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Black Lives Matter Lambasted for Calling on Hamas to Release Remaining Hostages
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators take part in a protest titled “Stop Jerusalem Expulsions, save Sheikh Jarrah” outside of the White House in Black Lives Matter Plaza after marching from the US State Department building in Washington, DC, May 11, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
The Black Lives Matter organization (BLM) faced an avalanche of backlash over the weekend after calling on the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas to release the remaining hostages it kidnapped from Israel and took to Gaza on Oct. 7.
“Hamas: release the hostages,” the group posted on X/Twitter on Saturday.
Hamas: release the hostages.
— Black Lives Matter (BLM) (@Blklivesmatter) August 31, 2024
The post generated outrage from activists who accused BLM of betraying the Palestinian cause. Left-wing social media personalities lambasted the group for supposedly minimizing the plight of Palestinians by showing empathy for Israelis in Hamas’s captivity.
“Did AIPAC write this post for you?” one X/Twitter user wrote, referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
“Guys please don’t associate this organization with the BLM movement. They are not synonymous. I founded a chapter of BLM in my city and I would never in a million years agree to be affiliated with this filth,” another user posted.
“This account just lost credibility,” someone else added.
“F—k you ZIONIST puppets,” posted left-wing social media personality Jackson Hinkle.
“Seeing black people backing Israel is one of the saddest things possible, given how the founders of Zionism considered black people to be inferior to white people,” wrote pro-Palestinian social media personality Ousman Noor.
After receiving a deluge of criticism over advocating for captive Israelis, BLM issued subsequent tweets calling for the United States to “disarm [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu and defund the illegal military occupation” and for Israel to “stop murdering Palestinians.”
Hamas, the terrorist group that runs Gaza, slaughtered 1,200 people and abducted 251 others during its Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel. In November, the United States helped broker a deal to secure the release of around 100 hostages as part of a week-long truce. Since then, Hamas has refused any subsequent deals to free the remaining hostages in its possession.
Israel has rescued some of the hostages, both dead and alive, in rescue operations, and currently 97 people kidnapped on Oct. 7 remain in captivity in Gaza. About one-third of them have already been declared dead by Israeli authorities.
While BLM’s posts elicited outrage from some left-wing activists, others praised the organization for showing nuance regarding the Israel-Hamas war.
“It shouldn’t be controversial to acknowledge that Israeli hostages still held by Hamas should be released & should have never been held this long. I’m glad that Black Lives Matter, which also called for a ceasefire and disarming Bibi’s regime, has taken a stance to distance itself from radical elements who see no issue with Hamas’s actions or strategies,” Palestinian-American activist Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib wrote on X/Twitter.
“A win is a win,” right-wing influencer Emily Austin posted.
“Yes BLM. Thank you. Hamas must release the hostages and the remains of all the murdered hostages — while they surrender,” wrote media personality Polly Rendall.
BLM’s criticism of Hamas came as a shock to many observers, considering the group’s general alignment with radical left-wing politics and extensive history of criticizing Israel. BLM accused Israel of “genocide” in its 2016 platform titled “A Vision for Black Lives.” Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of the BLM movement, has called Israel an “apartheid state.”
Mere days after Hamas’s brutal Oct. 7 massacre, the Chicago chapter of BLM posted a picture of a paraglider — a reference to the Hamas terrorists who invaded southern Israel and proceeded to murder civilians at the Nova Music Festival — with the words “I stand with Palestine” emblazoned on the bottom.
When asked in the comments section of its weekend social media post whether BLM Chicago is one of its chapters, BLM’s main X/Twitter account responded, “Nope.”
The post Black Lives Matter Lambasted for Calling on Hamas to Release Remaining Hostages first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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FBI Investigating ‘Targeted Terror Attack’ in Boulder, Colorado, Director Says
FILE PHOTO: FBI Director Kash Patel testifies before the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on President Trump’s proposed budget request for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 8, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
FBI Director Kash Patel said on Sunday the agency was aware of and fully investigating a targeted terror attack in Boulder, Colorado.
While he did not provide further details, Patel said in a social media post: “Our agents and local law enforcement are on the scene already, and we will share updates as more information becomes available.”
According to CBS News, which cited witnesses at the scene, a suspect attacked people with Molotov cocktails who were participating in a walk to remember the Israeli hostages who remain in Gaza.
The Boulder Police Department said it was responding to a report of an attack in the city involving several victims. It has not released further details but a press conference was expected at 4 p.m. Mountain Time (2200 GMT).
The attack comes just weeks after a Chicago-born man was arrested in the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington, D.C. Someone opened fire on a group of people leaving an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee, an advocacy group that fights antisemitism and supports Israel.
The shooting fueled polarization in the United States over the war in Gaza between supporters of Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
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Terrorist Responsible for Death of 21 Soldiers Eliminated
An Israeli F-35I “Adir” fighter jet. Photo: IDF
i24 News – Khalil Abd al-Nasser Mohammed Khatib, the terrorist who commanded the terrorist cell that killed 21 soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip on January 22, 2024, was killed by an Israeli airstrike, the IDF said on Sunday.
In a joint operation between the military and the Shin Bet security agency, the terrorist was spotted in a reconnaissance mission. The troops called up an aircraft to target him, and he was eliminated.
Khatib planned and took part in many other terrorist plots against Israeli soldiers.
i24NEWS’ Hebrew channel interviewed Dor Almog, the sole survivor of the mass casualty disaster, who was informed on live TV about the death of the commander responsible for the killing his brothers-in-arms.
“I was sure this day would come – I was a soldier and I know what happens at the end,” said Almog. “The IDF will do everything to bring back the abductees and to topple Hamas, to the last one man.”
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Stanley Fischer, Former Fed Vice Chair and Bank of Israel Chief, Dies at 81
FILE PHOTO: Vice Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve System Stanley Fischer arrives to hear Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney delivering the Michel Camdessus Central Banking Lecture at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, U.S., September 18, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo
Stanley Fischer, who helped shape modern economic theory during a career that included heading the Bank of Israel and serving as vice chair of the US Federal Reserve, has died at the age of 81.
The Bank of Israel said he died on Saturday night but did not give a cause of death. Fischer was born in Zambia and had dual US-Israeli citizenship.
As an academic at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Fischer trained many of the people who went on to be top central bankers, including former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as well as Mario Draghi, the former European Central Bank president.
Fischer served as chief economist at the World Bank, and first deputy managing director at the International Monetary Fund during the Asian financial crisis and was then vice chairman at Citigroup from 2002 to 2005.
During an eight-year stint as Israel’s central bank chief from 2005-2013, Fischer helped the country weather the 2008 global financial crisis with minimal economic damage, elevating Israel’s economy on the global stage, while creating a monetary policy committee to decide on interest rates like in other advanced economies.
He was vice chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2017 and served as a director at Bank Hapoalim in 2020 and 2021.
Current Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron praised Fischer’s contribution to the Bank of Israel and to advancing Israel’s economy as “truly significant.”
The soft-spoken Fischer – who played a role in Israel’s economic stabilization plan in 1985 during a period of hyperinflation – was chosen by then Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as central bank chief.
Netanyahu, now prime minister, called Fischer a “great Zionist” for leaving the United States and moving to Israel to take on the top job at Israel’s central bank.
“He was an outstanding economist. In the framework of his role as governor, he greatly contributed to the Israeli economy, especially to the return of stability during the global economic crisis,” Netanyahu said, adding that Stanley – as he was known in Israel – proudly represented Israel and its economy worldwide.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog also paid tribute.
“He played a huge role in strengthening Israel’s economy, its remarkable resilience, and its strong reputation around the world,” Herzog said. “He was a world-class professional, a man of integrity, with a heart of gold. A true lover of peace.”
The post Stanley Fischer, Former Fed Vice Chair and Bank of Israel Chief, Dies at 81 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.