Israel Withdraws ‘Stone’s Throw’ Ad

The Israeli National Tourist Bureau has canceled an advertisement it was running in Dutch newspapers that said Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are only “a stone’s throw” apart, a bureau spokesman said Wednesday.

The bureau withdrew the ad because of the unrest in the Israeli-occupied territories, where Palestinian youths frequently hurl rocks and other objects at troops, spokesman Albert Kooistra said.

The advertisement, which ran last week in two newspapers and in three TV program guides, was meant to emphasize the short distances between Israel’s cities and other tourist sites, Kooistra said.

“The distance between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem? About a stone’s throw,” Kooistra quoted the ad as saying.

“Speaking figuratively, that’s true, only I think the text must have caused something of a shock in the current context,” he said.

Kooistra said the bureau had received about a dozen protest calls and letters and decided to drop the ad this week “because of the emotions it triggered.”