‘Your Position Is Clear’: Musk Responds to Black Lives Matter Pro-Palestine Posts After Hamas Attacks

A man holds a Black Lives Matter sign as a police car burns in front of him during a protest outside CNN Center in Atlanta on May 29, 2020, over the Minneapolis death of George Floyd while in police custody. Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

Black Lives Matter (BLM) was condemned after chapters across the United States voiced their support for the terrorist attack that Hamas carried out against Israeli civilians, with X owner Elon Musk weighing in.

“As Black people continue the fight to end militarism and mass incarceration in our own communities, let us understand the resistance in Palestine as an attempt to tear down the gates of the world’s largest open-air prison,” BLM Grassroots, which represents dozens of Black Lives Matter chapters in various cities, wrote in an Oct. 9 post on X, formerly Twitter.

“As a radical Black organization grounded in abolitionist ideals, we see clear parallels between Black and Palestinian people. For lasting peace to come, the entire apartheid system must be dismantled.”

At the same time, a BLM chapter in Chicago posted a more supportive message of Hamas, which has long been a designated terrorist organization by the State Department. It stated, “I stand with Palestine,” and included an image of a parachuting individual with the Palestinian flag.

There were reports and video footage of Hamas terrorists using parachutes and other airborne means in a series of surprise attacks on Oct. 7.

The attacks have killed hundreds of Israeli civilians, and Hamas later confirmed that it took some civilians hostage. The armed branch of the terrorist organization stated that it would start executing captives if Israel bombs areas in Gaza without warning.

BLM Chicago later deleted its post on X and later wrote: “Yesterday we sent out msgs that we aren’t proud of. We stand with Palestine [and] the people who will do what they must to live free. Our hearts are with, the grieving mothers, those rescuing babies from rubble, who are in danger of being wiped out completely.”

In response to the posts, Mr. Musk wrote on his platform, “Your position is clear.”

Former New York gubernatorial candidate and former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) accused Black Lives Matter of joining “Democratic Socialists of America in declaring its proud support of Hamas terrorists who are raping women, beheading babies, kidnapping Holocaust survivors, and slaughtering Jews wherever they can find them.” He was referring to unconfirmed reports of alleged atrocities committed by Hamas.

An aerial picture shows the abandoned site of a weekend music festival attacked by Hamas terrorists near Kibbutz Reim in the Negev desert in southern Israel, on Oct. 10, 2023. Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images

At least 14 Americans were killed in the series of attacks as the conflict rages on, officials said.

President Joe Biden said on Oct. 10 that Hamas is holding U.S. citizens hostage.

“More than 1,000 civilians slaughtered—not just killed, slaughtered—in Israel. Among them, at least 14 American citizens killed,” the president said, noting that officials have received “stomach-turning reports of ... babies being killed,” according to a White House transcript.

Other Groups Comment

Black Lives Matter isn’t the only left-wing U.S. group that appears to have criticized Israel or backed Palestine since the fighting erupted.

The La Fuerza Student Association at California State University–Long Beach distributed a poster that advertised a so-called Day of Resistance for “students united against apartheid.” That poster also featured a Palestinian flag and an individual using a parachute.

“We will be rallying and marching in support of the Palestinian liberation and against Zionist occupation in Palestine,” the group said, according to the New York Post.

On other college campuses, the Students for Justice in Palestine is planning a National Day of Resistance on Oct. 12 at schools, including Arizona State University, the University of Virginia, the University of Louisville, Butler University, and others.

Several dozen student groups at Harvard University have signed a letter alleging that Israel is “entirely responsible” for the recent conflict.

“We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” the letter reads, describing Israel as an “apartheid regime.”

A handful of prominent Harvard alum, including former Treasury official Larry Summers, expressed concern about the student groups’ recent activity.

“In nearly 50 years of @Harvard affiliation, I have never been as disillusioned and alienated as I am today,” Mr. Summers, the former Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, wrote on X. “The silence from Harvard’s leadership, so far, coupled with a vocal and widely reported student groups’ statement blaming Israel solely, has allowed Harvard to appear at best neutral towards acts of terror against the Jewish state of Israel.”

He was responding to the letter that was sent out by the Harvard student groups.

“Instead, Harvard is being defined by the morally unconscionable statement apparently coming from two dozen student groups blaming all the violence on Israel,” Mr. Summers wrote. “I am sickened.”