Shaun King is an American writer and civil rights activist who uses social media to promote social justice causes, including BLM and – naturally – bashing Israel.
Because there is no social justice cause quite like the trendy “rag on the Jewish state” one.
For instance, he seems to defend palestinian Arab ‘resistance’:
and, at the same time, condemns Israel for defending herself, while buying in to the false palestinian Arab narrative:
Yesterday, King tweeted the following in response to news of Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and promise to allow free speech on the platform:
88-year-old Holocaust survivor Lucy Lipiner responded by (in my opinion rightly) accusing King of using Jews to politicize the issue:
When accused of conflating issues, Lucy pointed to this article about King:
The article accused King of double standards when it comes to Jews:
Shaun King is an example of a very public failure to live up to anti-oppression values in the social justice movement. When Jewish-Americans expressed anger that King’s friend, Tamika Mallory, attended events and partnered with Louis Farrakhan, his response was deeply inappropriate. He accused Jews who were angered by her behavior of being liars. When he was gently called in by Jewish supporters who expressed both admiration and disappointment, he said he “would not allow” Tamika Mallory to be accused of anti-Semitism. When Jewish musician Regina Spektor, who performed at the Women’s March in L.A. and had supported King’s efforts in the past, expressed her frustration and pain at the situation, he blocked her. He then proceeded to show us the kinder, gentler side of the Nation of Islam by tweeting pictures of Farrakhan hugging a young man who says he saved his life.
Shaun King should have stopped and listened to Jewish voices, instead of trying to use his enormous platform to try and shut us up.
Then this happened:
Understandably, people were incensed. Not only did this so-called civil rights activist block a Holocaust survivor, but he did so right before Holocaust Remembrance Day!
But it did not end there:
Looking at these messages, I do not believe King mentioned his attorneys in a threat to sue (Lucy seems to have misinterpreted him here). Update: See below, I was probably wrong here. But I do not believe him when he claims he did not block her. Lucy has no reason to lie about the blocking itself, so unless King “accidentally” clicked block, his denial makes no sense.
But he does not even claim it was an accident; he claims it never happened.
I simply don’t believe him; remember what the above Tablet article reported:
When Jewish musician Regina Spektor, who performed at the Women’s March in L.A. and had supported King’s efforts in the past, expressed her frustration and pain at the situation, he blocked her.
It seems King has a history of being trigger happy with the block button when questioned about his not-so-stellar record on combating antisemitism.
And let’s face it. Israel is full of Holocaust survivors, yet King denies them the right to live in peace and security. When Hamas and others “take up arms…and take any measure possible to defend [their] literal home & homeland from violent occupying forces & invaders” (King’s words, not mine), they are putting the lives of all innocent Israelis – including Holocaust survivors – at risk.
In fact, Holocaust survivors have been murdered this way – like 91-year-old Naomi Perlman last year:
A 91-year-old Holocaust survivor died nine months after she was wounded by shrapnel from a Gaza-launched rocket during the escalation between Israel and Hamas.
Naomi Perlman lived in Ashkelon in southern Israel.
Sorry Shaun, I’m not feeling the respect and reverence for Holocaust survivors.
So this is what I believe really happened here: King reacted impulsively to a tweet he did not like. And then, after the ensuing backlash from his callous actions, he unblocked Lucy and denied it had ever happened.
And this Holocaust survivor, who escaped being gassed, was now being gaslit.
Shaun King, you should be utterly ashamed of yourself.
Update: I have been contacted by some people who believe King was threatening Lucy by mentioning his attorneys because he has a history of threatening to sue people. I was not aware of this history.
It was also pointed out to me that when he wrote he reported Lucy’s account to Twitter safety because he believes that her account was hacked or someone else was using it, this was another way of saying that he is reporting her and to his followers so they mass report her account “for her own safety.” And his followers did echo this, meaning it likely was mass reported in retaliation.
Update: Another thing to consider, which makes the mention of attorneys really look like a threat: Lucy only tweeted about King’s direct messages to her after he was getting grilled for gaslighting her when he publicly claimed that it didn’t happen. So it seems he only then took the gaslighting to her DMS and began mentioning attorneys. Which is apparently his MO when he gets called out in public by someone.
