The pro-Israel Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), one of the nation's most prominent Zionist and Jewish organizations, could be expelled by Boston's Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) after claims it is a "white supremacist organization" with its leader's criticisms about Black Lives Matter and several liberals including George Soros, former President Barack Obama, and Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar.
The JCRC, a group of Jewish organizations, will meet on April 27 to determine whether to expel the ZOA, writes Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, in a column for PJ Media.
He writes that the "real sin" of ZOA’s national president Mort Klein is that he criticized Tlaib, D-Mich., Omar, D-Minn., former President Barack Obama, and Black Lives Matter.
The call for the ZOA, a longtime member of the JCRC, to be expelled from the JCRC began last year with a petition from several left-wing Jewish groups, including J Street, the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, Women of Reform Judaism, and others.
The petition said that Klein's statements had veered into “xenophobic and racist territory," reports the Jewish News Syndicate.
According to an internal report from the JCRC in March, the coalition's board of directors concluded that Klein "elevated white supremacist voices" but that the ZOA should not be kicked out of the coalition, which includes dozens of local groups and community members.
The coalition scrutinized Klein's social media record, reports the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and is now proposing new guidelines that could make comments like he has made grounds for expulsion. However, the group also said that expelling the ZOA affiliate in Boston would work against the interests of the coalition.
The petition came after Klein tweeted that “BlackLivesMatter is an antisemitic, Israel hating Soros funded racist extremist Israelophobic hate group.”
He also posted a tweet urging the Southern Poverty Law Center to "Immediately put BlackLivesMatter on their list of hate groups. BLM is a Jew hating, White hating, Israel hating, conservative Black hating, violence promoting, dangerous Soros funded extremist group of haters.”
Spencer wrote in his opinion column that "Klein was right," pointing to reports of pro-Palestinian actions connected to the Black Lives Matter movement, including reports from journalist Daniel Greenfield for Jihad Watch concerning several protesters.
One included actions during the Los Angeles Black Lives Matter protests, when the Fairfax community and its large Orthodox Jewish population, Congregation Beth El on Beverly Boulevard were targeted, Spencer noted.
ZOA has spoken out against the call to expel it from the Boston coalition, saying instead it should join with "Mort Klein, Alan Dershowitz, Caroline Glick and Melanie Phillips in condemning the anti-Semitic Israel-hating platform of the Black Lives Matter/M4BL organization, which promotes anti-Semitic BDS and falsely accuses Israel of perpetrating genocide and apartheid.”
Klein also said that "inappropriate concern was raised due to our legitimately [sic] criticism of the anti-Israel actions and policies of the organization called Black Lives Matter. This was especially hurtful to ZOA since it fully, publicly, and unequivocally supports equality and fairness to all races, including, of course, all black lives.”
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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