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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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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.