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Executive Order on Anti-Semitism Continues the Civil Rights Legacy of Martin Luther King

(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Dan Diker - The Executive Order signed on December 11, 2019, applying Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to Jewish Americans, is arguably the most significant single presidential action protecting their civil rights since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the landmark Civil Rights Act into law 55 years ago. The Executive Order calls upon federal agencies to protect the civil rights of Jews as an ethnically distinct religious minority. The presidential order is a setback for anti-Semites on U.S. campuses who have masked their hatred and discrimination against Jews supporting Israel, claiming their speech and actions are "legitimate criticism" protected as free speech. Anti-Zionist Jewish and Palestinian groups hostile to Israel have now mobilized to fight the White House's expanded protections against anti-Semitism. During a meeting between Harvard students and Martin Luther King shortly before he was assassinated, one of the young men present happened to make some remark against the Zionists. Dr. King snapped at him and said, "Don't talk like that! When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking anti-Semitism!" The writer is a foreign policy fellow at the Jerusalem Center.
2019-12-16 00:00:00
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