Boone County Democrats Make Jews Feel UnWelcome

Recently, the Boone County Democratic Party co-sponsored an event called: “A People’s Rally.” Twenty-five organizations formed a coalition to sponsor the gathering. This rally was supposedly designed to make everyone in our community feel included. As KOMU News reported, “Hundreds of people gathered Saturday within the walls of the Boone County Commission Chambers.” And, “This broad group of organizations support a variety of causes including peace, social and economic justice, civil rights, environmental and climate concerns and labor concerns.” Unfortunately, a white sign was placed at the front door of the building to let Jewish people know that they were not welcome.
Before the event, I wrote a letter to the Boone County Democratic Party. My warning raised concern that the rally was also co-sponsored by a group called, “Missourians for Justice in Palestine,” and an organization called, “Fellowship of Reconciliation.” I reminded them, “these groups join weekly protests against Israel.” My letter continued, “At these protests, a man named Paul Lehmann holds a sign that declares: ‘Save Hamas.’” Paul Lehmann is a Green Party candidate who seeks to become governor.
Actually, the full sign reads: “Save Gaza, Save Hamas, Save Palestine, Save Israel, And Peace Can Happen! Ceasefire.” However, this is clearly an example of dishonest double-speak. The poster screams that saving Gaza means saving Hamas. Of course, if you want to save Hamas, then you wish for Hamas to stay in power, which means that you support Hamas. If Hamas stays in power, then they will continue to try to annihilate the Jewish State. In my letter, I let them know: “This sign appears regularly and the sign is always proudly displayed high above the crowd. All of these facts means that all of these groups proudly support Hamas. In fact, you might call the weekly protests: Hamas Pride Parades.”
Hamas is an acronym that stands for: “The Islamic Resistance Movement.” In the desert past, The Prophet Muhammad was recorded as predicting that there would be a final battle between the Muslims and the Jews at the end of time. The Prophet’s companion, Abu Huraira reported Muhammad as saying: “The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him.”
The 1988 Hamas Charter repeats this ominous quote from Muhammad, and Hamas believes that they are called to fight this ultimate war of annihilation against the Jews. On October 7th, 2023, Hamas launched a massive invasion against the Jewish State. Over 2,000 Hamas terrorists broke through the border fence and went from house to house murdering Israeli civilians. They massacred several small villages, raped an enormous number of Israeli women, and slaughtered young people at a music festival. In addition, Hamas kidnapped roughly 240 civilians. In response, Israel launched a defensive military campaign to retrieve their citizens.
Shamefully, this is not the only racist sign that is promoted by these groups. A local Methodist Pastor named Drew McClausland regularly joins these weekly protests and documents the spectacle. Pastor McCausland even proudly posted a picture of a man at their protests holding a sign which stated, “Israel Lied About Oct 7.” Likewise, the MIZZOU “Students for Justice in Palestine” have proudly posted a picture of the same exact sign on their Instagram page.
Unfortunately, the message of the sign is based on a conspiracy theory that Hamas did not really lead a raid into Israel on October 7th. Often, the conspiracy theory used to deny the slaughter is to claim that the Israeli government machine gunned their own citizens in order to justify launching a strike on Hamas, because the Israeli government secretly wanted to try to steal land in Gaza. Of course, this conspiracy theory is just a lie designed to demonize the Jewish people, and Israel has never tried to steal land in Gaza. That being said, this same exact sign, which proclaims: “Israel Lied About Oct 7,” was placed at the front door of the building where The People’s Rally was hosted.
I posted a video showing this sign in front of the door on my Facebook page. The Boone County Democrats saw my picture of the sign. They tried to distance themselves from the blame and commented: “Boone County Democrats will determine how this sign got posted, who was responsible and why it was not removed or a demand made that the person who made the sign had to carry it versus posting it as though it was endorsed by the sponsors. This sign was NOT by the Boone County Democrats nor was it endorsed by us.” However, I find this feeble response to be pathetically disingenuous. For over a year, Jewish community members have watched in trepidation as angry cabals proudly march down the streets with signs supporting Hamas and declaring that The October 7th Massacre never happened. These violent groups were invited to be co-sponsors of the event, and not surprisingly they brought this same exact sign and placed it at the front door of The People’s Rally.
On the day of the occasion, I arrived early at the place. I stood in front of the building holding an Israeli flag as a form of protest against the same lies about Jews that I knew would be spread at the affair. Afterwards, I stayed and talked with a young man for an extra hour about the war, so I may have been the last person to leave the site. The sign proclaiming that Israel lied about The October 7th Massacre was placed at the front door of the building at the beginning of the event, and it remained until the end of the event. All of this means that about 300 people passed by this sign, and not one person asked for it to be removed.
I apologize for the sensitive nature of my comments; but, many Israeli women were sexually assaulted during The October 7th Massacre. When you say that Israel lied about the massacre, then it also means that you do not believe the stories of the Israeli women who were raped. At a rally which was purportedly designed to promote women’s rights and racial equality, there was a penetrating placard placed at the entrance declaring they do not believe the stories of the Jewish women who were raped. At the front door, there was a sign letting Jewish people know that they were not welcome.