Linda Sarsour Blasted by Former Women’s March Leader As Anti-Semite for Posting Article Claiming Jews Are At War With Blacks

TEL AVIV – Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour was blasted as an “anti-Semite” on Sunday by a former co-chair of the movement who lashed out at Sarsour for endorsing the idea that Jews are waging a war on the black community. 

Sarsour on Saturday posted a link to an article on her Facebook page accusing the Jewish community of waging a “profound war on black people.” In response, Mercy Morganfield, the daughter of African-American blues singer-songwriter Muddy Waters who once served as the head of the Women’s March D.C. chapter, wrote a post she titled, “This is How S**t Gets Started.”

“Linda Sarsour is an antisemite and even when she is apologizing to the Jewish community on the one hand, she is condemning it on the other. She can’t help it,” Morganfield said. “This is who she is and as long as the five board members are in power you will continue to see these sharp divisions they themselves foster.”

Morganfield then addressed the failure of the Women’s March to shake off accusations of anti-Semitism within the movement, along with its refusal to disassociate from notorious antisemite Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

“During this entire fiasco who has continually attacked whom? Jewish people asking you to condemn an antisemite and antisemitism is not an attack. Writing that Jewish people are waging war on black people is an attack. It is vicious. It is vile. And it is not true. They are their own worst enemy. An appalling lack of judgment on Linda’s part. On this day, during this ongoing controversy,” she wrote.

Last month, the New York Times published an article claiming that one of the original leaders of the March had been pushed out of the movement because she was Jewish. Vanessa Wruble was told by Women’s March co-chairs Tamika Mallory and Carmen Perez that Jews needed to confront their own role in racism before taking on the rest of the movement’s aims.

In light of the anti-Semitism scandals, the third annual Women’s March that took place on Saturday in Washington was a much more subdued affair than in previous years with a significantly smaller turnout and a dearth of celebrities.

Many of the speakers attempted to address the accusations of anti-Semitism in their speeches. Perez said the charges “hurt my soul.”

“And I want to be unequivocal in affirming that Women’s March and I and my sisters condemn anti-Semitism and homophobia and transphobia in all forms. There is no defense of bigotry. There is no excuse for hate,” she stated.

Sarsour, however, said the controversies were little more than a smokescreen to cover up the real controversies plaguing America in the Trump era.

“The media can talk about whatever controversy they want, but the real controversy was in the White House,” she said. “What’s controversial is a president and administration that cages children. That throws tear gas at human beings at the border. A president who wants to take back rights for LGBTQ people. What’s controversial is our complicit support for a Saudi-led war in Yemen. Controversy is collusion with Russia. So if you want to talk about controversy, let’s start talking about the real controversy.”

An ardent supporter of the boycott movement against Israel, Sarsour also called on protesters to stand up for “free speech and our constitutional right to boycott, divestment and sanctions in these United States of America.”

She also described fellow Palestinian-American BDS supporter, the newly elected congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, as her “favorite” new voice on Capitol Hill.

The moment that Sarsour promotes BDS at today's DC Women's March. pic.twitter.com/GrVDfSjwCy

— Joshua Robbin Marks (@JoshMarks78) January 19, 2019

Mallory, who only a few days earlier declined to acknowledge the Jewish people’s right to a state of its own, nodded while Sarsour made her comment expressing support for the BDS movement.

In another post Saturday, Morganfield said Mallory had become “the face of antisemitism.”

Two months prior, she accused both Mallory and Sarsour of using “antisemitic rhetoric” and called on all the Women’s March co-chairs to resign.

“Tamika and Linda have betrayed all women by their subservience to radical religious beliefs that do not believe in equal rights for women. … All six [leaders] should step down. It is a board of six friends and zero accountability,” she said.