Black Lives Matter activists came to Israel to participate in a boisterous demonstration against the Jewish state in the Palestinian village of Bilin in Samaria.
The U.S. is currently deeply divided on many issues, as is seen in the current presidential election campaign, and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, which alleges that police in the U.S. deliberately murder black males, is among them.
Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, a black police officer, is well-known for his attacks against BLM. At the Republican National Convention in July, for example, he was loudly applauded for celebrating the acquittal of one of the policemen accused of murdering Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African American who was arrested for carrying what police said was an illegal switchblade.
“Making America safe again” is a prerequisite for “making America great again,” Clarke stated. “What we witnessed in Ferguson and Baltimore and Baton Rouge was a collapse of the social order. So many of the actions of the Occupy movement and Black Lives Matter transcend peaceful protest and violate the code of conduct we rely on. I call it anarchy.”
Anarchists within the BLM movement have been identifying steadily with the Palestinian cause, and a large delegation has now traveled across the globe to Israel in order to join a violent protest against the Jewish state.
“In the fight for dignity, justice and freedom, the Movement for Black Lives is committed to the global shared struggle of oppressed people, namely the people of occupied Palestine and other indigenous communities who for decades have resisted the occupation of their land, the ethnic cleansing of their people, and the erasure of their history and experiences,” BLM stated in a Facebook post on Friday.
“In this violent, political climate, it is urgent that we make clear the connection between violence inflicted on Black people globally that is encouraged and permitted by the state and the profiling, harm, and genocide funded by the United States and perpetrated by Zionists vigilantes and the Israeli Defense Forces on Palestinian people,” the statement continues. “Our collective oppression mandates that we work together across geography, language and culture to decry and organize an end to capitalistic, imperialist regimes.”
BLM claims to be inspired by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, in which American Jews played a central role.
BLM member Marc Lamont Hill, a prominent African-American academic, journalist and TV personality, last year joined an anti-Israel demonstration in Nazareth, accusing the Jewish state of practicing apartheid.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed recently rejected a demand by a group associated with BLM, which promotes Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the Jewish state, to stop city police training with Israel. “I’m not going to do that,” he stated. “The Israelis have some of the best techniques in the world.”
By: Atara Beck, World Israel News