Sarsour wants 'deeper relationship' with US Jews, snubs call for resignation
Palestinian-American civil rights activist and co-chair of the Women's March movement Linda Sarsour released a statement Tuesday in which she expressed a hope for closer relations between her movement and the American Jewish community, though she did not address calls from the movement's founder for her and the other leaders to resign.
“We should have been faster and clearer in helping people understand our values and our commitment to fighting anti-semitism. We regret that,” the statement read. “Every member of our movement matters to us — including our incredible Jewish and LGBTQ members. We are deeply sorry for the harm we have caused, but we see you, we love you, and we are fighting with you.”
Sarsour expressed she wants the movement to build "deeper relationships with the Jewish community."
"Trying to dismantle oppression, while working within systems of oppression, is hard,” Sarsour wrote. “We are deeply invested in building better and deeper relationships with the Jewish community. And we’re committed to deepening relationships with any community who has felt left out of this movement. We want to create space where all are welcome.”
"We should have been faster and clearer in helping people understand our values and our commitment to fighting anti-Semitism. We regret that," she said in what is being viewed by some as an apology to Jewish members of the movement.
On Monday, Sarsour issued a statement with a different message.
“It’s very clear to me what the underlying issue is — I am a bold, outspoken BDS supporting Palestinian Muslim American woman and the opposition’s worst nightmare,” she wrote. “They have tried every tactic at their disposal to undermine me, discredit me, vilify me but my roots are too deep and my work is too clear and they have not succeeded so by proxy they began attacking my sister Tamika Mallory — knowing all too well that in this country the most discardable woman is a Black woman.”
-- Refusal to 'separate' -
Teresa Shook, the founding organizer of the Women’s March, on Monday called for the current group of leaders to resign from their positions “because of their refusal to separate themselves” from groups and individuals with “anti-Semitic and homophobic sentiments.”
“Bob Bland, Tamika Mallory, Linda Sarsour and Carmen Perez of Women’s March, Inc. have steered the Movement away from its true course. I have waited, hoping they would right the ship. But they have not,” Shook wrote in a post on her personal Facebook page.
“In opposition to our Unity Principles, they have allowed anti-Semitism, anti- LBGTQIA sentiment and hateful, racist rhetoric to become a part of the platform by their refusal to separate themselves from groups that espouse these racist, hateful beliefs,” she added.
In response, the Women’s March posted to Facebook saying Shook “weighed in, irresponsibly, as have other organizations attempting in this moment to take advantage of our growing pains to try and fracture our network.”
Sarsour posted an additional response Tuesday night after issuing her statement, likely aimed at Shook:
"“Don’t let people who have not contributed nor put their bodies on the line define this moment,” she wrote. “Those who understand that we are all vulnerable under a fascist Administration will define this moment. We will win together. We will write history together. It will be a messy history full of trials and tribulations, hurt and pain but with the consistent understanding that people are counting on us.”
“We are grateful for people who HAVE been with us for the past two years… That’s our focus, not armchair critiques from those who want to take credit for our labor,” the post concluded.
The exchange comes just a day after Sarsour, a Palestinian-American civil rights activist who is one of the march’s current leaders, published an open letter responding to claims of anti-Semitism made against her and the movement.
Sarsour addresses calls on her and Women’s March co-leader Tamika Mallory to condemn leader of Nation of Islam and notorious anti-Semite, Minister Louis Farrakhan following the deadly attack on Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in October that left 11 worshippers dead.
“The Farrakhan controversy began 8 months ago when Jake Tapper and Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL ‘exposed/promoted’ a video of the Minister Farrakhan at an annual gathering for the Nation of Islam called Saviour's Day where Tamika D. Mallory was present along with 15,000 other people including many Black celebrities, business people, dignitaries and pastors,” Sarsour describes.
The Women’s March put out a statement responding to concerns from Jewish women about the movement’s inclusivity in light of Mallory’s attendance at a rally where Farrakhan said “the powerful Jews are my enemy.”
He also reportedly claimed Jews are “the mother and father of apartheid” and are responsible for “degenerate behavior in Hollywood turning men into women and women into men.”
Farrakhan has been known for decades for proudly spouting anti-Semitism once calling Hitler “a very great man” and arguing that Jews orchestrated September 11.
-- Accusations of ‘dual loyalty’ --
However, as Sarsour notes in the letter, accusations of anti-Semitism directed at her began before the Farrakhan controversy.
Sarsour previously voiced support for fellow Women's Strike organizer Rasmea Yousef Odeh, who was jailed in Israel after being convicted for involvement in a 1969 bombing of a Jerusalem supermarket that killed two Hebrew University students, and an attempted bombing of the British consulate.
She has also said that Zionists who are not critical of Israeli policies cannot be feminists because they ignore the rights of Palestinian women.
“It doesn’t make sense for someone to say, ‘Is there room for people who support the state of Israel and do not criticize it in the movement?’ There can’t be [room for pro-Israel views] in feminism. You either stand up for the rights of all women, including Palestinians, or none. There’s just no way around it.”
On Thursday, several days before her open letter was published, Sarsour posted to Facebook in response to congresswoman elect Ilhan Omar’s announcement that she supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement targeting Israel asking people to sign a petition supporting Omar’s right to free speech under the first amendment.
“You don’t have to support BDS and have every right not to but we cannot stand by idly while a brave Black Muslim American woman is targeted for saying she will uphold the constitution of the United States of America as a member of the US Congress,” Sarsour wrote.
“Accusing Jews of dual loyalty is one of the oldest and most pernicious antisemitic tropes,” the American Jewish Committee wrote on Twitter. “No surprise to see it coming from @LSarsour. How long will progressive leaders continue to look the other way in the face of this hate?”