talk about Jew definling their Holy places or condemning the PLO for not killing. Why you think they should not be believed when they say this but should because the change a word in a text.
Anyway If so many Jews worldwide support Zionism , then it is a meaningless distinction without a difference. Hamas and it’s cohorts in the US need to much less willing to equate Jews with their problems and Jews need to be much less tolerant of settler expansion. And even that would not fix the feelings of historical wrong on both sides. That is an concept liberals can not let go on any front. So we are stuck.
“But our brothers outside are preparing, trying to prepare, warming up.” He continued: “Seven million Palestinians outside, enough warming up, you have Jews with you in every place. You should attack every Jew possible in all the world and kill them.”
Or “Islamic State spokesman Abu Huthaifa al-Ansari, in a speech published by the terror group’s media arm Al-Furqan on Thursday evening, called on ISIS supporters around the world to attack Jews and avenge the killing by the Israel Defense Forces of Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.”
Or “Hamas has condemned a decree issued by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to cut government payments to families of martyrs and prisoners.
The PA, which is dominated by the Fatah party, exercises limited powers in parts of the occupied West Bank.”
https://www.news.com.au/world/middle-east/senior-member-of-gazas-islamist-rulers-encourages-killing-every-jew-possible/news-story/9190675857a2fbaafceed7ec2f90ef73
https://nationalpost.com/news/world/israel-middle-east/isis-spokesman-calls-for-global-attacks-on-jews-kill-them-wherever-you-find-them
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2025/02/mil-250211-presstv02.htm
“But the original intention was only changed in words. And only words.” – yet it is Israel that has gone beyond the transiency of words, through the physical and irreversible act of carrying-out the Genocide of Palestinians for 18 months.
“If so many Jews worldwide support Zionism” – the wonder is that so many don’t: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_anti-Zionist_organizations
“Islamic State spokesman” – bait and switch with a taste of anti-Muslim demonization. I’m talking about Hamas in Palestine, not ISIS in Iraq and Syria. I guess to you they are all the same.
“Hamas has condemned a decree issued by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to cut government payments to families of martyrs and prisoners.” – by your logic of using this as an example a bad thing to do, then you must condemn opposition in the U.S., including by the Democratic Party, to the DOGE cuts to U.S. Veterans and their Families.
Yes, ISIS was created by the US under Operation Timber Sycamore to destabilize the governments of Syria, Iraq, and by extension, Lebanon, and Iran. Notice now that NATO’s 2nd largest military (Turkey) has taken over Syria on behalf of the US and Israel, there is no talk of ISIS anymore suddenly. Similarly, the overthrow of a more secular afghan government in the late 70’s and 80’s as part of conflict between the US and the Soviet Union was when the US created the groups that would later become Al Qaeda under the CIA’s Operation Cyclone. The shah of Iran was overthrown because he started making public statements about Israel controlling the US and many other countries and “pushing too many people around.” The US replaced the Shah with the Islamic government, and had the CIA fly a religious spokesperson (Khomeini) from his residence in France back to Iran in the middle of a revolution and inserted him as the new leader. Then the US encouraged Saddam to invade Iran in the middle of all of this going on so as to deplete all the weapons that the US sold Iran because the US built up Iran as the most powerful military in the region, at least on paper, by selling them all of the surplus vietnam era left over junk that they did not want or need anymore. Then the US moved onto drug trafficking (back to drug trafficking, the domain of the British empire that they inherited) and overthrowing governments in latin America. Who is supporting and carrying out terrorist activities? Look up Operation Gladio in Italy, post WWII, that the CIA ran, and read about the bombings and terror operations they committed in the name of keeping the communists out. Terrorism has been a major tool of operation of the British and US empire for a very long time and the Israelis have taken it to a whole new level because they have stolen enough land to make a giant gated community where they are free from prosecution for financial crimes and human rights violations. They don’t even have an extradition treaty with the US, that’s how much they respect us. Pedophiles with citizenship flee there often once they are caught in the US, and they are then untouchable by the US justice system. Wacky people abound, in denial, filled with hate, but not intelligence.
Correction: Israel does have an extradition treaty with the US. The problem is that it’s so limited and weak in how it is written and implemented that it is worthless and not enforced.
Waiting for the pertinent point to arrive… not the one you are trying to push as hard as you can. Any people who have demonstrated the will to genocide themselves but constantly fail are not innocent victims. They are a perpetually roadblock in trying to limit Israeli aggression.
https://www.news.com.au/world/middle-east/senior-member-of-gazas-islamist-rulers-encourages-killing-every-jew-possible/news-story/9190675857a2fbaafceed7ec2f90ef73