Cellcom Ad Sparks Controversy In Israel (VIDEO)

A new Israeli cell phone commercial has sparked anger from Palestinians and left-wing Israelis, ABC reports.

The Cellcom ad features Israeli soldiers leaving their patrol to play football over the highly controversial West Bank wall with unseen Palestinians on the other side.

ABC reports that the commercial closes with a voiceover saying, "We all just want to have fun."

The production company behind the commercial has said the ad aims to encourage people to overcome obstacles, according to ABC.

The wall has been highly criticized by multiple groups and organizations. The International Court of Justice ruled the wall illegal five years ago for violating Palestinian's rights, and last week AP reported that a UN official said Israel would have to take it down.

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Comments

[Maysoon Zayid]

brilliant response video as to what would happen in reality....Glad noone got hurt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et8VGyCDt10

[suigeneris]

Was I the only one who kept expecting the ball to come back with a grenade in it the second or third time...?

[wags101]

Isn't it strange that when the Pope visited Gaza his entourage was routed around the wall so not to be visible and no media is allowed near it ,and now it's a symblol of "unity"?? Just more Israeli propaganda. Their more intrested in bombing Iran at the moment.

[BackToFight]

This ad would have been clever if the wall was accepted by both parties as a method of separating themselves from each other. If the wall was a joint project of two governments to separate their people, and the people protested by kicking a soccer ball back and forth, then it would have been funny and tasteful. I understand what they were aiming at, but they seriously miscalculated the negative value of the wall and its affect on the Palestinians. it also would have helped if they put a face on the Palestinian kicking the ball back. If the concept of the commercial is solidarity between a soldier and the imprisoned people that he is guarding, then why not show the prisoners?

This commercial has the equivalence of a Nazi solider kicking a ball back and forth to a Warsaw ghetto resident while.

[Klum]

Your comparison to the Nazi soldiers is stupid.

Unlike the Jews in the holocaust, the Palestinians brought that wall on themselves!

Have you ever wondered why we've stopped seeing exploded Israeli busses on CNN?
Let me give you a little hint, it's not because the Palestinians stopped trying to explode themselves on them.

After Mr. Arafat turned down every reasonable peace agreement that was suggested to him, the Israelis simply did next best thing in order to protect their women & children from Palestinian terrorists that insisted to blow themselves up in busses, train stations, markets, discotheques and schools.

That wall is the best thing that happened to Israel in the last decade and it's doing it's only purpose in a very good way – it's keeping the Palestine terrorists outside.

The fact that the wall is not directly on the border is a legal issue that is discussed in the supreme court in Israel and except from several places the wall is without a doubt legit.
I don’t see any reason that Israel should compromise it's security and it is perfectly clear that the main reason that Palestinians are objecting the wall is that it took away their suicide weapon – the only "successful" weapon they ever had.

[suigeneris]

"the Palestinians brought that wall on themselves!"

This is a remarkably ignorant comment.

[DC]

Was the ad sad and patronizing because it it showed the IDS as a bunch of young good looking nice guys and gals in all of their humanity; and the Palestinians as invincible "something" on the other side of a wall?

If the ad showed us some reality -- and the humanity of the Palestinian kids on the other side of the wall -- it would never have been accepted in Israel. THAT would be too controversial.

In the propaganda world of Israel it is not PC to show Palestinians as human. To do that would undermine larger political objectives.

So the ad was interesting, but disturbing.

[TruthJusticeForAll]

I find your analysis as disturbed and not at all interesting.

[arvay]

Ha, that's why you replied to this "not at all interesting" comment.

Dehumanizing the victim is a well-know procedure, famously applied in many concentration and death camps. The Israelis have applied up-to-date technology, these are SUCH clever people, so brilliant, so attractive, we're all jealous.

[DC]

Perhaps you find it uninteresting, but then why even comment to it?

As for finding it "disturbed" is another way of calling the poster (me in this case) disturbed. An attempt to attack and demonize someone behind a message.

This is also how propagandist deal with messages that do not fit the narrative. Attack the messenger, but not the message.

Otherwise, you would have said "disturbing." And if so, you would explain exactly what is disturbing.

That would be a honest dialogue befitting your handle.

[Palemoon]

Where is my post pointing out the redecorated Jeep/Jeeps that are used in the informercial?

[Bill125]

Israel: tear down that wall.

[JerryLevy]

And let our suicide terrorists in

[MemoryAlpha]

Documentation of actual terrorism taking place on the West Bank:
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article988

Observation:
The wall was built on the wrong side of the Green Line.

[MemoryAlpha]

Additional Query:
Why do you hate Arabs so much?

[nkhogan]

The wall only gives you an illusion of security. I toured the wall and there are places where Palestinian villages are on the Israeli side of the wall and can easily travel to Israel. Also there are lots of places where Palestinians are able to get through to Israeli to work without going through check points. According to Maschom Watch, no terrorists have ever been stopped at the check point.

[TruthJusticeForAll]

Insanity RULES. I see a commercial where 2 people, divided by a wall (& obviously much more) begin to play together. Nothing more, Nothing less. Among the many reasons for the Olympic games, is the desire to bring disparate people together & celebrate in peace through games. If enough Israelis & Palestinians kicked soccer balls between them & participated in other peaceful activities, they might begin to forget they are each other's "enemy" & possibly begin to see each other as human beings with whom peace is possible.

Horror of horrors if they begin singing Kimbya & Give Peace A Chance.

[Maysoon Zayid]

did you notice you didn't see 2 people? That those on the otherside remain faceless and not human? Also guns and walls do not invoke images of peace but rather fear and oppression.

[TruthJusticeForAll]

Fear of those irrational & suicidal terrorist bombers. Arabs began 4 major wars. They lost them all. Only location on earth where loser demands terms. Rather live in squalor & in state of war rather than work to create a life, as Israelis have done.

[BackToFight]

TruthJusticeForAll - translation: Distorted truths to support Israel by any means possible, regardless of the availability of information and facts, and Justice for all, except if you happen to be a Palestinian.

[Nerdacus]

Reminds me of Paul McCartney's video for "Pipes of Peace", in which WWI trench soldiers do a bit of the same:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7ErrZ-ipoE

[fcsakes]

It's a commercial. Why do people have to make a world-wide issue out of every frigging thing?

These people are just trying to sell their product. I got that the wall cannot separate people from who they basically are - both sides, friendly, eager to play, the wall is no obstacle to humanity.

But then I'm an American and understand nothing.

[BackToFight]

Imagine a slave master kicking a soccer ball into a cotton field, where some unidentified slave is kicking the ball back to him. Understand? Oppressors, including their citizens, politicians, and businesses, should not make light of the people they are oppressing.

[Hank007]

It would be akin to an ad depicting slave owners and KKK members kicking a ball over the wall of the slave quarters. The two sides are not equal. One side is heavily armed, backed by the greatest army in history, and has free reign to kill the other at will, without repercussion. The other side lives in squalor, has to beg for food, water and basic medicine, is humiliated daily at checkpoints they may or may not be allowed to pass in their own country, and the deaths of their children are celebrated.

[TruthJusticeForAll]

If the Palestinians had the power, the Israelis would be in the sea...DEAD. The wall was erected to halt terrorists attacks.

[MemoryAlpha]

Query:
Then why is the wall on Palestinian land and not Israeli land, if the purpose is to protect Israelis?

[Palemoon]

"greatest army in history"

Uhh, since when? You pull off Pearl Harbor after Pearl Harbor and with the help of the mightiest super power on earth, and you say they have the greatest army in history?

Come back when they can go toe to toe with Cameroon or Trinidad or even Colombia.

[Abd-ul-Latif]

God bless you for speaking the truth.

[Sirdi]

Word.

[ccoppe]

To HuffPost, B'tselem, Palestinian who look for anything to complain about and all you others on this site who love to hate all thing Israeli:

This video took a lot of guts for the Israeli director and creative to do.
THE FREAKIN' POINT OF IT:

the IDF soldiers return the ball, the Palestinians continue to return it and -- even though there is a HUGE obstacle and they know they are engaging their adversary they find a way to play (read COOPERATE) together.

I believe this is the whole premise of HOPE.

[MemoryAlpha]

Query:
What do you think would have happened to the Palestinians in real life if they had kicked a ball toward IDF soldiers and there was no wall in the way to block gunfire?

[Godweiser]

The IDF would have directed mortar fire and declared that they were directing counterbattery fire at a hostile force lobbing an improvised indirect fire weapon at their peaceful forces who were out picking flowers for Bibi Netanyahu and some schoolkids.

Or something along those lines of ridiculousness.

[JerryLevy]

Query:

How many more people would have been murdered by suicide terrorists and car bombs if there was no wall in the to block them?

[petera63]

Hilarious and very professionally done!

[MemoryAlpha]

Query:
You find Palestinians trapped behind a wall to be amusing?

[BackToFight]

I'll respond for him: Yes, they are not human beings, and therefore we can humiliate them. In order to qualify as human beings they must convert to Judaism.

[politisophical]

i liked it... it seems to promote unity among the two cultures

[johnie2xs]

WHAT??????????????????????
Are you f*ckin' kidding??????????????????????

[Palemoon]

Hmmmm, isn't that a Jeep CJ that pulls up? Why does it have a shiny chrome Toyota logo on the front? Doesn't appear to be a Land Cruiser that I can tell. I'm pretty sure it's a US made Jeep CJ like I used to own way back.