More than 600 Jewish groups published an ad in The New York Times in August 2020 supporting Black Lives Matter. “We speak with one voice when we say, unequivocally: Black Lives Matter,” they wrote.
On Oct. 10, an X (formerly Twitter) handle called Black Lives Matter Chicago https://twitter.com/BLMChi/status/1711793142742073573” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>posted a since-deleted image of a paraglider in silhouette with a Palestinian flag on the parachute. “I stand with Palestine,” the drawing stated. “That is all that is it!” the handle wrote to its more than 60,000 followers.
The post, a little more than three years after 600 Jewish organizations pledged their support to BLM, came on the third day after Hamas terrorists (some paragliding over the border) massacred more than 1,300 Israelis and wounded thousands more in what the U.S. and Israeli presidents have called the bloodiest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust.
Hamas also took as many as 150 civilians hostage, including American citizens.
“BLM Chicago, like many leftists, comes out in support of slaughtering innocent people they don’t like. Now ask yourself this: Do they like you? Unless you’re an extremist, they probably don’t. Consider the future ramifications of that for your family,” wrote Robby Starbuck, a former congressional candidate and conservative influencer.
Amnesty International, another purported human-rights organization, was one of many other leftist groups that attacked Israel and blamed the victim. “Unlawful attacks on civilians by Hamas and others amount to war crimes, for which they must be held to account. We condemn with no reservation these senseless killings,” an Amnesty International Israel handle posted.
The main Amnesty handle, with 2.1 million followers, wrote: “Israeli security forces and Palestinian armed groups must make every effort to protect the lives of civilians in today’s outbreak of fighting in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories” just hours after the brutal Hamas attacks on Oct. 7.
Cornel West, an activist and thinker who is running as an independent candidate for the 2024 presidential election, told his 1 million X followers that he would protect Israelis and Palestinians as U.S. president by ending “the vicious U.S.-supported Israeli occupation.” It wasn’t clear what he meant when he referred to “occupied Hamas forces.”
Within hours of the Hamas attacks, the far-left feminist, “anti-war” group Code Pink, posted: “The U.S.-backed Israeli apartheid regime inflicts daily settler violence and terror on Palestinians. Israel is an occupying force. Palestinians have every right to resist it.”
Earlier in the day, Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink, wrote: “The Israeli government can’t keep 2 million trapped in an open-air prison in Gaza and not expect resistance.”
The Islamic Society of North America issued a statement “in deep solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Palestine,” attacking what it called Israeli “apartheid” and “occupation.”
The Starbucks Workers United, a Service Employees International Union affiliate supported by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), expressed “solidarity with Palestine” in a since-deleted post.
Produced in association with Jewish News Syndicate
(Additional reporting provided by JNS Reporter)
