A company responsible for advertising on the Egged bus company has refused to place a political advertisement on Jerusalem city buses showing female candidates for the city council, so as not to offend the haredi public. The advertisement rejected last week by the Canaan advertising company, which is charged with advertising with the Egged bus cooperative, includes the portrait of two fully clothed women - along with a man - running for city council on a joint religious-secular list called Wake up Jerusalem-Yerushalmim. The municipal elections will take place on November 11. A spokesman for the company on Wednesday stood by the rejection of the ad. "All advertisements are subject to the approval of the Egged censor," Canaan company spokesman Ohad Gibli said. "In order not to offend the sensitivities of a certain public, certain criteria have been defined regarding the content of advertisements." Pictures of women cannot appear on buses that go through haredi neighborhoods, Gibli said. Egged spokesman Ron Ratner said the bus company was never asked about advertisements with the portraits of women running for the city council, and would never have nixed them. "Egged never received a query on this issue and would never have rejected such an advertisement of a public figure so long as it was positive, modest and respectable, and did not hurt public sensitivities," he said. The Egged spokesman said he thought the whole issue was a PR ploy since the would-be city councilors never contacted Egged on the issue. "It is very sad that in Israel of 2008 women suffer such brazen discrimination, which is absolutely unacceptable," said Wake up Jerusalem-Yerushalmim spokeswoman Meirav Cohen, whose portrait was one of those appearing on the banned advertisement. She said the whole conversation with the advertising company was taped, and that the bus company was trying to skirt responsibility for the ban. In the meantime, the ads in question have gone up on bus stations, which are the responsibility of another advertising company. Last month, Egged removed political advertisements on the sides of its buses sponsored by the Meretz Party against the "haredization" of Jerusalem.
