Who’s Laughing Now? Israeli Television Ad Sparks Anger
Well, it’s official. Israel’s largest cellphone company, Cellcom, is taking its controversial television ad off the air that fell on its face trying to put a playful twist on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It’s an ad campaign that came to its planned and natural end after some two weeks on the air, officials at the company assured me as they tried to downplay the rage it sparked from some Israelis - both Jewish and Arab - including lawmakers and journalists. A Facebook group was even formed in response with over 2,100 members is named “The New Cellcom Ad Also Made Me Nauseus”.
What — was — that?” I thought when I first saw it.
My eyes were transfixed on my television as it came to its bizarre conclusion. The scene: An Israeli army jeep pulls up in a front of a wall of soaring concrete slabs, part of the West Bank barrier that keeps Israelis on one side and Palestinians on the other. A soccer ball from the Palestinian side lands with a thunk on the jeep’s hood. Five soldiers in combat gear - helmets, flak jackets and all, race out and one kicks the ball over the wall. When the ball soars back to them, the soldiers let out a triumphant cheer. One of them, smiling widely, calls to fellow soldiers by cell phone with a brief update: “They’re here. The game is on”. Soon several jeeps follow and dozens have joined the game.
The nameless, faceless Palestinians on the other side of the wall are not seen, but an upbeat jingle in the background fades to a voiceover that tries to speak for them too: “Afterall, what are we all after? Just a little fun.”
Even for those with a good sense of black humor, the West Bank barrier makes for an interesting idea of fun. One rarely, if ever, sees any kind of depiction of it in popular Israeli media, which is why the ad’s scene caught my attention in the first place.
Ahmed Tibi, an Arab lawmaker in Israel’s parliament demanded Cellcom withdraw the ad, saying, “The barrier separates families and prevents children from reaching schools and clinics … Yet the advertisement presents the barrier as though it were just a garden fence in Tel Aviv.”
Indeed the gap in perceptions of a conflict viewed in vastly different ways by the two sides living it is what both the Cellcom ad and its subsequent comment managed to illuminate.
Here’s the company’s official response: “We do not deal in politics; we’re a communications company that connects people. The message of the campaign was that when people of any religion, race or gender want to communicate, they can do it in any situation. We have received many positive responses to the ad. The campaign was not intended to hurt or cynically offend anyone, or to take any political position.”
A Jewish Israeli acquaintance, who preferred not to be named, was so angry after seeing the ad that she immediately cancelled her Cellcom contract.
“I suppose the idea is that both sides are human, but what it shows is the complete disconnect experienced by Israelis. We don’t want to know what is going on there,” she said, referring to Palestinian life in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
For Nadim Nashif, an Arab citizen of Israel living in Haifa who led a campaign against the ad, it was also an affront: “You don’t create this reality (of the barrier) and then make light of it.”
The question is how representative the ad was of the thinking of mainstream Israeli society. It clearly made some uncomfortable, even ill, according to the Facebook group. But for most it did not seem to register at all. Which I suppose, is an answer in itself.
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