The NAACP sides with Biden in protecting Hamas

'Palestine' is not a Black Issue - Never was, Part 2

NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson and President Joe Biden (Getty Images) as shared bykval.com

On Thursday, June 6th, the NAACP issued an official press statement entitled NAACP Urges Biden-Harris Administration to Stop Shipments of Weapons Targeting Civilians to Israel, Push for Ceasefire. Sadly, with this official statement, the NAACP has joined the growing ranks of biased Israel critics who have been deceived by Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood propaganda, one of the single greatest contributing factors in the rise of antisemitism in the United States. The fact that the NAACP is the world’s oldest civil rights organization which was founded by Black and Jewish Americans adds to the bitter irony.

First, Israel is not targeting civilians as the title suggests, and the U.S. is not shipping weapons that target civilians. Israel is fighting an existential war against Hamas, a terrorist organization that slaughtered or abducted some 1300 Israelis on October 7, 2023, and is still holding over 100 Israeli hostages now. Further, according to the U.S.-Israel military agreement, Israel is to receive weapons to defend itself against not only Hamas in Gaza but Hezbollah which is currently attacking Israel from Lebanon. Both terrorist organizations are proxies of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Tens of thousands of Israeli men, women, and children from the north and south are internally displaced as the deadly threat on Israel’s borders has made parts of the country uninhabitable.

The NAACP should also know that its call for Israel “to commit to an offensive strategy that is aligned with International and Humanitarian laws,” while ignoring the fact that Hamas is wilfully violating International and Humanitarian laws is wildly inappropriate. Article 29 of the Geneva Convention on war crimes states that “The Party to the conflict in whose hands protected persons may be is responsible for the treatment accorded to them…” This means that Hamas alone is responsible for the harm or death of civilians which it purposefully places in the line of fire. It has also been well-documented that Hamas hordes all supplies into Gaza, often attacking and killing Gazans who dare attempt to access food, water, and other essentials given by the international community. The NAACP’s statement is silent on this issue as well.

In its call for “President Biden to…indefinitely end the shipment of weapons and artillery to…Israel,” the NAACP mentions “other states that supply weapons to Hamas and other terrorist organizations.” This is a curiously worded phrase in that the United States (through UNRWA) and the Iranian Republic are the chief funders of Hamas. It would have been more appropriate for a Black civil rights organization to criticize the American military-industrial complex and call for the U.S. to cease funding both sides of the Hamas-Israel war as it is doing in the Ukraine-Russia war as well as other global conflicts. No. The NAACP is choosing to ignore the glaring moral and logical inconsistencies of Biden’s foreign policy and attack Israel. The NAACP is also choosing to ignore other global catastrophes like the Islamist-led Christian genocides in Nigeria and Sudan, or the hundreds of thousands (or more) of African slaves in Libya, Mauritania, and Algeria. Why? Politics.

The NAACP has long since become a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party. Its partisan approach to civil rights has severely harmed the Black American community and diminished its credibility.

In March, Vice President Kamala Harris said the Administration had not ruled out “consequences for Israel if the IDF invaded the Hamas stronghold of Rafah. Thankfully, the Israeli government ignored Harris’ veiled threat and rescued four hostages in Rafah last week. The NAACP is matching the rhetoric and tone of the Biden administration because it is walking in lockstep with the Democratic Party, 83% of which believe there should be a permanent ceasefire. This is true on the Israel-Hamas war as it has been true on other issues like its anti-education choice stance (most Black Americans favor school choice), its call for a boycott of Florida which, according to the 2020 census, has the third largest Black population, and is in the top-10 for the number of Black-owned businesses.

In August 2023, the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel (IBSI) published a piece entitled, Post-BLM Oakland is crying out for help - and nobody cares. In it, we cited an open letter addressed to the Oakland City Council written by the Oakland Chapter of the NAACP.

Oakland residents are sick and tired of our intolerable public safety crisis that overwhelmingly impacts minority communities. Murders, shootings, violent armed robberies, home invasions, car break-ins, sideshows, and highway shootouts have become a pervasive fixture of life in Oakland. We call on all elected leaders to unite and declare a state of emergency and bring together massive resources to address our public safety crisis.

IBSI followed the events in Oakland closely and, to date, is still unaware of any support that the Black residents received in their appeal to the City Council from NAACP National. Yet, in November 2023, the same Oakland City Council that ignored Black residents’ pleas for help came together to call for an Israeli ceasefire in Gaza. On June 6th, the NAACP joined that call for an Israeli ceasefire. Yet, the NAACP’s Oakland chapter says that:

Oakland should focus on creating skilled industrial and logistics jobs that pay family sustaining wages, and vocational training so Oakland residents can perform those jobs. With this focus we can produce hundreds, if not thousands, of the types of jobs desperately needed to stem economic despair. Unfortunately, progressive policies and failed leadership have chased away or delayed significant blue collar job development in the city,

Again, NAACP National, like the Oakland City Council, appears to be silent on the issues of Black residents while using its collective Black voice to condemn Israel.

Last week, IBSI published a piece explaining why 'Palestine' is not a Black Issue - Never was. Palestine — especially as a useful tool in the hands of the Iranian Ayatollahs — is a Democrat Party issue. From the article:

…what is the purpose of this grand deception that exploits Black Americans in this way? To amass and maintain more political power. Lead people to believe that calls for an Israeli ceasefire…is the moral and just thing to do. And who do the media and politicians use to sell something as moral and just? Black leaders..

The NAACP’s statement is the latest attempt to use Black Americans to protect Palestinian terrorists as the goal of the Biden administration. What the NAACP should be concerned with is peace in the region. That peace can never be achieved by the Islamic Republic constantly stoking war and instability both against Israel as well as the majority Sunni Muslim states. The NAACP has fallen far short of its legacy as well as its mandate, using its Blackness to carry water for the DNC. The civilians in Gaza and the Black working-class residents of Oakland (and inner cities suffering the same fate) have one thing in common: Their leaders are much more concerned with power than they are about them.