The Washington state chapter of the Women's March is closing because it can't stomach links of several national leaders to Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan, who doesn't bother to hide his anti-Semitic views.
A spokesperson for the Washington group explained:
“It’s heartbreaking. Whenever you create something that literally changed your life, it’s really hard to walk away from it,” Angie Beem, a Spokane Valley resident who served as board president of Women’s March Washington, told The Spokesman-Review late last week.
Beem said she disbanded the progressive group over its continued alliance with the Nation of Islam and its leader Louis Farrakhan, who has come under fire for many years over his comments that critics have decried as anti-Semitic.
Last year, Linda Sarsour, one of the national group’s founders, who didn’t return Fox News’ request for comment, blamed “the Jewish media” for her and Farrakhan’s controversial reputation and pushed back against any accusations of anti-Semitism.
The news outlet reported that the local group in Washington last month put out a statement denouncing anti-Semitism, transphobia and any groups supporting those prejudices.
Teresa Shook, a retired lawyer who was behind the nationwide women’s march following the election of President Trump, published a statement last month urging the current leaders of the movement to step aside.
“In opposition to our Unity Principles, they have allowed anti-Semitism, anti-LBGTQIA sentiment and hateful, racist rhetoric to become a part of the platform by their refusal to separate themselves from groups that espouse these racist, hateful beliefs,” she wrote on Facebook.
This isn't the only recent PR headache for the Women's March.
The Tablet, the respected Jewish magazine, published an explosive expose of the Women's March leadership. Charges of anti-Semitism were key, along with intricate reporting on the finances of the Women's March.