In November 2002, at the height of the terror campaign which murdered dozens of Israeli civilians, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, issued a color advertising brochure, in Hebrew and English, that was distributed in the Haaretz newspaper and posted on their internet site. These political cartoons of checkpoints were based on stereotypes that were highly offensive to many Israelis, and some were considered to be anti-Semitic. The funds for this political advertisement came from the European Union, the Finnish Embassy in Tel Aviv, the Swiss government, the Ford Foundation, the New Israel Fund, the Naomi and Nehemia Cohen Foundation, SIVMO (Netherlands), Global Ministries of the Uniting Churches, Diakonia (both based in the Netherlands), EPER -Swiss Interchurch Aid, and other sources.

In the wake of this advertisement and the massive protest, some of these funders stopped their support, including the Ford Foundation and the New Israel Fund. (EU funding for political NGOs is classified, and the Finnish government support now comes from the office in Ramallah.) Subsequently, the images were removed from PHR-I website (initially at http://www.phr.org.il/Phr/Pages/PhrArticle_Unit.asp?Cat=10&art=478) but no apology was issued. The images can be found below.