Image Deconstruction

Stop $30 Billion Billboard

The conflict in Israel/Palestine traces back to the Roman invasion and conquest of Judea, renaming it Palestine in the 1^st century BC. Judea was the initial home for the Jewish. The town was later conquered again by the Arabs in the following millennium. The emergence of the Zionist movement in 1891 which advocated for the return of the Jewish to Israel created the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This movement ignored the existing Arab or the Palestinian population already settled in this land. In 1917, the League of Nations mandated Britain to build a national home for the Jewish leading to the famous Balfour Declaration. The Arab population resisted this move of Jewish coming back to take 'their land'.  Following series of revolts and attacks by Arabs against Jewish their enmity intensified and the British stopped immigrating the Jews to Palestine. During the World War II, over 6 million Jewish were killed by the Palestinian Nazi army resulting in the Holocaust. In 1947, the United Nations divided the land among the two warring communities. With Arabs resisting this partition, war broke and Jewish won many battles annexing more of the Palestinian land into their state. Efforts to reconcile the two warring parties have never borne any fruit.

The USA joined the efforts to permanently settle the Israelis in Palestine with their bond tracing back to 1922 when US became the first nation to officially recognize Israel as a state minutes after it was formed. In 2007, the USA and Israel signed a memorandum of understanding committing US to give Israel $ 30 Billion aid in the form of military support for the next 10 years beginning 2008. Lobby groups and human rights activist organizations protested this move and have argued that with the Israelis having US support, their attacks on the Palestine have been very severe and inhumane. They have therefore mounted efforts to end US government support of the Israelis militarily.

Our focus, in this case, is on a billboard designed protesting the 2007 $30 billion commitment by the US to the Israel Military. The billboard features a young Palestinian girl and a war tank with Israeli flag accompanied by a slogan that calls the public to protest the killing of children to the congress and withdrawing of the US Military aid to Israel.  In this billboard, the message presented is very clear. The black background maximizes the legibility of the words and the visibility of the images; perhaps it express the mourning of the Palestinian families having lost their children and family members killed by the Israeli soldiers aided by the US government.

At a glance of the billboard, the line 'Stop Killing Children' is very pronounced in yellow and in capital letters implying it is the main theme and the core message of the billboard. Though lesser prominent, the words: "Tell Congress" and "No More Military Aid to Israel," are deliberately in white not only for clarity as call for peace. This is an appeal to the public who is the primary target audient for actions towards peace in Palestine.

The use of two different images is skillfully done to ensure that the relationship is achieved. To the extreme left of the billboard is a tank with Israeli flag signifying brutal and ruthless attacks by the Israeli. The tanker is pointing to the right where the image of the young Palestinian girl is. The image of the girl is deliberately used to demonstrate innocence of the casualties of the Israeli-Palestinian war. It communicates the fact that they are not armed yet they are killed.

At the bottom of the billboard is the website of the lobby group which incidentally is also a further call to the US government and to the public to stop the $30 billion already committed by the government to Israeli in military aid over 10 years. This billboard was designed and crafted by Lamer but commissioned by the lobby group called the called The Coalition to Stop $ 30 Billion to Israel and the advertisement captures this fact.

In conclusion, stop $30 Billion billboard managed to communicate its message successfully to the public. Through the intellectually and tactfully designed billboard, the message was complete but it infuriated the government officials and it was brought down in three weeks instead of the eight weeks it was to be up.