For quite a while, many of us have flagged examples of anti-Semitic and even anti-woman statements made by the leadership of the Women’s March. Until recently and despite overwhelming evidence, these were dismissed as attempts to smear the organization by the right. Then, some on the left began to take notice and some, like the actress and activist Alyssa Milano, even took action.
Now, Tablet Magazine has released a damning profile of the leadership of the Women’s March, and it is much worse than many realized. The piece highlights numerous instances of anti-semitism, the first actually coming when the founders of the march first met in late 2016:
According to several sources, it was there—in the first hours of the first meeting for what would become the Women’s March—that something happened that was so shameful to many of those who witnessed it, they chose to bury it like a family secret. Almost two years would pass before anyone present would speak about it. It was there that, as the women were opening up about their backgrounds and personal investments in creating a resistance movement to Trump, Perez and Mallory allegedly first asserted that Jewish people bore a special collective responsibility as exploiters of black and brown people—and even, according to a close secondhand [sic] source, claimed that Jews were proven to have been leaders of the American slave trade.
The anti-semitism would continue, unabated, to this very day. And when people within the Women’s March objected to instances of anti-Semitic behavior, as well as called for individuals to step down, the leadership dug in and dismissed concerns.
This was particularly evident earlier this year when co-founder Tamika Mallory publicly praised the leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, who has a lengthy history of attacking Jews, as well as proclaiming that Adolf Hitler was “a very great man.”
And then there is Linda Sarsour who has also praised the Nation of Islam itself. Sarsour’s own controversial statements, which include embracing convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh, saying that a zionist cannot be a feminist, tweeting that “nothing is creepier than zionism,” as well as more than a host of other offensive statements. She too has been at the center of the Women’s March’s shift toward extremism.
As Tablet revealed, Sarsour and Mallory have helped the Nation of Islam become intricately involved in the Women’s March itself, as they are now providing security for the co-chairs of the march, as well as serving as their drivers.
None of this should come as a surprise.
The Women’s March has been perverted and hijacked by anti-Semitic zealots. Last year, they used their Twitter account to praise Assata Shakur, who was convicted of executing a police officer, on her birthday and call her a “revolutionary.” When CNN’s Jake Tapper retweeted this and asked why progressives weren’t condemning this, Sarsour responded by saying he had “joined the ranks of the alt-right” and was targeting her. It was ludicrous and should have caused the Women’s March to change its leadership, but it did not.
Now, Tablet’s remarkable examination of the Women’s March has lifted the veil on the anti-semitism and graft occurring in this organization. Will its membership finally demand that its extremist leaders step down or allow them to continue to betray the stated mission of the Women’s March.