Amazon plans to continue offering for sale a movie roundly thought to be antisemitic, despite a pressure campaign to take it down. The documentary "Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America" argues that blacks are the real descendants of Abraham, and that the people we know as Jews today are interlopers who are trying to steal God's blessing. While there's not a hint of truth to that claim, NBA star Kyrie Irving tweeted out an Amazon link to the film – and that why it's in the news and groups are putting pressure on Amazon to remove it from their inventory.
Jan Markell is founder and president of Olive Tree Ministries in Minnesota. Markel tells AFN that antisemitism, sadly, is in vogue once again. "Well, I think it's in keeping with the new mood of antisemitism that is sweeping the Western world," she shares. "I mean, I've never seen anything like it."
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy argued last week the company has to "allow access to those viewpoints, even if they are objectionable and they differ from our particular viewpoints." Jassy added he would draw the line at content that "actively incites or promotes violence or teaches people to do things like pedophilia."
Markell contends that stand is a little too late. "Now we're seeing, I think in the last ten years, a swelling of anti-true sentiment that is just staggering. You can't walk safely down the streets of New York City dressed as a Jew anymore," she laments.
The ministry leader explains that the Bible predicts the kind of antisemitism being witnessed today. "Is Satan just stirring something up because the hour is late?" she wonders. "I don't know what all of a sudden this even means, except there's always got to be somebody to hate."
She adds that according to the Bible, that hatred and persecution will come against the Jews and the Christians. "[Those are] the people of the book," she concludes.
According to the New York Post, since the controversy has erupted, the film has become the top-selling documentary on Prime Video.
