Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein and ZOA Chair Mark Levenson, Esq. released the following statement:

The Zionist Organization of America strongly criticized the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Hadassah, Jewish Community Relations Councils (JCRCs), the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, B’nai B’rith’s Colorado branch, the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, HIAS (a group resettling overwhelmingly non-Jewish, largely Muslim refugees; less than 1% of HIAS’ clients are Jews), Ameinu, and others for signing a New York Times full page advertisement promoting the Jew-hating, Israel-hating, Marxist, anti-nuclear family, Farrakhan-loving, Soros-funded Black Lives Matter (BLM) organization. BLM has been condemned as antisemitic Israel-haters by Alan Dershowitz, Caroline Glick, Melanie Phillips, and many others. Author and Commentator Dennis Prager called BLM “evil.”

Moreover, the letter promoting the BLM organization was co-signed with Israel-haters and boycotters, including the virulent so-called “Jewish Voice for Peace” (JVP), JVP’s “Anti-Zionist Shabbat,” as well as Israel-bashing signatories J Street, New Israel Fund (NIF), IfNotNow, and Bend the Arc, among other far left, extremist groups. 

The Black Lives Matter Organization’s promotion of Jew-hatred and Israel-hatred:

As ZOA has repeatedly made clear, the phrase “Black lives matter” is obviously true and all other lives matter, such as all Muslim, Jewish, Asian, Hispanic, Indian, Native American, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Arab lives, etc. ZOA strongly opposes and condemns anti-Black racism. But the “BLM movement” or organization, promoted by the New York Times ad/letter, is a different story. The BLM movement is Marxist, violent, anti-Israel, antisemitic, Farrakhan-loving, anti-White, and racist. 

BLM is one of the major groups in the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) umbrella organization. The M4BL official platform, in its “divest-invest” plank’s “Cut Military Expenditures Brief,” promotes numerous vile anti-Israel libels and policies, including: (1) promoting anti-Israel BDS; (2) falsely accusing Israel of perpetrating genocide and apartheid against Palestinian Arabs; (3) falsely accusing Israel of being an “occupier” of her own land; (4) falsely accusing Israel of “regularly bulldozing” Palestinian Arab homes to make way for settlements; (5) falsely accusing Israelis of arresting and imprisoning 4-year-old Palestinian Arabs (in fact, when would-be Arab child terrorists approach Jews with knives, Israel simply returns the children to their parents); (6) condemning and blaming Israel for carnage caused by the “global war on terror”; and (7) grossly exaggerating and demanding an end to all aid to Israel. BLM/M4BL also falsely and absurdly accuse Israeli police of training U.S. police to target Blacks. 

The M4BL/BLM platform also contains “resource” sites that promote (violent) “resistance” against the U.S. and Israel; falsely accuse Israel of killing and “targeting unarmed civilians” including children; falsely accuse both the U.S. and Israel of “unchecked state-sanctioned racialized violence”; and promote multiple cultural, academic and economic boycott, sanctions and divestment campaigns against Israel’s Jews and those who do business with or interact with Israel.  

The anti-Israel antisemitic plank of the M4BL/BLM platform has never been abrogated or renounced. 

BLM’s Facebook page also falsely accuses Israel of vicious, false blood libels, including smears akin to those in the BLM/M4BL platform, including outrageous antisemitic “genocide” accusations against Israel.  

Notably, the M4BL/BLM platform was written by major BDS movement groups, including the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation (the leading BDS-promoter in the U.S.), the American Friends Service Committee, Adalah, and Dream Defenders (“DD”), DD leader Rachel Gilmer, and Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) leader Ben Ndugga-Kabuye.  

BLM platform co-author DD is extensively intertwined with designated foreign terrorist organization the Popular Front for the Liberation Palestine (PFLP). BLM and DD took joint trips to “Palestine”; participated in anti-Israel demonstrations; visited PFLP strongholds, and falsely accused Israelis of greed, hate, and stealing Palestinian Arabs’ land. BLM/M4BL platform co-author DD’s Rachel Gilmer says, “Zionism at its core is white supremacy.”  

BLM also has ties with additional PFLP front groups Al Haq and DCI-Palestine. BLM in the U.S. promoted an anti-Israel program by DCI-Palestine. BLM-UK recently tweeted and promoted Al Haq’s call for onerous sanctions against Israel, including trade bans and “bringing to justice” persons and companies “responsible” for Israel’s supposed (non-existent) “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity.”  

BLM co-founder Patrisse Collors and BLM Los Angeles lead organizer Melina Abdullah (a Farrakhan follower) were key instigators of the anti-Jewish pogrom in the Jewish Fairfax district of Los Angeles over Shavuot (May 30-31, 2020). BLM and its allies destroyed, vandalized, burned, and defaced multiple Jewish synagogues, Jewish schools, and Jewish stores and businesses, and spray-painted “Free Palestine” and its abbreviated form “FP,” along with “ACAB” (All Cops Are Bastards) on synagogue and Jewish school walls. 

During the Los Angeles pogrom, “protestors” also screamed “No justice, no peace,” while carrying a sign saluting Hezbollah senior leader Abu Ali Al-Askari and “USA The End!.”

BLM also joined anti-Israel “Days of Rage” demonstrations throughout the U.S. and elsewhere, beginning July 1, 2020, calling for Israel’s destruction, and accusing Israel of murdering children and other libels.

In other words, the BLM movement or organization does not deserve the support of anyone who cares about Israel, America, or combatting antisemitism and real racism or decency, morality, or civility. ZOA was pleased to see that NCSY removed its name from the BLM movement ad/letter. Every other Jewish group that cares about the safety of Israel and the Jewish people should likewise remove its signature.

ADL, Reform/Conservative, HIAS Legitimize Despicable anti Israel Co-Signers:

ZOA is horrified and appalled that ADL, Hadassah, JCRC’s the Reform and Conservative Jewish movements, HIAS, Ameinu, and other Jewish groups co-signed the BLM New York Times full page ad together with the radical Israel-bashers “Jewish Voice for Peace” (JVP), JVP’s “Anti-Zionist Shabbat,” 20 individual JVP chapters, IfNotNow, Bend the Arc, J Street, New Israel Fund and other Israel-hating groups. Their co-signing this ad helps legitimize and mainstream these hostile-to-Israel groups. 

ADL’s own website explains that: “Jewish Voice for Peace is a radical anti-Israel activist group that advocates for a complete economic, cultural, and academic boycott of the state of Israel. . . . JVP considers supporters of Israel, or even critics of Israel who do not hew to JVP’s own extreme views, to be complicit in Israel’s purported acts of racist oppression of Palestinians. . . . JVP often links Israel to prominent social justice issues in the U.S. — like police brutality — in an attempt to implicate Israel in violations or offenses committed here. For example, after the alt-right rally in Charlottesville in August 2017, JVP called Zionism akin to white supremacism and compared Richard Spencer’s white nationalism to Jewish nationalism. JVP’s so-called “Deadly Exchange” campaign seeks to blame Israel for police brutality on American streets. . .”

How could Jonathan Greenblatt’s ADL then sign a full page NY Times ad promoting an antisemitic, Farrakhan-loving BLM group, co-signed by Israel-bashers such as JVP who defame Israel?   

There are numerous other problematic co-signers of the ad. Co-signer “Americans for Peace Now” (APN) boasts about APN’s “longstanding call to boycott settlements and settlement products.” The leaders of co-signers APN, “T’ruah,” “New Israel Fund” (NIF), and J Street defended Airbnb’s boycott of Jewish homes over the 1949 Armistice lines. J Street has an extensive record of harmful-to-Israel policies, including lobbying for anti-Israel UN resolutions and “green line” boycott campaigns. NIF spends millions of dollars funding promoters of anti-Jewish BDS and anti-Israel lawfare. 

In an era of virulent and rising Jew-hatred and Israel-hatred, signing this ad helps promote and mainstreams BLM’s ugly anti-Jewish and anti-Jewish State agenda.

ZOA strongly urges Jewish groups to publicly remove their names from this repugnant and dangerous ad.