Media

Black Lives Matter’s Chicago Chapter Backtracks on Their Hamas Post

U-TURN

“Yesterday we sent out msgs that we aren’t proud of,” the group said.

Palestinian-Americans and their supporters march as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas continues, in downtown Chicago
Eric Cox/Reuters

The Chicago chapter of the Black Lives Matter organization has apologized for social media posts on Tuesday that incited outrage for appearing to publicly support Hamas militants. In the since-deleted post on X, formerly Twitter, the account shared a graphic of a paraglider and a Palestinian flag with the phrase: “I stand with Palestine.” The picture appeared to refer to Hamas militants who paraglided into a music festival in Israel to kill more than 260 people. Above the graphic, the post said, “That is all that is it!” The group also shared a series of illustrated graphics on Facebook of conversations backing Palestine in the wake of the Hamas attack. One claimed that the “few” Israeli hostages taken by Hamas were responsible for the disputes in Gaza between Palestinians and Israelis. On Wednesday, the group did not explicitly refer to the post but said, “Yesterday we sent out msgs that we aren’t proud of.” They continued, declaring that they stand with Palestine and “the people who will do what they must to live free.”

Read it at Newsweek