Metro-North Still Faces The Israel-Palestine conflict

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"This poor man who placed the billboards, Henry Clifford, needs an education," Rothstein said. "So we thought we would help people like Henry Clifford who think there was some magical place called 'Palestine' with some presidents or a King before Yasser Arafat."</br>
Clifford's billboards display maps documenting the region's shifting borders since 1946. StandWithUs has six different designs, including one with a picture of a bible and the text: "According To This 3,000-Year-Old Best Seller, Israel Is The Jewish Homeland."
The billboards document Israeli peace offers, and Israel's role in water conservation and U.S. job creation.
"Israel constantly gives gifts to the world, including all these technical advances including water saving and other medical technology that literally creates magic around the world," Rothstein said. "Whether it's growing fish in the desert or helping people drip water into irrigation or helping California with water saving, people don't recognize, don't understand what Israel gives to the world."
Clifford's billboards stirred controversy, leading state Assemblymember Robert Castelli to write a letter calling them inflammatory and urging the MTA to remove them. Clifford said that would be censorship and a violation of his freedom of speech.
Rothstein said StandWithUs believes in free speech and does not think Clifford's advertisements should be removed, but insisted that somebody should have been responsible for checking their accuracy.