WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 07: Immigration activist Linda Sarsour speaks during a National Day of Action for a Dream Act Now protest on February 7, 2018 in Washington D.C. A coalition of activists came from across the U.S. to demonstrate for a “Clean Dream Act” to be passed in Congress as part of spending negotiations. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images,) MPower Change, which calls itself the largest Muslim-led social and racial justice organization in the U.S. and is headed by Linda Sarsour, encouraged its social media followers to attend a Juneteenth rally that was open to everyone “minus cops and Zionists.”
Ariel Behar of The Investigative Project on Terrorism wrote in a June 24 op-ed published in the Algemeiner that MPower Change’s June 17 tweet stated that it was joining a Juneteenth rally on June 19 hosted by an organization called Muslims for Abolition. Muslims for Abolition is part of an organization called Believers Bailout; Believers Bailout describes itself as “a community-led effort to bail out Muslims in pretrial incarceration and ICE custody.”
The image in the tweet states: “Open to all, minus cops and zionists [sic].”
NYC this FRIDAY @ 1 PM! We're joining @BelieverBailOut's call for #MuslimsForAbolition actions in our cities.
Join us at the #JuneteenthJummah to demand @NYCMayor & @NYCCouncil finally act to #DefundNYPD & invest in Black futures ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/11MdFaKt42
— MPower Change #NoTechForApartheid (@MPower_Change) June 17, 2020
StandWithUs co-founder and CEO Roz Rothstein tweeted on June 24, “Linda Sarsour says: No Zionists at civil rights rallies — Linda, that didn’t work out too well for everyone when you tried that with the Women’s March. Why would you do this again? Stop hijacking movements.”
Here she goes again! Linda Sarsour says: No Zionists at civil rights rallies – Linda, that didnt work out too well for everyone when you tried that with the Women's March. Why would you do this again? Stop hijacking movements @ZionessMovement @ErinSchrode https://t.co/o7nyMC3QnK
— Roz Rothstein (@RozRothstein) June 25, 2020
Journal columnist and Israel-based writer Hen Mazzig similarly tweeted on June 22, “*Open to all* (minus ~90% of Jewish people who are Zionists). We won’t make this moment about us, if you won’t. Stop it. This fight is too important for anti-Semites to abuse this way.”
*Open to all* (minus ~90% of Jewish people who are Zionists)
We won’t make this moment about us, if you won’t. Stop it. This fight is too important for antisemites to abuse this way. pic.twitter.com/nChnTx0TxS
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) June 22, 2020
He added in a later tweet: “Jews should start holding protests against anti-Semitism and the other oppressions we face and put ‘no anti-Zionists’ on the invite. And then yell at people who get outraged and claim they are bigots who never supported these causes in the first place.”
Jews should start holding protests against antisemitism and the other oppressions we face and put ‘no anti-Zionists’ on the invite. And then yell at people who get outraged and claim they are bigots who never supported these causes in the first place. 🤟
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) June 22, 2020
Israellycool blogger David Lange wrote in a June 21 post about the advertisement, “Why not just say ‘No Jews allowed’ and be done with it?”
MPower Change and Believers Bailout did not respond to the Journal’s requests for comment.
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day federal orders proclaimed slaves in Texas, the last state harboring slaves, were free.
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