The Black Lives Matter chapter in Chicago is drawing widespread criticism for their use of an illustration of a paraglider that terrorized an Israeli music festival in a “support Palestine” image.
The image seemingly depicts a Hamas terrorist dropping into the Supernova Music Festival in south Israel over the weekend, where at least 260 people were massacred.
“That is all that is it!” the BLM Chicago chapter wrote on X Tuesday, accompanied by an illustration of a paraglider floating down with the Palestinian flag attached to its parachute. The words “I STAND WITH PALESTINE” were etched beneath the image.
“Your position is clear,” Elon Musk, CEO of the social media site commented on the post which has since been viewed nine million times. Others called the group’s support of Palestine “disgusting” and “evil.”
Similarly, the BLM Grassroots organization also issued a statement of solidarity with the Palestinian people.
“As a radical Black organization grounded in abolitionist ideals, we see clear parallels between Black and Palestinian people. We, too, understand what it means to be surveilled, dehumanized, property seized, families separated, our people criminalized and slaughtered with impunity, locked up in droves, and when we resist they call us terrorists,” the statement shared on X read in part, before calling on the United States government to stop funding the Israeli military.
At least 1,900 people, including babies, have died as the Israel-Hamas war entered its fifth day.
“It’s not a war, it’s not a battle. It’s a massacre,” Israeli Defense Forces General Itai Veruv told reporters on the ground.
In a speech from the White House Tuesday, President Joe Biden called the attack on Israel an act of “pure, unadulterated evil,” saying, “The brutality of Hamas, the bloodthirstiness, brings to mind the worst — the worst — rampages of ISIS.”
“This is terrorism,” he added.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan later said that “20 or more” American citizens remained unaccounted for in Israel, in addition to at least 14 who were killed.
