Black Lives Matter calls for Palestinian liberation, stands in ‘solidarity’ amid Hamas attacks
Black Lives Matter expressed its “solidarity” for Palestinians, advocating for “ending settler colonialism” and Palestinian liberation in a tweet that implicitly undercut Israel after days of attacks in the region.
“Black Lives Matter stands in solidarity with Palestinians,” the advocacy group tweeted on Monday. “We are a movement committed to ending settler colonialism in all forms and will continue to advocate for Palestinian liberation. ( always have. And always will be ). #freepalestine.”
The Palestinian leadership of the global Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions movement, which calls for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel, retweeted BLM and expressed gratitude for their solidarity.
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“Thank you for your solidarity,” the left-wing BDS movement tweeted in response to BLM’s tweet. “From Ferguson to Palestine, our struggles against racism, white supremacy and for a just world are united!”
The tweets came as Israel entered into its second week of conflict after Hamas and other extremists began firing missiles into Israel from the Gaza Strip following clashes between Muslims and police in Jerusalem near a historic mosque in the Old City.
Iran-backed Hamas, which the U.S. recognizes as a terrorist organization, has fired over 4,000 rockets into Israel in the past 10 days, according to the Israeli military. The Israel Defense Forces have retaliated with airstrikes and targeted attacks that have resulted in the killing of Hamas leaders in addition to civilians.
According to reports, local health officials have said the death toll in Gaza has risen to 227, including at least 64 children. Meanwhile, the death toll in Israel is around 12, including two children. Israel has long argued that Hamas has housed military operations inside civilian institutions in an attempt to protect itself from IDF airstrikes.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took to Twitter on Wednesday to state that "Israel didn’t initiate attacks on Gaza or Hamas or the Palestinian Authority."
"And it didn’t attack the backer of this violence: the regime in Iran," Pompeo added. "Every single life lost in this conflict, Israeli and Palestinian alike, is the result of Iranian-backed Palestinian terror."
Unlike BLM and other left-leaning Democrats who support Palestine at Israel’s expense, the Biden White House has condemned the Hamas rocket attacks and supported Israel’s right to defend itself against the rocket attacks.
President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday about Israel’s progress in degrading the terrorists’ capabilities. Biden said he expected a significant de-escalation on the path to a ceasefire.
David Rubin, a native New Yorker and former mayor of Shiloh, Israel, said BLM’s “solidarity with the Palestinians” ultimately means they support Hamas' rocket attacks and Arab rioting in Israeli cities.
“The timing is obviously an intentional show of strong support for Hamas at this critical time, when Israel is finally starting to do some real damage to the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza,” Rubin, the author of Confronting Radicals: What America Can Learn from Israel, said in a statement shared with The Christian Post.
BLM, the global network formed in 2013 with the mission to “eradiate white supremacy” and “intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes,” gained further national attention after George Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020, which led to sweeping protests and marches across the country.
Many evangelical organizations and leaders have condemned the Black Lives Matter movement for being an overtly political movement that stands for more than just racial equality.
The nondenominational Southern Evangelical Seminary & Bible College in North Carolina released a statement in August 2020 condemning the “godless agenda” of the Black Lives Matter movement. The seminary warned Christians that the movement “espouses beliefs that are antithetical to basic foundational tenets of the Christian faith.”
SES President Richard Land, who is also CP executive editor, said in August that BLM is “Marxist, anti-biblical, and out to destroy the nuclear family." He stressed that evangelicals should not embrace the organization.
Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear said that while “black lives matter,” he denounced the Black Lives Matter movement. He warned that “the movement and the website have been hijacked by some political operatives whose worldview and policy prescriptions would be deeply at odds with my own.”
BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors has described herself as a “trained Marxist” and revealed her appreciation for Mao Zedong’s "Red Book," a collection of Chinese Communist Party dictator Mao's sayings and writings, in a video from 2010, according to The Epoch Times.
Rubin said Biden’s request for a ceasefire should not be heeded by Netanyahu as long as Hamas has the capability to attack.
“When Israel starts to get the upper hand in the fighting, the demands for a ceasefire suddenly emerge,” Rubin said. “I don’t know if Prime Minister Netanyahu will agree to such a proposal. In my opinion, Israel should continue its offensive until Hamas is no longer capable of firing rockets and until they raise the white flags of surrender.”
Rubin said Biden’s “policy of weakness is actually responsible for this war” because of the millions of dollars in aid he unconditionally restored to the Palestinian Authority.
“These are funds that had been cut off by President Trump because of the Palestinian penchant for paying monthly salaries to terrorists, which they have been doing for 20 years," Rubin said.
“Biden restored that funding unconditionally, effectively giving them a green light to launch terror attacks,” he continued. “And he has the gall to demand that Israel stop responding to 3,000 rocket attacks?”
Netanyahu has not expressed any plan to disengage in retaliation and said he is “determined to continue this operation until its objective is achieved: to restore the calm and security to you, citizens of Israel."
The IDF has also reiterated its commitment to “continue to defend Israel.”
Emily Wood is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: [email protected]
