NEW YORK – On his first official trip as Ambassador to the United States, Gilad Erdan toured civil rights landmarks in South Carolina and Alabama, meeting black community leaders in the process to expand the reach of Israel for American minorities.
“I now understand their feelings much better, how they see reality and why they insist on continuing their fight for equality,” Erdan told the Times of Israel in an interview shortly after her return to New York on Thursday.
The three-day trip included stops at McLeod and Magnolia Plantations in Charleston, South Carolina, the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, and the Edmund Pettus Bridge in nearby Selma, Alabama, where civil rights activists were brutally beaten by police on Bloody Sunday that year 1965.
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He also attended Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, one of the oldest black congregations in the south and the site of mass shootings in 2015, and the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church in Montgomery, in the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. by then preached in 1960.
During the visit, which coincided with Black History Month, Erdan met nearly a dozen prominent Christian leaders, young black students, as well as South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott , the Mayor of Montgomery, Steven Reed and former Democratic legislature Bakari Seller.
Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Gilad Erdan visits Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina on February 21, 2020. (Israeli Embassy in Washington)
“One of my top priorities as an ambassador is working with the African American community, as it is very important for me to be in contact with all areas of American society, especially with minority groups with whom we have not had enough contact in the past.” he said Erdan, who has been the Israeli envoy to the United Nations since September and took on the additional role of ambassador to the United States in January.
Erdan’s predecessor Ron Dermer also visited many of the top civil rights markers and tried to maintain positive relationships with the black community during his seven-year tenure as ambassador.
Erdan stressed that the goal of the trip was not to teach about Israel to those he met with, but to listen and learn.
He avoided incriminating recent events in the US, including the wave of protests against racial justice last summer following the police murder of George Floyd, but the envoy gave a legitimate sign of the ongoing struggle.
Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Gilad Erdan (second from left) at Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, with leaders of the African American community there on February 22, 2021. (Israeli Embassy in Washington)
He mentioned being particularly concerned when he learned during his visit to Mother Emanuel Church how the white gunman who shot nine black worshipers was treated warmly by the local police who took him to McDonald’s after his arrest .
Erdan said he was moved by his trip to the former plantations in Charleston, where visitors learn about the history of slavery and the later struggles of the black freedmen.
“I come from a family of Holocaust survivors so I hesitate to compare the Holocaust to any other tragedy, but when you go to the plantations and hear their stories … in a way they were like the concentration camps,” he said of the Times of Israel.
“You really learn something here about phenomena that justify their struggle for equality,” he continued. “I believe that our cooperation between Israel, the Jews and them can be very powerful to fight racism and anti-Semitism together.”
At the Rosa Parks Museum today, I was really excited to hear how one woman’s unwavering courage helped spark a whole movement for change. #BlackHistoryMonth #StrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/8w25wETITe
Ambassador Gilad Erdan Gilad Erdan (@ giladerdan1) February 24, 2021
Erdan pointed out what may be one of the motives for the new outreach initiative, lamenting that pro-Palestinian activists are “trying to take advantage of intersectionality, [claiming] Your struggle against Israel is the same as what is happening here with black Americans, which is clearly not the reality. “
Black lawmakers have supported Israel in the past, but some are increasingly viewing the Palestinian struggle for statehood as a parallel to the US civil rights movement. In 2019, civil rights icon John Lewis voted for the right to boycott Israel, though he also said he disagreed with the BDS movement. Some Black Lives Matter activist leaders have also been linked to pro-Palestinian activism, thanks in part to a 2016 political platform by the Black Lives Movement group, which labeled Israel an “apartheid state” and claimed the country had systematically carried out “genocide” against them the Palestinians.
Erdan himself has come under fire for making comments against the Arab minority in Israel, including labeling a Bedouin school teacher killed by the police who, in his previous role as public security minister overseeing the police, was associated with the Islamic one State affiliated terrorist was killed.
During his tenure as minister, there were also several waves of protests from Israelis of Ethiopian descent accusing the police of serial discrimination and abuse. In 2019, the murder of an unarmed 19-year-old black man by an off-duty police officer sparked unrest.
Hearing the stories of slavery at the McLeod Plantation in Charleston really moved me. No one should suffer from such inhumanity anywhere, anytime. #blackhistorymonth #strongertogether pic.twitter.com/42SW0JiTq8
– Ambassador Gilad Erdan Gilad Erdan (@ giladerdan1) February 22, 2021
Erdan, however, denied allegations of discrimination.
“There is nothing to compare,” assured Erdan. “No country is perfect and it is possible that it is there even in Israel [were] Some mistakes made by police officers or the military, but we know our norms and believe in equality. “
He said he made a distinction between the broader struggle for racial justice and groups within it that support the boycott of Israel. “Of course black lives are important … and so I can definitely support and do anything to work with them,” he said.
Erdan’s tour was organized by Philos Project, a conservative pro-Israel group that aims to promote positive Christian engagement in the Middle East.
Kristina King, director of African American affairs for the Philos project, said she was moved when Erdan told her after the trip that he was “a better ambassador to the US and a better person”.
Inspiration is still in the air at Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church in #Montgomery, the pulpit where #DrKing pastored. #BlackHistoryMonth #StrongerTogether. pic.twitter.com/ordrxPBIdn
Ambassador Gilad Erdan Gilad Erdan (@ giladerdan1) February 24, 2021
“As an African American, I can only wish that more American politicians request the same trip so that we can share the history and community of African Americans with them,” she said.
“This was an extraordinary gesture on his part because he is in places many of us will never go and he will be able to speak on behalf of the African American community,” she said, reflecting a sentiment Many pro-Israel activists describe this as one of their outreach motives.
Yehuda Kurtzer, President of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. (Shalom Hartman Institute)
Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, said Erdan’s efforts to work with various groups should be welcomed.
“I can understand why someone who is deeply engrossed in the conversation about racial justice would look at this and say, ‘Well, you’re late for this party’ or ‘You’re just looking at this from a selfish perspective,’ but do just that Countries, ”he said.
King said the visit was an important step in renewing black Jewish relations, which she believed had deteriorated in the decades since the civil rights movement. She compared what she said to misunderstandings about calls by Israel to return the Golan Heights to Syria – “If you were ever to visit Israel you would understand that the Golan Heights are a high point” – with people experiencing the black Americans don’t understand.
Many of the challenges facing the black community today “come from the context of a history of slavery, Jim Crow, racism that has been codified in American law,” she said. “If you don’t have that context, then [there too] You have a big misunderstanding. “
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