Dr. Benjamin Chavis: MLK would have wanted a strong Israel
Rev. Dr. Benjamin Chavis, who worked with Martin Luther King Jr., said that King would have wanted a strong Israel. Chavis spoke during a visit of 500 African-American and African pastors to Israel this week, aimed at rebuilding the Black-Jewish alliance. He called on both communities to speak out against each other's discrimination.
Civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Benjamin Chavis, who began working with Martin Luther King Jr. at age 14, said that if Dr. King were alive today, he would advocate for a strong Israel as key to a democratic Middle East. Chavis made the remarks during a visit of 500 African-American and African pastors to Israel this week, aimed at fulfilling King's unrealized vision of bringing Black leaders to the country and rebuilding the Black-Jewish alliance. Chavis attributed the downturn in ties between the communities to the deaths of the leaders who brought them together in the 1960s, and stressed that the civil rights movement would not have been effective without Jewish support. He called on both groups to speak out more against each other's discrimination, saying 'Blacks and Jews are stronger together than separate and apart.' The article notes that King planned to bring Black pastors to Israel in 1967 and 1968, but those visits were derailed by the Six-Day War and his assassination.