Black Hebrew Israelites support Kyrie Irving at the NYC march

Hundreds of members of a black Jewish Israelite group chanted “We Are the True Jews” as they descended on Brooklyn’s Barclays Center during pro-Kyrie Irving marches, videos show.

A huge line of supporters, all wearing shirts belonging to the group Israel United in Christ, were arrested on Sunday shouting “We have good news” and “We are the true Jews”. according to footage posted to social mediawhich has since gone viral.

Separate footage, also shared to social media on Monday, shows a sea of ​​purple shirts marching towards the Brooklyn Nets arena.

“Black Hebrew Israelites are out in large numbers today, chanting ‘We Are the True Jews’ and ‘Time to Wake Up’ as they marched to Barclay’s Center to support Kyrie Irving’s return,” said Ari Ingel, director of the pro-Israel organization creative community for peace, tweeted alongside the clip.

The group also distributed flyers outside the arena claiming to share the “truth about anti-Semitism,” according to the Jerusalem Post.

One of the handouts said the group’s legacy was removed “by the monstrous holocaust known as the Transatlantic Slave Trade.”

The group supported Nets point guard Irving, who was suspended after posting a link on social media to a film called “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake up Black America,” which questioned the Holocaust.

Members of Israel United in Christ also protested Barclays during Irving’s suspension, with one deacon saying: “Kyrie Irving himself understands that not only are we Semites ourselves, but it is contradictory and hypocritical to say that someone is anti-Semitic when they are Semite.” is .”

Israel United in Christ was founded in New York and now has 71 locations across the US, with claims that blacks and other colored people are the “Children of Israel” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

The group’s march appears to have coincided with Irving’s return on Sunday in a game with the Memphis Grizzlies after a brief suspension and an apology from the Hoopster.

The viral videos in Brooklyn over the weekend sparked a prompt backlash on social media, with the American Jewish Committee saying that “we the real Jews” was a “disturbing anti-Semitic expression with dangerous potential.”

“We cannot allow this racist ideology to spread and gain wider acceptance,” the group said in a statement.

“The claim that Jewish people are ‘not the true Jews’ perpetuates anti-Semitism around the world,” the statement added. “Sometimes a vocal minority with marginal beliefs dominates the conversation simply because no one speaks up.”

Flyers obtained from the Jerusalem Post and distributed by the protesters proclaimed, “You are the children of the slave trade” and said, “The prophets warned us that we would be punished as a people if we break God’s commandments.”

Another flyer quoted by the newspaper said there was a “pattern of enslavement, systemic oppression, bullying, legal manipulation and political lobbying against black people, including the silencing of black voices,” in the media.

“The biblical Israelites are being attacked day and night without rest and accused of hatred,” the flyer reads, according to the Jerusalem Post.

“Our knowledge of our heritage and our laws was systematically stolen from us by the monstrous holocaust known as the Transatlantic Slave Trade. They may lie to the world and deny us our birthright, but Jesus the Christ, our Black Messiah, affirms the truth of who we are. We are not anti-Semites, we are Semites.”

Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown retweeted video of the demonstration “Energy” in a now-deleted tweet, but later said he mistook the group for an African-American fraternity.

An NYPD spokesman said there were no record of arrests from the demonstration and could not provide an estimate of the crowd. The Post has reached out to a spokesman for the Barclays Center.