National Council of Young Israel calls on Black Lives Matter leaders and elected officials to condemn protesters who tried to link BLM to the Palestinian anti-Israel BDS movement.
By Paul Shindman, World Israel News
The leading American organization of modern orthodox synagogues on Thursday called on elected officials and leaders in the African-American community to condemn the linkage of the Black Lives Matter movement to the anti-Semitic BDS movement.
The National Council of Young Israel (NCYI) issued a statement after protestors at an anti-Israel march earlier this week in Washington, D.C. chanted anti-Israel and anti-Semitic slogans while carrying Black Lives Matter and pro-Palestinian signs side by side.
The NCYI said the protesters shouted out both “black lives matter” and “Palestinian lives matter” but also chanted “Israel, we know you, you murder children, too.”
“While we absolutely agree that the issue of race in America is something that must be duly addressed on a national level, it is sickening to see that the Black Lives Matter movement has been co-opted by people who wear their anti-Semitic beliefs on their sleeves,” said NCYI President Farley Weiss.
“Whether it is yelling anti-Semitic comments during a march in our nation’s capital or vandalizing and defacing synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses in Los Angeles with anti-Semitic messages during a protest, these blatant expressions of bigotry are intolerable and must end.”
Weiss said that the anti-Semitic remarks and anti-Israel declarations were “poisoning protests” because protesters who appeared to “desperately seek justice and an end to racism are themselves engaging in abhorrent and hypocritical behavior that fans the flames of bigotry and hate.”
“Ever since it issued a platform in 2016 which described Israel as an ‘apartheid state’ that commits ‘genocide,’ the Black Lives Matter movement has regrettably become intertwined with anti-Semitic tendencies, which detracts from their underlying mission,” Weiss added.
“We call on elected officials from both parties, including our presidential candidates, as well as leaders in the African-American community, to publicly denounce the anti-Semitism being spewed by individuals who are operating under the guise of the Black Lives Matter movement. It needs to be made abundantly clear that hate of any kind has no place in our society, whether it is race-based prejudice or anti-Semitism.”
Last month a leading Evangelical Christian leader spoke out publicly against the Black Lives Matter movement’s anti-Semitic manifesto and silence after synagogues and churches were attacked and defaced during protests.
“It would be hypocritical of Christian leaders to support the Black Lives Matter movement while ignoring their past calls to boycott the one and only Jewish State, outrageous claims that Israel has perpetrated a genocide and their total denial of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination… These positions are anti-Semitic to their core and cannot go unmentioned,” said Laurie Cardoza-Moore, who heads the Proclaiming Justice to The Nations mission.