Months after losing a federal court case involving King County Metro's decision to censor political bus ads accusing Israel of war crimes, the group behind the bus ads has purchased billboard space throughout Seattle demanding that the US stop funding the Israeli military.

The first of two billboards, located on Elliot Avenue and on Lake City Way NE, have been erected. The Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign, which purchased the billboard space from Clear Channel, says two more are scheduled in the coming weeks and will stay up for a month. “We always planned to follow our bus ad campaign with additional messages in other venues," explained Mark Eichinger-Wiese, a spokesman for the group, in a press release. "We had this Equal Rights banner designed before we launched our ‘Israeli War Crimes’ campaign in December.”

The ACLU has brought a lawsuit against King County on behalf of the group, alleging that the county violated their constitutional rights by refusing to honor a contract to run the bus ads. Ed Mast, a spokesman for the group, wouldn't speak to the lawsuit except to say that it was "ongoing."