A pro-Israel Evangelical Christian lobby organization has been labelled a 'hate group' by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The group, Proclaiming Justice to The Nations (PJTN), called the Southern Poverty Law Center's move "ironic since PJTN exists to fight the world’s oldest hatred - anti-Semitism."
In a statement Wednesday, PJTN noted its efforts to encourage legislators to "act against anti-Semitism and BDS," referring to the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
"However, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) seems to believe that being pro-Israel and against anti-Semitism is now a hate crime."
In response to the listing, Laurie Cardoza-Moore, president and founder of PJTN commented: “If being pro-Israel and against anti-Semitism is now considered a hate crime, I will wear the SPLC listing as a badge of honor. Placing Proclaiming Justice to The Nations alongside bigots and Nazis minimizes the true meaning of hate. In reality, PJTN is on the front lines fighting against anti-Semitism on a daily basis. We will continue to fight hate through our thousands of PJTN Watchmen around the globe. Our answer to this absurd listing will be to open more PJTN chapters in America and fight harder to have anti-Semitism defined and confronted throughout the free world.”
Cardoza-Moore continued: “The SPLC list has become nothing short of a witch hunt against organizations that don’t share their extremist liberal worldview. Sadly, many institutions still look to the once credible SPLC for advice on hate groups. We hope that being blacklisted will not impede upon our ability to continue defending the Jewish people and Israel against global anti-Semitism. We will not be marginalized or silenced because of our support for Israel and the Jewish people. This will only strengthen our resolve to work harder. We call upon all of our supporters to write to the SPLC and demand that they immediately remove PJTN from their nefarious list before they lose any credibility they still have as a credible watchdog.”