Right-wing Israel supporters booed Biden deputy assistant Erika Moritsugu as she addressed the “No Fear Rally,” an event billed as a stand against antisemitism but seemed largely focused on defending Israel.
A Biden official was booed at this weekend’s “No Fear: A Rally In Solidarity with the Jewish People,” an event that was billed as a stand against antisemitism but seemed largely focused on defending Israel.
Biden deputy assistant Erika Moritsugu addressed the crowd outside the capitol Building in Washington, DC. “Standing up to antisemitism and other forms of bigotry and hatred is our shared responsibility,” she said in her speech. “As President Biden so often says, ‘Silence is complicity’ and each and every one of you attending this rally today..also understands that shared responsibility to come together, speak out, and fight the evil of antisemitism and the Biden/Harris administration stands with you and the Jewish community.”
During her remarks, a group of Trump supporters attending the event booed Moritsugu. “You pay money to terrorists!” yelled one.
After she spoke event organizer Elisha Wiesel, son of the late writer and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, took to the mic to assure the crowd that the administration stood with Israel while it was attacking Gaza. “I’d like everybody to thank President Biden for the way that the White House stood with Israel during the Gaza war,” he said.
The No Fear Rally was intended to present a community united against antisemitism, but its embrace of right-wing, pro-Israel organizations alienated more liberal groups. American for Peace Now president Hadar Susskind told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that sponsors like the Zionist Organization of America led his organization to sit out the event. “This rally looks like it will conflate criticism of the occupation and criticism of Israeli actions with anti-Zionism, and will say anti-Zionism is antisemitic, and we want no part of that,” he said.
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“We are here today because we care deeply and profoundly about Jewish life and Jewish values,” Wiesel told the crowd during his speech. “We can disagree, even passionately, without being divided. We can even disagree on Israel — the issue that our enemies rejoice in seeing it become a wedge for us in this country.”
That spirit certainly wasn’t reflected throughout the day. Multiple speakers attacked progressive congress members for defending Palestine, while many in the crowd sported Israeli flags. “I felt like I should come up here and say I’m Meghan McCain and I’m a Zionist,” The View co-host declared.
Ariel Gold אריאל @ArielElyseGold.@MeghanMcCain at the defend apartheid rally happening now in DC says she’s a “proud Zionist.” I await the day when saying this is heard in the same way as bragging about being a proud confederate.6:31 PM · Jul 11, 2021
“Yesterday’s No Fear Defend Apartheid rally was a low turnout flop,” she tweeted the next day. “Why? Fewer and fewer Jews are willing to participate in the charade that says we are all united in support for Israel & that supporting Israel is how to fight rising antisemitism. It’s not.”
