By Ben Tomsett on the New Zealand Herald…
A Dunedin bus safety campaign was paused after complaints that a poster featured a teenager wearing a keffiyeh and necklace.
The campaign was launched by the Otago Regional Council (ORC), along with the Dunedin Youth Council and Dunedin Students Council, in January after growing concerns about safety in the central city and bus hub.
It had been in development since Trinity College student Enere Taana-McLaren was fatally stabbed at the bus hub last May.
A campaign poster with the slogan “We’re all in the same team”, which featured on social media and Dunedin bus services, showed a diverse group of students on a bus alongside Highlanders rugby player Jona Nareki.
But it was the inclusion of a student wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh – a traditional Middle Eastern headdress – and a necklace depicting the outline of disputed land that includes Israel and the Palestinian territories, that prompted complaints, including one from the Israel Institute of New Zealand (IINZ).
Read the full story on the New Zealand Herald here.
Stuff also ran a story relating to the issue: it can be read here.
