Brands supporting Black Lives Matter ignore anti-Israel stance; ‘woke alert’ calls out Dove, Airbnb

Companies that continue to embrace Black Lives Matter are feeling the heat as corporate America’s once-favorite cause faces a backlash over pro-Hamas and anti-Israel statements.

Consumers’ Research issued a “woke alert” Wednesday against three brands: Dove, DoorDash and Airbnb. The conservative corporate watchdog accused the brands of hypocrisy for their ongoing support of Black Lives Matter.

“Corporations that chose to publicly weigh in on woke political issues over the past several years can’t seem to find that same voice to condemn a shocking terrorist attack in which Hamas slaughtered more than 1,200 innocents,” Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild told The Washington Times.

“Sadly, many of these companies also lack the courage to end their support of activist organizations that condone Hamas’ blatant terrorism,” he said. “Woke Alerts shine a light on companies that engage in exactly this kind of woke hypocrisy. Companies are on notice: you may be the subject of the next Woke Alert if you don’t start serving your customers, not woke politicians.”

On its website, DoorDash touted its $100,000 “donation partnership” with groups including the Black Lives Matter Foundation. Dove, which is owned by Unilever, said it has donated more than $1 million to groups including the BLM Foundation, and Airbnb highlighted its 2021 grant of $500,000 to the foundation and the NAACP.

Airbnb issued a statement condemning the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel. In an Oct. 12 post, Airbnb Chief Financial Officer Dave Stephenson said, “I want to take this moment to unequivocally condemn Hamas’ terrorist attacks.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, sent a letter on Nov. 1 to Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey asking why the company apparently deleted its online reference to a $500,000 donation by Sprite, one of its brands, to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation.

“Coca-Cola evidently wants the public to forget how it propped up a far-left group that has refused to condemn the Hamas terrorist organization and whose representatives have openly advocated since at least 2015, well before Sprite’s June 2020 donation, ‘to end the imperialist project called Israel,’” Mr. Cruz said.

Coca-Cola has not responded publicly to Mr. Cruz’s letter. The Washington Times has reached out to Airbnb, DoorDash and Dove for comment.

The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has been mum on the Hamas attack, but the Anti-Defamation League has flagged at least four BLM chapters for pro-violence or pro-Hamas statements in response to the Oct. 7 massacre.

Black Lives Matter Chicago was pilloried last month after posting an image of a paraglider with a Palestinian flag, a reference to the Hamas paragliders who attacked Israeli civilians, with the caption “I Stand With Palestine.”

The group later said it sent messages “that we aren’t proud of,” but it didn’t apologize.

BLM Grassroots, a splinter group with more than two dozen local chapters, posted a pro-Palestinian statement on Oct. 9. When people are “subject to decades of apartheid and unimaginable violence, their resistance must not be condemned,” it said.

A BLM Phoenix account shared a Students for Justice in Palestine post saying, “Palestinian freedom fighters are not terrorists.” The group responded to criticism by saying that the “Palestinian attack was a revolution and attempt to reclaim their freedom,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

The BLM network is highly decentralized. Many BLM chapters are run independently from the national foundation, “and many are completely unaffiliated,” the Anti-Defamation League noted.

Although the foundation hasn’t commented, one of its three founders has made no secret of her anti-Israel views.

BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors calls to “end the imperialist project that’s called Israel.” pic.twitter.com/0PgEtPMpVx

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) May 28, 2021

In 2015, Patrice Cullors, a self-described “trained Marxist,” said “Palestine is our generation’s South Africa” and called for the dismantling of Israel.

“[I]f we don’t step up boldly and courageously to end the imperialist project called Israel, we’re doomed,” Ms. Cullors said during a panel discussion at Harvard Law School, as flagged by Fox News.

The same year, she described Israel as an “apartheid state.”

“This is an apartheid state. We can’t deny that and, if we do deny it, we are a part of the Zionist violence,” Ms. Cullors told Ebony magazine. “There are two different systems here in occupied Palestine. Two completely different systems. Folks are unable to go to parts of their own country. Folks are barred from their own country.”