Black Lives Matter, the group that is rising to meteoric heights in the wake of injustices in the name of eliminating police oppression, has firmly aligned itself with the Palestinian movement. Reason is turned on its head when a group shouting to end oppression and violence against a minority in America would link itself to a group of people whose express purpose from the beginning has been the total elimination of Jews – by any means – from lands that Jews lived in for two-thousand years before the birth of Mohammed, read more.

For the Black Lives Matters movement to support a people who say, in Nazi-like terms, that any Palestinian state shall be made “free of Jews,” (see judenrein) read more, discredits the movement as a true fighter of justice for all.

If the leaders of Black Lives Matter know history, then there is no explanation other than anti-Semitism. If they don’t know history, then shame on them.

Many countries were “created” by the disolution of the Ottoman Empire in 1917 and the receding colonial powers of France and Britain. They even took a large piece of India, and created the Moslem country of Pakistan. Hindus go home. Churchill bragged that with the stroke of a pen he created Jordan in 1921.

The Romans renamed Israel and the surrounding territory Palestine after their decisive victory over the Jewish nation in 135 ce. This territory has been under foreign rule ever since until it too was divided up. The United Nations voted on the division and approved it. The Egyptians received Gaza. Lebanon and Syria also received small portions. The Jews living in those territories were summarily expelled. The bulk of the land became the country of Trans-Jordan. It was home to the Hasemites, the tribe of the current King of Jordan, and a majority of the people of the former territory called Palestine. There was no talk of creating a country called Palestine. Trans-Jordan changed its name to Jordan and is the home to the bulk of the people of the Palestinian territory. It included what is today referred to as the West Bank. But the Moslem world was not satisfied. They wanted it all.

A tiny portion of the former Palestinian territory with a majority Jewish population, some with roots going back three-thousand years, was portioned off to be the reborn nation of Israel. No other country formed during the years 1917-1949 ever had to defend it’s very right to exist, except for the little one hugging a corner of the Mediterranean. Why? Not because Israel took someone else’s land. The Arabs who chose to remain, have done very nicely, indeed.  A Moslem woman, a black Christian, or any gay man lives far better in Israel by Western standards than in any other Middle-Eastern country. The reason to elimnate Israel from the map was and remains the fact that it is unacceptable for a Jewish majority state – a flourishing democracy no less – to exist in the middle of the Moslem world and the home of perhaps a future Moslem caliphate stretching from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean and beyond.

From the moment of the rebirth of Israel as a nation state, the Arab Moslem world has declared all out war on Israel with the goal of “driving the Jews into the sea.” This is not hyperbole. Have the leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement read the Hamas Charter? Read more. How can any group claiming to carry the banner for justice ignore this?

Do the members of Black Lives Matter not feel any kinship to the black Christians who are being slaughtered in Sudan and Nigeria by their Moslem neighbors? Does this black social justice movement know that Israel airlifted thousands of black Jews to safety in Israel from Ethiopia in operations Moses and Solomon?

Has Black Lives Matter issued a statement of concern for the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed by the Syrians in recent years? Do they speak out for the Palestinians who have been kept in refugee camps for almost 70 years throughout the Moslem countries neighboring Israel, because they are not welcome by their fellow Moslems? They are more useful as political pawns. They do not have full citizenship in any of those countries. So why do they call Israel the “apartheid state” when Israeli Moslems hold equal citizenship with everyone else, holding seats of power in government and universities? If they are referring to the barrier between the West Bank and the rest of Israel, it would come down if the Palestinians forswore terrorist attacks in Israel.

Why doesn’t a group fighting for justice from police violence align with those fighting for a free Tibet? Why don’t they speak out against the Russian takeover of Ukraine? Do they march for the sake of gays serving life sentences in Moslem countries simply for being gay? Once again, as it occurs every day in the United Nations, Israel is the world’s go-to villain. And when the facts are known, Israel does not even register as a blip on the list of the real villains of the planet. Black Lives Matter is riding an anti-Israel wave of ignorance and bigotry. It’s a terrible irony.

Why do they talk about “freeing Gaza” from the Israeli (i.e. Jewish) oppressors? When Egypt controlled Gaza, there was no talk of turning it over to the Palestinians who lived there. Israel took control of Gaza in a defensive war, fighting for its very existence. When they returned it to the Palestinians, there were no blockades, or walls, or armies at the border. Those came only after Hamas turned Gaza into a launching pad for a war to destroy Israel. (Again refer to the Hamas charter).

When Jordan had control of the West Bank, there was no talk of a Palestinian state. Jordan IS a Palestinian state. Instead, it was used to launch attacks on Isreal to destroy it, which is what they hope to do once again if given control of that land.

Although the general media seems to overlook this history, and the left on college campuses is either willfully or negligently ignorant of the facts, the information is out there and well documented. So why would the Black Lives Matter movement be so quick to align itself with those who not only wish to evict the Israeli’s from their homes, but slaughter them as well? That is the goal that the founders of BDS, Hamas, Hezzbollah, and the regime in Iran have shouted to the hills and to anyone who will listen. But no one takes them seriously or seems to care.

The fact that Israel is the spiritual and historical homeland to many of America’s Jews, among the most supportive groups of the civil rights movement, makes this a particuarly painful turn of events for me. From Meridian Mississippi, to Selma, to the ACLU, it is the Jews of America who have been among the most devoted supporters of social justice. It is a pillar of Reform Judaism, the largest denomination among American Jews. Why slap them in the face and alientate them from a movement that would be a natural fit for so many of America’s Jewish population?

The only possible answers are disturbing, and they do a disservice to those who are actually working to achieve tangible improvements in the lives of black Americans. Joining hands with groups whose sole purpose is the destruction of the Jewish nation of Israel is a questionable and unhelpful detour from the mission of Black Lives Matter (although that mission has yet to be spelled out). America’s Jews will continue to work hard for justice for all, but some of us apparently aren’t welcome in the Black Lives Matter movement unless we denounce the Jewish homeland. And that is sad.