Roaming Billboards Bring Gazan Reality and More to the Streets
Report and photos by Phil Pasquini
Washington: Since the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7 and the massive and sustained invasion of Gaza by the IDF, the world has seen Palestinian and human rights activists protesting daily calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
Activists have employed any number of means to convey their message including the use of mobile LED billboards permanently mounted on a truck that can roam the city bringing its messages to the public. Studies have shown that the effectiveness of utilizing billboard trucks, according to one company, results in a 98% recall rate while making as many as 70,000 or more impressions on drivers and pedestrians alike each day. The trucks with their messages are quite popular with many people who often stop to take photos including selfies with the trucks as backdrops.
So, it is not surprising that for the past week two trucks each sponsored by separate groups have been displaying Gaza-related rotating messages calling on Americans to reconsider the cost to US taxpayers of our support for Israel along with the effects of the genocide taking place in Gaza. Among the displays are those related to facts about what is happening on the ground in Gaza while calling for an end to stop bombing children and hospitals.
One such sign displayed on a truck sponsored by IfAmericansKnew.org shows a young girl looking up at a sky filed with falling bombs whose message includes a frequently updated toll of those killed indicating how tax dollars are being spent aiding Israel.
While another of the rotating billboards displays the annual support for Israel, presently at $3.9 billion, and asks simply “How is this America first?”
As millions of Gazans are on the brink of starvation and with food and aid convoys being stalled by the Israelis, the past week has seen the US deploying aircraft to drop food into Gaza to alleviate the situation. While the optics are presented by major corporate media as an effective means of relief, the math connotes something otherwise. With 38,000 food packages being delivered with early drops, 2.3 million people are still in dire need of immediate food and medical aid. The net effect of this methodology of meeting that need fails dismally.
This means of delivery is expensive, dangerous and not sustainable in the long term. Additionally, in order for aircraft to enter the war zone, the US must notify the Israelis of pending flights so that the aircraft won’t be shot down.
So as Gazans continue to starve and the Biden administration has yet to publicly utilize its influence and ability to demand and pressure Israel into opening its land borders in bringing efficient, expedient and cost-effective aid to Gaza, President Biden announced yet another mechanism to bring relief. In his latest ill-conceived plan, he announced that the US military with 1,000 troops would construct a temporary coast side floating dock for the delivery by ship of food, water, medicine and temporary shelters. Hoping to make the idea palatable, he further promised that no “American boots would be on the ground.” The Biden plan also calls for the Israeli government to maintain security at the pier and to protect it from any attacks by Hamas along with crowd control from anticipated riots by residents who are desperate for food.
The sheer fantasy of such a solution also contained the promise that the dock would be operational in two months’ time.
Time that Gazans can ill afford when every second counts. That begets the question of how many more people will have to die as relief has become a political proxy between Israel, Egypt the US, and others.
(Phil Pasquini is a freelance journalist and photographer. His reports and photographs appear in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and Nuze.ink. He is the author of Domes, Arches and Minarets: A History of Islamic-Inspired Buildings in America.)
