Sadiq Khan condemns offensive anti-Israel bus stop ads

London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Wednesday (5) ordered the removal of anti-Israel bus stop advertisements.

The bus stop ads were put up by campaign group LDNPalestineAction and it has condemned the state of "Israel is a racist endeavour".

“These offensive adverts are not authorised and are acts of vandalism which Transport for London and its advertising partner takes extremely seriously," a spokesman for the Mayor of London was quoted as saying by Mail Online. "They have instructed their contractors to remove any posters found on their network immediately.”

In a statement, Transport for London said: "These adverts are absolutely not authorised by TfL or our advertising partner JCDecaux.

"It is fly posting and therefore an act of vandalism which we take extremely seriously. We have instructed our contractors to remove any of these posters found on our network immediately.

"We have spoken to JCDecaux and they believe that there are six such posters in London. We are working together to take them down as soon as possible."

The posters cropped up as Jewish groups warned that anti-Semitism was on the rise in the UK. According to incidents recorded by charity the Community Security Trust (CST), there were 727 anti-Semitic incidents across the UK in the first six months of 2018.

This is the second highest figure recorded in more than two decades. The highest-ever number was recorded in the first six months of last year.

A total of 1,414 incidents were recorded in 2017, compared to 541 in 2008.