Center Senior Fellow Caroline Glick weighs in on Black Lives Matter’s anti-Semitism

The Black Lives Matter movement shows clear signs of unrepentant anti-Semitism. This was the view of two experts in a recent webinar forum held by the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET).

Center for Security Policy senior fellow and senior contributor and chief columnist for The Jerusalem Post Caroline Glick joined President of Americans for Peace and Tolerance Charles Jacob in discussing the growing signs of virulent anti-Semitism from within the Black Lives Matter movement.

“It’s not a bug it’s a feature,” said Glick, “the anti-Semitism of Black Lives Matter is systemic, it’s woven into the fabric.” Glick noted specifically that the group’s 2016 platform was overtly antisemitic -accusing Israel of genocide and apartheid, and linked BLM to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and those positions remained, despite attempts by the BLM organizers to camouflage them.

Glick linked the evolution of BLM’s anti-Semitism to the beginning of the Ferguson protests, with “very targeted lobbying” of black activists by Islamist groups like Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)  which insinuated itself into the movement. Glick also noted the Nation of Islam and New Black Panther Party for their role in spreading anti-Semitism within the movement.

Together BDS and BLM spread what Glick called a “blood libel” against Israel and a “libel” against the United States, as BLM activists accuse U.S. military support of Israel as taking money that could be better spent on addressing issues in the inner cities and among the black community.

There remains “widespread denial” in the Jewish community, Glick warns, “even as the actual anti-Semitism is literally hitting Jews in the face like happened at the organized attack by BLM Activists against the Jewish communities in Beverly Hills, Beverly Woods, Beverly Hills and Fairfax over the Shavuot long weekend,” where over the half of Jewish businesses, primarily orthodox, and multiple Jewish schools and synagogues were attacked.

Glick lamented the lack of reaction saying, “And you had no response from the Jewish community other than that they have to do away with their white privilege.”

She noted that some of the lack of reaction may be related to the upcoming presidential election, but warned that the failure to stand up against anti-Semitism would only embolden the more aggressive and anti-Israel elements of the Democrat party’s progressive wing.

Jacob’s briefing focused on the chinks in the armor of the intersectionality argument that leads western liberals to endorse the Black Lives Matter movement. He noted that Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan had become the most popular anti-Semite in the United States, whose influence was expansive throughout the black community. Jacobs proposed targeting Farrakhan’s influence by noting his refusal to support efforts by abolitionists to end the modern-day slave trade in Africa and the Arab world.

Both Glick and Jacobs expressed concern about what they viewed as a failure by major Jewish organizations to address the rise of anti-Semitism coming out of the progressive left and the need for new institutions to combat this growing trend.