Pro-Israel organization Stand With Us took to Facebook to protest the hypocrisy of the US government’s starkly different responses to victims of terror according to their origins.
In a post on which the question “Do Jewish Lives Matter to the US Government?” is emblazoned, a picture of Palestinian-American Tariq Abu Khdeir stands next to the image of Schwartz.
Abu Khdeir was beaten by police while taking part in a violent anti-Israel protest. As the post points out, the US government immediately condemned the beating, calling it an “outrage” and expressed “disappointment” at a policeman’s negligible sentence of 45 days community service for beating Khdeir.
Stand With Us berates the US government for its “double standards” and refusal to “acknowledge that Ezra was murdered in a terror attack and instead urg[ing] ‘both sides to show restraint.'”
Similarly, another Facebook forum called Stop the Lies asks why President Obama chose to remain silent when it was revealed that the victim was an American citizen. Calling it “unacceptable,” the forum urged people to reach out to the White House and demand a statement condemning the attack.
Meanwhile on Twitter, Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) tweeted news of the attack and acknowledged that Palestinian terrorism - a “strain of the radical Islamic terrorism that struck Paris” – was responsible for the murder.
Two others were murdered along with Schwartz – an Israeli and a Palestinian, the latter being killed in error. Stand With Us published an image on Facebook that quickly went viral, stating that in a single Palestinian terror attack innocent people from three nationalities lost their lives. The post was accompanied with the slogan “Terrorism is a global problem and has no borders.”
One blog shared on Facebook was written by Seth Greenwald, a 20-year-old college student and activist fighting anti-Israel bias on US campuses.
Seth wrote, “As I look at my Facebook newsfeed, I see heartbreaking posts of friends and loved ones who were some of Ezra’s best friends; I see calls to action, calling upon us all to bring light to the lack of coverage; but most importantly, I see people who have never before been engaged in the conversation standing up and calling out injustice, hate, terror, and violence.
“Before it is too late, take a moment, and remind yourself, it could be me. Take a moment, stand up, and say it won’t be you. Take a moment, make a change, and make the memory of Ezra Schwartz and all others lost in recent attacks a blessing.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.