Like many fellow Jews, I fought for black voting and civil rights in the 1960s. I participated in sit-ins, marched, traveled to Mississippi, and was arrested there. I — and virtually every Jew and Jewish organization — rightfully continue to support equal rights and fair and unbiased treatment of African-Americans, and everyone else, today.
However, the abiding Jewish support for black equality should not blind any organization into supporting the anti-police, antisemitic, anti-Israel #BlackLivesMatter movement. Therefore, my organization, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), is urging the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to discontinue ADL’s statements and educational materials promoting the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Here’s why:
The coordinated ambush and assassination of five innocent Dallas police officers and wounding of seven more, is another horrifying chapter in the “war on cops” targeting our country’s first line of defense. One of the shooters cited “Black Lives Matter” and said that he “wanted to kill white people, especially white officers.”
The #BlackLivesMatter movement’s incitement of anti-police violence helped create the environment that led to the Dallas massacre of police officers, according to experts including former New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir; US CENTCOM official Colonel Derek Harvey, and National Association of Police Organizations Executive Director William Johnson. Johnson stated:
“It’s a war on cops. . . . I think their [the Obama administration’s] continued appeasement at the federal level with the Department of Justice, their appeasement of violent criminals, their refusal to condemn movements like Black Lives Matter actively calling for the death of police officers, that type of thing, all the while blaming police for the problems of this country has directly led to the climate that has made Dallas possible.”
#BlackLivesMatter “Million Marchers” strode through New York City streets chanting: “What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want it? Now!” (Video) Just hours after a black shooter murdered a white law enforcement officer who was putting gas into his car, #BlackLivesMatter movement activists marched in St. Louis cruelly chanting: “Pigs in a blanket, Fry ‘em like bacon.” (Video) After hearing #BlackLivesMatter’s calls to kill police officers, Bill O’Reilly named #BlackLivesMatter a “hate group.”
#BlackLivesMatter members’ incitement to murder police is good reason for every decent organization to condemn the #BlackLivesMatter movement. In addition, self-respecting Jewish and pro-Israel organizations should also condemn and refuse to support the #BlackLivesMatter movement because #BlackLivesMatter is permeated with Jew hatred, and has allied itself with anti-Israel hate groups that seek to destroy and boycott Israel.
At Ferguson and other protests, #BlackLivesMatter and anti-Israel pro-Palestinian Arab activists chant and carry banners proclaiming: “From Palestine to Ferguson, End Racism Now” and “From Ferguson to Palestine, Occupation is a Crime.”
#BlackLivesMatter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, and over 1,000 black “social justice” activists, including other leading #BlackLivesMatter activists and allies, signed a vicious antisemitic, anti-Israel manifesto called the “2015 Black Solidarity Statement with Palestine,” falsely accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing,” “brutality,” “massacres,” “apartheid,” “theft,” and “one-sided slaughter.” The “Black Solidarity with Palestine statement” also “wholeheartedly endorsed” BDS. The statement also touted international trips by “representatives of Black Lives Matter, Ferguson and other racial justice groups to Palestine” to strengthen their “joint struggle.”
#BlackLivesMatter and anti-Israel groups also do “teach-ins” based on their hateful propaganda video entitled “When I see them, I see us,” which likens Gazan “victims of Israel” to American black victims of police shootings. On April 3, 2016, #BlackLivesMatter and the Cincinnati Palestine Solidarity Coalition hosted such a “teach in” to build — “Solidarity Between the Movements for Black and Palestinian Liberation” — at Cincinnati’s Clifton Mosque. The anti-Israel hate group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)’s national conference in Boston featured #BlackLivesMatter activists.
Incredibly, the ADL supports #BlackLivesMatter in various fora. ADL head Jonathan Greenblatt said that: “. . . making sure that “Black Lives Matter”. . . . are the struggles of our time” in his recent speech to extremist anti-Israel, Soros-funded J Street U.
ADL’s website contains at least 8 misleading “lesson plans,” “curriculum resources” and “family discussion guides” that bolster the “BlackLivesMovement” and/or its racist theories such as “unearned white privilege.” Thousands of impressionable youngsters may be misled by ADL’s damaging lessons.
ADL’s lesson plan entitled “What is Happening in Ferguson, MO” encourages students in grades 9 to 12 to join and assist the protests, vigils, and other activism protesting the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson. Notably, these are the very same protests and vigils that demand an end to Israel’s existence, using anti-Israel “From Ferguson to Palestine, Occupation is a Crime” chants and banners!
ADL’s lesson plans also bolster the “hands up” lie at the root of the #BlackLivesMatter” movement, by failing to mention that the exhaustive DOJ/FBI/U.S. Attorney’s investigation found that Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson while charging at police officer Wilson, and that Brown’s hands were not up in the air. The resulting DOJ report concluded: “The evidence establishes that the shots fired by Wilson after Brown turned around were in self-defense.” Instead, ADL’s “What is Happening in Ferguson, MO” lesson and “Exploring Solutions to Address Racial Disparity Concerns” lesson portray “hands up” as at least as likely a scenario as self-defense.
Similarly, ADL fails to mention that the DOJ report and recordings showed that Officer Wilson knew that Michael Brown had just committed a robbery. ADL’s lessons instead leave the impression that Officer Wilson did not know about the robbery (thereby implying that the officer encountered Brown without cause).
ADL’s lesson plans also contain misleading, selective police shooting statistics; frequently fail to present self-defense claims, or present self defense as an example of “racial profiling”; and promote the racist, divisive “unearned white privilege” theory.
It’s time for ADL to stop fighting for the antisemitic BlackLivesMatter movement and spend all its energies fighting antisemitism.
Morton A. Klein is the President of the Zionist Organization of America.
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