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The Jewish Community's Rebuke of Chicago's BLM Amid Alignment With Hamas Terrorist. Can Relationships Be Repaired?
It is easier to write an incendiary commentary, than one to unite all parties to an amenable resolution. When it comes to fighting for justice as it is written in the Bible. “Give justice to the poor, defenseless, destitute, afflicted, and the needy. Deliver them out of the hands of the self-righteous, greedy, and the wicked.” Hence, are the “innocent” Palestinians and their children not to be saved from the aggressors, captors, murders — Hamas and others, or by its alleged defenders of justice — Israel, without harm? A question posed to all parties involved in the ongoing slaughter of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and those responsible for the horrific October 7 attack on Israel. Please, at the end of the battle, who is the winner, and especially in the light of the many who are either dead or, critically maimed?
Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will not cease fire or continue to negotiate the release of hostages. He called the Hamas demands delusional, and that they have not changed their negotiations by a millimeter or a nanometer. Israel will soon begin their ground offensive in Rafah. At Stake is over 1.5 million [human] beings. People with nowhere else to go. Little children dying from malnutrition, dehydration, and widespread famine at Gaza’s City Hospital, according to Ashraf al-Qudra, the Health Ministry spokesperson at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital. Is Hamas and Israel satisfied? How many people must die before real talks… real solutions crystalize? Some believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had his time in office, but now must be removed from from his position due to him being too obstinately bent toward War and the annihilation of the Palestinian people. Senator Chuck Schumer in a scathing speech said “Netanyahu allowed his personal opinion to take precedence over the best interest of Israel by aligning [himself] with far-right extremist factions in Israel”.
Right from the start of this article, please know that I am an impartial observer of the Israel – Hamas War. Nevertheless, in the light of the vicious attack on Israel, I unequivocally denounce the initial October 7, 2023 attack on the people of Israel. It was shockingly horrendous and utterly evil. In the wake of the Hamas orchestrated sneak attack on Israel (by air, land, and sea) at least 1,200 Israeli citizens were murdered, and over 240 hostages were seized. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, rightfully so, launched a counteroffensive attack in defense of Israel in the wake of the carnage left by Hamas.
Following the Hamas attack on Israel, Black Lives Matter [Chicago] launched a flyer on X (formerly known as Twitter), penning in the phrase, “We stand with Palestine” — which enraged the people of Israel especially in the wake of the disastrous Hamas attack. An attack which spread to an open-air music festival killing 364 concert goers (including security and law enforcement personnel) during the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret near Kibbutz Re’im — (taking 40 hostages).
Shemini Atzeret is a holiday that the Jewish people “Tarries” to spend a day with “God” at the end of the Sukkot festival between Sept. 29 and October 7. On the top left side of the BLM Chicago’s post, showing their support of Palestine, it read, “That’s all that it is.” [Leaving no speculation as to who they were aligned with in the on-going Israel – Hamas War.]
The image of the paraglider was highly insensitive to the Jewish life that was senselessly lost during the Hamas attack. However, as a result of external pressure and their own internal discussions and mediation, BLM Chicago took down its’ on-line flyer — which seemed to celebrate the murders, rapes and the killing of Israel’s citizens. Following the rebuttal and condemnation from many concerned citizens and BLM Global, who took [no] credit for the online flyer’s creation by expressing that “BLM Chicago” being an independent splinter group that made an independent decision in the matter.
The decision to post the inflammatory flyer mocking such a violent encounter on the unsuspecting and innocent adults and children of Israeli decent was abhorrent. Chicago’s BLM issued a retraction. In so many words, they agreed their message was in poor taste, saying, ‘We aren’t proud of’ the image. Notwithstanding, we stand with Palestine & the people who will do what they must to live free. Our hearts are with, the grieving mothers, those rescuing babies from the rubble, who are in danger of being wiped out completely.” (9:21 am on October 11, 2023) It received over 5.3 -million views.
Protestors all over the world is campaigning for an immediate ceasefire of the war between Israel and Hamas, In order to prevent further deaths of the Palestinians in Gaza.
Yet, the fact that they (BLM Chicago) followed their correction with the verbiage, “We stand with the people who will do what they must to live free,” made the matter doubly worst for some of the Jewish people. Because now in the eyes of the Israeli citizens — it further illustrates (BLM Chicago’s) alignment to the blood bath created by Hamas on October 7, and thereby reveals to some Jews that BLM Chicago continues to exhibit a lack of contrition while continuing to support the terrorist Hamas.
In essence their apology and retraction states… even though we retracted the flyer, we still condone Hamas and their violent attack for they had to do what was necessary to achieve their end goal. Even if it meant murdering all the Jewish citizens. This is not to say BLM Chicago had to side with Israel, which they did/do not. Every person has the right to take issue with any cause of their choosing, as all of us have free-will and ultimately will face judgement for our choices, and/or actions later in life.
I am an avid believer in “Karma” — the effects of one’s action(s) on their present and future life for the decisions they make. As human beings, I also believe no one should cause the unprovoked physical, or mental harm to another human-being as Humas and BLM Chicago did to the Israelis citizens during the Hamas “initial” unprovoked attack and BLM Chicago’s phycological assault via their insensitive flyer. Neither do I believe Israel should continue with the ongoing slaughter of innocent Palestinian citizens.
The teachings of Judaism directs the Jewish people toward having the utmost respect for other individuals — not only as being a civilized people, but, as a form of respect and a duty to Yahweh (God). “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor” (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a).
WHAT CHANGED BETWEEN BLACK AND JEWISH RELATIONS?
It is believed that the tension between Blacks and Jews got off to a bad start as a result of Black extremist and self-proclaimed civil rights leaders from BLM Chicago who were connected to the Movement for Black Lives (MBL) in or around 2016. It is said that the (MBL) coalition, joined hands with antisemites claiming that the U.S. was complicit with Israel in the genocide against the Palestinian people. Now, of late, after the BLM Chicago online campaign, scores of Jewish people took this message of hate and genocide of Jews personal and on its face. They believed BLM Global and that of many in the black community held the same beliefs and antisemitism toward the Jewish people, which it is not true. This type of incident is [not] germane to the values of majority of those in the Black community. Blacks in the U.S. have a history of aligning themselves with suffering people, as they did so with the Jewish people without hesitation. They, Blacks for the most part, have never initiated or condoned racism of any kind, as they have always been on the receiving end of hostile and discriminatory actions by racist in America and the world over.
Blacks are not a monolithic demographic. Neither is any other group in America and beyond… including Israeli citizens (whom some are equally calling Israel’s attack — led by the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — extremely overboard. Now many diverse people are calling for a complete cease fire due to the loss of so many lives at the hands of the Israelis government and the Israel Defense Forces-IDF). People make their judgement calls base on their personal experience, beliefs, and/or, one’s religious convictions. I personally feel BLM Chicago got caught up in the moments surrounding the Israel – Hamas War, and possibly never intended to react in the manner in which they did. Again, an attack which was disgusting, mean-spirited, and hateful.
Jews know that Blacks in the US have a history of aligning themselves with suffering people, as they did so with the Jewish people without hesitation.
Unfortunately, since the BLM Chicago’s post, a myriad of individuals from the Jewish community have exploded on the internet with criticism and enormous vitriol toward BLM Chicago, BLM Global, and the Black community in general for what they see as skepticism and a direct betrayal of the Black and Jewish alignment.
For example, according to an article in Vox.com, Daniella Greenbaum Davis wrote, “Jews marched in Selma. Jews marched for George Floyd. Jews Showed up for Black Lives Matter. BLM is a disgrace. We will still be there for you guys next time. Because that’s who we are. But now we know who you are.” Some Jews have said even worst, which I will not repeat in this article. I believe, just as I mentioned with BLM Chicago, some within the Jewish community are overwhelmed with the Israel – Hamas war, as they should be. But spoke in anger, absent of thought/conscience, speaking outside of their hearts due to the hurt.
Black people are natural fighters and would have responded in the same manner as the Jewish people, if it was the black community that were attacked in such a violent way. Especially, in the light of the 1,200 citizens killed and more than 240 individuals taken as hostages and subjected to relentless torture, murder, and rape. The Jewish people must remember that both Blacks and Jews share a mutual history of fighting together to overcome racism, bigotry, and antisemitism.
Benjamin Netanyahu and Yahya Sinwar (a Palestinian politician and leader of Hamas), I speak to you both not with your customary official labels, but as an equal son of the almighty God. Stop the carnage now. How many mothers will have to weep and shed tears for the dead and sick children? I can hear the high-pitched shrieking from the terror, pain, loss of the mothers for her children, husbands, homes, community and the ability to take care of those spared from this horrific war with no place to go… I pray along with the mothers to halt this hellish war… Will you think and pray with me and take the action to cease fire? And if not for yourself, do so for the mothers and the innocent people caught-up in the place now mirroring purgatory.
The Jewish people played a pivotal role in the organization and leadership of the NAACP: Joel Elias Spingarn, a Jewish scholar, educator and civil rights advocate served as the chairman of the NAACP from 1914 to 1919, helped to fight injustice. Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, both of New York City, and both Jewish activists were violently murdered for helping to fight injustice while trying to register voters in Mississippi in 1964 in order to help in achieving civil rights for Blacks.
Blacks also understood that the Jewish people were also a vulnerable people that faced Nazism, antisemitism, and hate. With both: Black and Jews having a horrible history of “Slavery” and that of the “Holocaust.” It took cross-cultural alliance building to overcome the grip of racism and antisemitism in this country and beyond (and the fight continues). Which was something Black leaders like W.E.B. Du Bois and Martin Luther King, Jr. both advocated for and were vocal supporters of the Jewish State and their right to self-determination and uplift.
Dr. King remarked at the Rabbinical Assembly convention in 1968 by stating, “I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world…Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.”
Notwithstanding, as a matter of record, blacks as well as most people in America and globally, fully understood Israel’s “initial” response to the Hamas-led attack. But majority feel Israel has now gone way overboard in their efforts toward responding to the attack on Israel by Hamas. “Even some Jews themselves have spoken-out against Israel’s far-reaching response.” For instance, to date, there has been over 35,000 Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip, according to: “Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor,” with humongous infrastructure damage in the Gaza Strip — the homes and businesses of the Palestinian people.”
Jewish protestors standing up for peace and righteousness. They stand staunchly against the on going territorial war and the innocent lives snuffed out by both Israel and Hamas. These God sent Jewish-led groups use their voice in calling for the immediate stopping of genocide of the Palestinian people, sighting according to Al Jazeera, “Suppressing pro-Palestinian voices is not fighting anti-Semitism, there is nothing anti-Semitic about opposing genocide.” — Lela Tolajian
From October 7, 2023 to February 29, 2024, according to Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital’s ministry of Health, over 13,000 plus, babies/children have been murdered by Israel’s IDF and 8,800 women, many whom have lost limbs, and/or having reoccurring lifetime emotional trauma — to never live a normal life. The Palestinian Health Ministry reported more than 70,474 Palestinians injured and thousands more are missing and presumed dead, according to www.aljazeera.com/newsagencies.
“More than 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced, with many who are fleeing for the third and fourth time.” Israel’s counterattack was understandably done in anger and as a means of self-defense. However, enough… the continued attacks on Hamas, the Gaza Strip, and now the city of Rafah where over one-million people are crammed into a densely populated area is beyond retribution. But, to demonize all the law-abiding, hardworking, nonviolent, and oppressed Palestinian people, families, and children for the negative actions of [Hamas] is wrong and inhumane. By all appearances and in actuality, Israel’s continued attacks is now reverse genocide of the Palestine people. Where does it stop? Although Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a staunch supporter of Israel and the Jewish State, he believed Israel should return the Palestinian land.
King said, “I think for the ultimate peace and security of the situation it will probably be necessary for Israel to give up this conquered territory, because to hold on to it will only exacerbate the tensions and deepen the bitterness of the Arabs.”
The US had and continues to advise Israel to cease fire, or at least scale-down the deadly invasion of Gaza in hopes of preventing additional innocent lives loss and an enhance war involving other factions of the Arab world, e.g. Iran, Houthis, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Hezbollah, etc. Senator Chuck Schumer recently said, “The Israeli people are being stifled by the a governing vision that is stuck in the past.” In other words, pointing to Benjamin Netanyahu, his policies and opposition to a Palestinian statehood being an obstacle to peace and a two-state solution.
The US Senator, who loves Israel, believes that the Prime Minister’s time has gone and Israel needs to have a new election as well as many Israelis who are now advocating for change. The International Court and that of the whole world is pushing for a cease fire, as with Blacks and BLM Global/Chicago to stop the bleeding and destruction of property in Gaza. As for the Black and Jewish relationship, for the most part, Blacks have not abandoned the Jewish community. They just want this war and killing on both sides to stop. It’s time for talks and for both sides to reach a comprise. We are all children of [God].
It is felt that Israel’s defense of its people’ has indeed crossed the line, being beyond just: that in which is morally right and a fair response to the action(s) perpetrated on Israel by [Hamas]. Many Blacks as well as others are ashamed, shocked, and dismayed by the carnage left by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), notwithstanding the lost of property. It is Israel that is now seen as bullies.
This is especially concerning in the light of what the Jewish people endured during the Holocaust and their knowledge of the atrocities Blacks experienced during slavery and the civil rights period. The level of pain and suffering inflicted on both: African Americans and the Jewish people were brutal, racist, bigoted, antisemitic, and exploitative.
To repeat this hellish action(s) on the completely innocent Palestinians is wrong and mirrors that in which we both [Blacks and Jews] fought against. Black know better. The Jewish people know better. We both experienced unrelenting pain, death, anguish, and trauma at the hands of “pure evil.”
Consequently, in the light of our dual events of subjugation, it is strongly felt by many in the African American/Black community that Israel should be more sympathetic to the lives of the [innocent] — particularly babies, small children, old people, and women. This goes equally for those who caused the initial carnage on the innocent people of Israel in the sneak attack on October 7. 2023 during an outdoors concert.
Standing up for the rights of others and those who are less fortunate and unable to fight for themselves makes those fighter the ultimate human rights advocates, and champions for justice and the right to live free. This type of compassionate worrier have always been within the embodiment of Blacks/African Americans.
IN CLOSING, and to be clear, African American/Black people are empathetic to the suffering and murders of the Jewish people. It was horrible and beyond imaginable. Blacks are equally empathetic to the loss and pain of the oppressed Palestinians as well. And in this instance — we pray for all the innocent individuals caught up in this now senseless violent encounter — regardless of one’s race, religion, gender, economic status, or one’s political affiliation.
Blacks are not heartless people, nor are they unforgiving. This is not to imply that the Jewish people are… only to say, African American/Blacks are known to exhibit sympathy for the underdog and those members of society who appear to be treated unfairly by the political elites, and those wielding extraordinary power and influence.
African American/Blacks are a people who rather than close their eyes to injustice, they speak-out against it, and seek to ameliorate the altercation for a more purposeful outcome for all stakeholders and absolutely “nothing else.”
Both, Jewish and the African American/Black people are ideologically good people and have fought for justice side by side, shoulder to shoulder, in the past up into this very day in each other’s defense and causes. It is my hope that the current crisis will not sever the Black-Jewish relationship which evolved during the civil rights era by dividing our forces today, as much in the way of eliminating antisemitism, racism, equity, civil rights, and civil disobedience is still plaguing the Black and Jewish communities (who are feeling an unprecedented uptick in hate and antisemitism in response to the war) in the US and throughout the world on so many fronts.
These are extraordinary dilemmas, during unsettled times, which will require a united front between both: African Americans/Blacks and the Jewish community, as well as other right-thinking, morally straight people. Some individuals have and will continue to use this highly complicated series of ill-advised and horrific waring events to destroy the bond between Blacks and Jews, rather than to help mend relations, broker a ceasefire, and establish a resolution to this ongoing battle for territorial rights are themselves bullies, hate mongers, and complicit with the spilling of innocent blood [on both sides.]
As we both — Jews and Blacks — know it will take building strong alliances, partnerships, and the [faith] of a mustard seed, or that of Job: a man with great faith in God — to defeat evil but not kill him. Why not kill him?… Because we are human beings, the highest order of this land. The curators and the ultimate peace makers of the world and its inhabitants.