NAACP should have Israel’s back

OPINION:

In one of his seminal books envisioning the future Jewish state, the founder of modern political Zionism, Theodore Herzl, wrote: “I am not ashamed to say, though I may expose myself to ridicule for saying so, that once I have witnessed the redemption of the Jews, my people, I wish also to assist in the redemption of the Africans.”

Thus, Black liberation was interwoven tightly with the Jewish liberation movement.

It was not just words either.

In the early years after the reestablishment of Jewish sovereignty in its indigenous and ancestral homeland, Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir frequently traveled around Africa to assist the new countries in nation-building and practical matters to improve Africans’ lives.

“Like them,” Meir said before one such trip, “we had shaken off foreign rule; like them, we had to learn for ourselves how to reclaim the land, how to increase the yields of our crops, how to irrigate, how to raise poultry, how to live together and how to defend ourselves.”

This Zionist spirit of assistance and standing shoulder to shoulder with the oppressed is a deeply Jewish value because Jews know what it is to be enslaved, oppressed, discriminated against, lynched and massacred.

This value has remained with Jews wherever they lived.

Statistically, Jews were one of the most actively involved non-Black groups in the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. During the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer project, around half the White volunteers from Northern states were Jewish, as were the civil rights attorneys active in the South in the 1960s, which was crucial to the movement.

It is well known that many Jews and Jewish leaders heeded the call and worked closely with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., marching alongside and being arrested with their Black counterparts.

King understood the roots of these communal relations and was an ardent Zionist.

“Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all of our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity,” King said in 1964. “I see Israel, and never mind saying it, as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land almost can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy.”

It is against this long history of fraternity that the Jewish community is extremely disappointed when, a few days ago, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People called for a complete halt of weapons to Israel, which is fighting for its very survival on several fronts against genocidal regimes and groups.

It is also discriminatory that the first nation the NAACP has called to halt weapons to also happens to be the only Jewish state, and this is from an organization whose first two presidents, Joel and Arthur Spingarn, were Jewish.

We are not asking for support based on our shared history of oppression and fraternity.

We are not asking for support because Israel is fighting for a better future against those still engaged in slavery and anti-Black racism.

We are not asking for support because Israel is the only nation in history that has delivered the people of Africa from slavery to freedom, where Africans came not as slaves or to be exploited but as free and equals.

We are asking for education, understanding and tolerance.

We are asking for equality in the family of nations. We are asking for support for the one Jewish state, which, like the African people, is living on the same land it has for thousands of years, speaking the same language and following the same customs and traditions.

Like African nations, Israel suffered conquest, imperialism, and subsequent colonialism and occupation.

Zionism is one of the last century’s most successful national liberation and indigenous rights movements.

Unfortunately, much of this is not known by the leaders of the NAACP and its constituents, who have been hoodwinked by sophisticated and well-funded foreign propaganda into supporting one of the most successful imperialistic and colonialist movements in history.

The Black community should stand with the Jewish community and its indigenous homeland, fighting for its very existence because it is the progressive, anti-imperialistic and rightful thing to do.

The recent NAACP statement is regressive and singles out the one Jewish state for opprobrium. It has never said a word about the human rights in Syria, where hundreds of thousands were butchered, the brutal ongoing occupations of Cyprus and Syria by states like Turkey, or the slave markets in Libya.

As a result, we can see the statement against Israel only as bigoted, inequitable and highly politicized. The NAACP was built to fight for equality and against discrimination. However, by specifically targeting the community that historically stood by their side in the U.S. and around the world, the NAACP is derogating its leading role in the Black community.

If it truly wants to return to its role of standing with the oppressed and discriminated, it would have Israel’s back.

• Bobby Rechnitz is a Los-Angeles based philanthropist and real estate developer who serves as chairman of the Abraham Accords Roundtable and the Golda Meir Commemorative Coin Committee in Washington.