Comcast: Group can air Mideast spots

Comcast Corp. yesterday said it would continue to allow a nonprofit group to air ads about the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, despite objections from a Jewish organization in Boston.

Imagine-Life, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., that focuses on human-rights violations in the Middle East and Africa, has run a series of ads in 80 US cities, including Boston. The ads air on national cable news networks such as CNN and MSNBC.

Boston is the only market where objections were raised, and the cable company considered pulling the ads, said Nina Ghannam, president of Imagine-Life.

The four 30-second spots that ran in Boston talk about the dehumanization of Palestinian children by the Israeli Defense Forces, the difficulty that Palestinian Christians have worshiping under the Israeli occupation, and the hundreds of Palestinian and Israeli children killed since the conflict intensified in September 2000. The ads depict images of crying Palestinian children, demolished homes, and tanks pointed near Palestinian worshipers.

The ads ran in Boston on April 12 and Imagine-Life said it is moving up the date of the airing for the May ads because of the attention the ads have drawn.

Comcast yesterday requested that the nonprofit group change the ending of future ads to identify them as being paid for and sponsored by Imagine-Life, Ghannam said. The ads in Boston carried a tag line identifying the sponsor as an ad-hoc group of concerned citizens instead of Imagine-Life. Ghannam said the group views them as public-service announcements, even though they are paid ads, but plans to modify the ads so they can run. ''In Boston, given the culture, we are surprised this was an issue," Ghannam said.

Alan Ronkin, deputy director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, said his organization objected to the ads because they were being promoted as public-service announcements and because they had factual errors and misrepresentations, including allegations that every home in Gaza had a tank shell through it and that whole villages of Palestinian Christians had been vacated.

''They were blatantly anti-Israel, and they weren't public-service announcements," said Nancy K. Kaufman, the council's president.

After the group became aware of Imagine-Life's ads, the council sent an ''action alert" to thousands of community members to call Comcast and urge it to withdraw the ads.

In response to Imagine-Life's campaign, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston is planning for the first time to spend about $8,000 to run pro-Israel ads in the coming weeks on the New England Sports Network during Red Sox and Celtics games.

Comcast officials said the Imagine-Life ads were not public-service announcements but rather paid ads that aired only one day. Dana Runnells, a Comcast spokeswoman, said future Imagine-Life ads had been reviewed to ensure they meet Comcast standards.

''Comcast runs ads from many sources representing a wide range of viewpoints," Runnells said, and Comcast's policy ''is to review advertisements on a case-by-case basis for compliance with network and internal guidelines."

Imagine-Life said the ads were examined twice by Comcast's legal department, and the initial ads this month were delayed by a day to give the cable company extra time to review them. Ghannam also said the ads have support from various organizations, including the Jewish Voice for Peace and the Coalition of Women for Peace.

The exact date for the May ads is still being determined, but Ghannam said they will run within the next two weeks.

Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com.