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Ben Norton Tag

We covered how anti-Israel activists promoting the boycott of Israel infiltrated the Black Lives Matters movement from the get-go, and have used their influence to turn the movement against Israel. That infiltration most recently showed up with absurd and defamatory accusations against Israel in the platform of the Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of 50 groups, If you are surprised #BlackLivesMatter joined war on Israel, you haven’t been paying attention. There has been pushback not only from Jewish groups, but also from black groups, Coalition of Missouri black church leaders rejects #BlackLivesMatter anti-Israel platform. Now, one cabaret owner has mounted his own mini-boycott against Black Lives Matters, refusing to allow a Broadway fundraiser for the group at his business. http://www.playbill.com/article/broadway-supports-black-lives-matter-concert-cancelled

Benjamin Norton is a leading author who favors the boycott movement (BDS) against Israel. Norton writes for the anti-Zionist Mondoweiss website, as well as a slew of other places on the topic of how bad Israel is. While I don't agree with most of what Norton says, he certainly is prolific and an upcoming opinion-leader in that sphere. So when I saw Norton pen a column severely criticizing the ban on American Jewish musician Matisyahu at the behest of a Spanish branch of the BDS movement, I was, well, surprised. All the more so because leading American BDS activists like Ali Abunimah and Max Blumenthal were seeking to justify the ban because Matisyahu was too pro-Israel. Norton wrote at his own website, Cancellation of Matisyahu’s Performance Blatantly Defies BDS [via Google cache] (emphasis added): http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Cug0nASZJxAJ:bennorton.com/cancellation-of-matisyahus-performance-blatantly-defies-bds/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us