Black Lives Matter Joins Anti-Israel Demonstrators in ‘Day of Rage’
Black Lives Matter protests joined anti-Israel demonstrators in a nationwide “Day of Rage” on Wednesday that included calls for Israel’s destruction and claims that Israel murders children, an allusion to medieval antisemitic blood libels.
The Jewish News Service reported that antisemitic and anti-Israel groups organized the “Day of Rage” on July 1, the first day that Israel’s government said it could extend its law to Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”).
That process of extending sovereignty, commonly known as “annexation,” would include the strategic Jordan Valley, and would leave much of the remainder of the territory for the Palestinians to create a state under the peace plan introduced earlier this year by President Donald Trump. The plan gives Palestinians $50 billion in aid — if they renounce terror and agree to a demilitarized state on the territory offered, with a capital east of Jerusalem. In four years, the offer expires.
But the Palestinians have rejected the plan thus far — and anti-Israel demonstrators teamed up with Black Lives Matter on Wednesday, part of a series of anti-Israel demonstrations in a series of American cities over the next several days.
In Washington, DC, the two messages were joined as one — as marchers chanted extremist anti-Israeli slogans, as reported by the Washington Examiner:
The march, led by Harvard University rising senior Christian Tabash, attracted about 200 people who carried signs with messages either supporting the Palestinian Liberation Organization or Black Lives Matter.…As the march progressed, Tabash led his followers in alternating chants about Israel and racial justice.“Israel, we know you, you murder children, too,” the crowd chanted at one point.The crowd immediately followed that chant with alternating rallying cries of “Black lives matter!” and “Palestinian lives matter!”
The idea that Israelis kill children has its roots in the “blood libel,” the false claim that Jews murder Christian children to use their blood in unleavened bread for Passover. The libel has migrated in recent decades to the Muslim world.
Breitbart News reported on a related protest in Los Angeles featuring signs such as “Palestinians for Black Power,” and calls for Israel to be replaced by a Palestinian state. There were confrontations with pro-Israel counter-demonstrators.
Israel has delayed a decision on annexation until it can complete consultations with the U.S. government, and the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said it is likely to announce a decision on the issue next week.
Photo: Joel Pollak / Breitbart News
