Israeli Racist, Anti-Arab Commercial for Nissan Tiieda Car

Israel Channel 10 to drop "racist" Nissan commercial

Date: 09 / 08 / 2008 Time: 15:05
Jerusalem – Ma'an -

Israel Channel 10 announced on Saturday that it will drop a Nissan commercial that had been denounced as "racist" for its depiction of men from Saudi Arabia.

Hanna Sweid, a Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset, had filed a complaint with the Israel Broadcasting authority, in which he condemned the advertisement as "racist and provocative" that degrades the Arab culture and customs.

The advertisement for the Nissan Tiida depicts a number of wealthy Saudi men flying into a frenzy of rage when they encounter the new fuel-efficient car. One man attacks the car with his fists, screaming, "You destroyed my home! May God destroy your home! Hawks should peck at you day and night."

"It's clear the oil companies won't like you," the voiceover at the end of the commercial says.

Sweid said that Nissan should be able to market its automobiles without pandering to a racist stereotype of Arabs as irrational, angry and oil-wealthy.

According to Sweid, the Broadcast Authority ignored his complaint, and so he approached the Nissan company in Japan, urging them to pull the spot from the air.

Nissan has distanced itself from the advertisement, which was produced by an Israeli company.

The Japanese news agency Kyodo reported on Friday that Nissan itself ordered its Israeli business partner to remove the commercial.

The zero-emission electric Nissan Tiida launched on Wednesday, and scheduled to go on the market in Japan and the US in 2010, and globally by 2012

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