Josh Christenson (FREE BEACON)
A Black Lives Matter march in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday turned anti-Semitic as protesters began accusing the Jewish state of murdering children.
“Israel, we know you; you murder children too,” protesters chanted at one point, following this with alternating chants of “Black Lives Matter!” and “Palestinian Lives Matter!”
Christian Tabash, a rising senior at Harvard, led the march from the Lincoln Memorial to Capitol Hill, according to the Washington Examiner.
Tabash said during the protest that Palestinian liberation was “intrinsically tied to Black Lives Matter.” He also said “American capitalism” and the state of Israel were founded on the repression of minorities.
It was only a matter of time before the DC protests turned anti-Semitic. pic.twitter.com/YTbwwGuOYh
— Nic Rowan (@NicXTempore) July 1, 2020
Poetry readings took place as part of the protest, with some of the poems invoking anti-Semitic stereotypes. One such poem referred to Israel as the “puppet master of continents.”
Jewish groups criticized the Black Lives Matter movement in 2016 for endorsing the BDS movement and calling Israel an “apartheid state” and accusing it of “genocide.”
Following coverage of the protest by the Examiner, the Republican Jewish Coalition called on presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden to condemn the anti-Semitic chants by protesters.
“We are horrified by this vicious hate-mongering by Black Lives Matter protesters. The Black Lives Matter charter is filled with anti-Israel and antisemitic lies. It is deeply disturbing, but not surprising, to hear those sentiments chanted in the streets of Washington, DC,” they said in a statement. “We call on former Vice President Joe Biden, as the standard bearer of the Democrat Party, to condemn these antisemitic chants by BLM protesters.”
The left wing of the Democratic Party has threatened to withhold U.S. security assistance to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moves forward with a plan to annex parts of the disputed West Bank. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) has led this effort, touting the support she has from groups that are prominent leaders of the BDS movement.
