The Zioness Movement and the Progressive Zionists of the California Democratic Party (PZCDP) condemned the Women’s March after a new report raising concerns of anti-Semitism was published on Monday.
Allegations in the Tablet report include Women’s March leaders Tamika Mallory and Carmen Perez stating in the first meeting that led to the formation of the Women’s March “that Jewish people bore a special collective responsibility as exploiters of black and brown people—and even, according to a close secondhand source, claimed that Jews were proven to have been leaders of the American slave trade.” This is a talking point pushed by the Nation of Islam, according to the report.
Additionally, Evvie Harmon, co-founder of the Women’s March on Washington, told Tablet that during a January 2017 meeting, Perez and Mallory were “berating” Vanessa Wruble, an early of leader of the movement, for “being Jewish.”
“‘Your people this, your people that,’” Harmon said. “I was raised in the South and the language that was used is language that I’m very used to hearing in rural South Carolina. Just instead of against black people, against Jewish people. They even said to her ‘your people hold all the wealth.’ You could hear a pin drop. It was awful.”
The report also states that the Women’s March co-chairs use the Nation of Islam for their security.
The Zioness Movement announced in a Monday statement that their “worst fears and suspicions were realized” in the Tablet report about the Women’s March.
“We learned that a deep-seated, conspiratorial hatred of the Jewish people was an often unspoken, yet ever-present, fundamental and unifying principle driving the co-chairs’ organizing,” the statement read. “This knowledge makes it impossible for any sincere progressive to march alongside these women.”
Zioness added that refuse to “cede the American feminist movement to bigots and anti-Semites.”
“We do not have the luxury of staying home and hoping that others will stand up, push the prejudice out, and lead with radical love and empathy,” the statement continued. “Tonight, we are doubling down on that principle.”
Similarly, the PZCDP said in a statement to the Journal they were “concerned” by what was in the Tablet report.
“While whispers and rumors about the corruption and antisemitism of the Women’s March have run amok, it is noteworthy to see confirmation by former leadership of some of the more egregious concerns,” the statement read. “However, it is clear what began with the original Facebook event in 2016, will not end just because of disagreements in the leadership. The movement is larger than that, and we are glad to see anti-Semitism, trans rights, and disabilities inclusion being taken seriously by the women’s movements as a whole.”
The statement concluded by saying that “the public deserves to know how the millions of dollars made under the Women’s March brand is being spent from its non-profit charter, and whether or not their organization has employed Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam for their private security.”
The Women’s March co-chairs denied the various allegations in the report to Tablet.
The next Women’s March is scheduled to occur on January 19, 2019 at Washington, D.C. Actresses Debra Messing and Alyssa Milano have said that they will not participate due to the Women’s March co-chairs’ warmth to notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan.
