Washington Times Commentary Editor Kelly Sadler interviews Pastor Dumisani Washington on why he founded the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel and the ties between Black and Jewish communities.
[SADLER] We’re joined by Pastor Dumisani Washington. He is the founder and CEO of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel. Why did you feel that you needed it to establish this institute in the first place?
[WASHINGTON] It was founded in 2013. This was a few months after my first trip to Israel as a Christian pastor, along with the group “Christians United for Israel.” I went on to serve with CUFI for about seven years after that. I wasn’t on staff at the time. I was already an Israel supporter, and I was also an advocate for the persecuted church, particularly in Africa. So these things were already passions of mine when I was there, but I left — the only way I can explain it — coming away from there, praying at the Western Wall, with a strong sense of doing this, strengthening the tie between the Black and Jewish communities and between Africa and Israel. And that’s how IBSI was born.
[SADLER] We are seeing in America, in poll after poll, eroding support for the state of Israel among African Americans and among Blacks, especially. Why is this?
[WASHINGTON] Well, I push back a little bit when I hear those questions only because there’s a larger context. We are finding that Israel’s support is waning among multiple demographics in the United States, not just among African Americans. And even in terms of African-American support, it’s not eroded to the point where people would believe. In other words, age has a big thing to do with it, right? Younger people are tending to say they are with quote, unquote, “Palestine,” right? And the older ones, Black or White, tend to side with Israel when it comes to the actual conflict. So we look at it in that context.
Of course, our main focus is the African-American community. So we have those conversations in depth. I’ve written a book about Zionism and the Black Church and those types of things. And I can tell your listeners that when we have the conversations, it’s complex, it’s broad, but in our short time here, much of it has to do with messaging, much of it has to do with propaganda. Specifically, propaganda that was targeted at the Black community starting in the late 1960s. I tell people often, kind of a tongue-in-cheek, if they understood the level of the Soviet-style propaganda that was targeted at my community, they would wonder why antisemitism or anti-Israel sentiment wasn’t higher in the Black community than it is now.
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