“This ain’t your fight”: Masked BLM supporters swear at and shove Jewish men who came to show solidarity at Philadelphia protest.
By Yakir Benzion, United With Israel
A mob of Black Lives Matter protesters attacked several religious Jewish men Wednesday who had arrived at a Philadelphia protest to show solidarity following a fatal shooting in the city. A video posted on Twitter showing masked protestors shoving the men, swearing at them and accusing them of belonging to the “synagogue of Satan.”
Rabbi Yaacov Behrman of Chabad Lubavitch tweeted that he spoke with several of the men who were attacked, and one of them told him that the verbal abuse started before the scene shown in the video when one BLM supporter shouted ,“This isn’t your holocaust. You don’t belong here.”
The video on Twitter shows three Jewish men wearing kippas standing in the street with dozens of other people during a Black Lives Matter protest after Philadelphia police on Monday shot and killed 27-year-old Walter Wallace Jr., who was black. Police said Wallace “advanced towards officers” with a knife and refused to drop the weapon.
“Amalek, what y’all doing down here? You don’t live here,” one person tells the Jewish men, making the biblical reference to the Amalekites and a term generally used to mean an evil enemy of the Jewish people. One of the Jewish men replies he lives “not far” from the protest, but the abuse continues.
‘We the Real Jews’
“Y’all know we the real Jews, right?” the person speaking continues. “This ain’t your fight. Y’all gotta go,” another person says.
Another of the Jewish men tells the crowd “we’re just showing solidarity,” but the crowd surges towards them and one man yells, “Get the f**k out!”
As the Jewish men start moving, one of the masked BLM protesters violently shoves one of them as another calls them “trash.” Then the first speaker says, “Philly waking up. Revelation 2:09, the synagogue of Satan” – what the Anti-Defamation League says is an anti-Semitic term used by extremists in the Black Hebrew Israelite Movement that believes that blacks are the true descendants of the the biblical Israelites.
“Orthodox Jews violently attacked by mob @ BLM protest last night in Philly. They told protesters they were there to show solidarity. Mob shouted anti Semitic & racist hate as they assaulted victims. Spoke to victim, says he feared for his life. This needs to be condemned by all!” Behrman tweeted.
‘Media Silent’
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, one of the major organizations that fights anti-Semitism, tweeted a statement linking the incident to the Jew-hatred perpetrated by radical Islamic leader Louis Farrakhan.
“40 years of Farrakhan’s themes of poisonous Jew hatred now embedded among young protesters Synagogue of Satan, denial that we are real Jews. Political leaders, media silent,” the Center said in a tweet.