[Peace-discuss] 1, 000+ Black Activists, Scholars & Artists Support Palestinians

[David Johnson]

1,000+ Black Activists, Scholars & Artists Support Palestinians

Description: A stack of signs from the Palestine Contingent to Ferguson
October. Photos of a Palestine2Ferguson sign at the main march during
Ferguson October. (Photo by Christopher Hazou) - See more at:
http://mondoweiss.net/2015/08/activists-supporting-palestinian#sthash.mm9lv7
0m.dpuf

 <https://www.popularresistance.org/category/organize/> Organize!
<https://www.popularresistance.org/tag/black-power/> Black Power,
<https://www.popularresistance.org/tag/palestine/> Palestine,
<https://www.popularresistance.org/tag/solidarity/> Solidarity 
By Various,
<http://mondoweiss.net/2015/08/activists-supporting-palestinian>
www.mondoweiss.com
August 19th, 2015

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A stack of signs from the Palestine Contingent to Ferguson October. Photos
of a Palestine2Ferguson sign at the main march during Ferguson October.
(Photo by Christopher Hazou)

Over 1,000 Black activists, artists, scholars, students, and organizations
have
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-p/>
released a statement reaffirming their "solidarity with the Palestinian
struggle and commitment to the liberation of Palestine's land and people."
The list of signatories includes scholar-activists Angela Davis and Cornel
West, political prisoners Mumia Abu-Jamal and Sundiata Acoli, rappers Talib
Kweli, Boots Riley and Jasiri X, and Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse
Cullors. 40 organizations signed, including the Florida-based Dream
Defenders and St. Louis-based Hands Up United and Tribe X, which were
founded after the killings of Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown, respectively,
as well as the 35-year-old Organization for Black Struggle in St. Louis.

The statement debuted Tuesday afternoon
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-x/>
on the website of Ebony, the largest Black publication in the US.

"We urge people of conscience to recognize the struggle for Palestinian
liberation as a key matter of our time," the statement asserts. It also
calls on the US government to end diplomatic and economic aid to Israel, for
Black and US institutions to support the Palestinian call for Boycott,
Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with its
obligations under international law, and for supporters of Black and
Palestinian liberation to target private security company G4S for boycotts
and divestment.

Over the past 15 months, the
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-m/>
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-c/>
United Methodist Church,
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-q/>
United Church of Christ, and
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-a/>
Columbia University have all divested from G4S following pressure from Black
and Palestinian human rights activists.

"G4S harms thousands of Palestinian political prisoners illegally held in
Israel and hundreds of Black and brown youth held in its privatized juvenile
prisons in the US," the statement reads."The corporation profits from
incarceration and deportation from the US and Palestine, to the UK, South
Africa, and Australia. We reject notions of 'security' that make any of our
groups unsafe and insist no one is free until all of us are."

The statement represents a bridge between the current generation of Black
activists and those who participated in the movements of the 1960s and 70s.
Other signatories include the Black Panther Party's Minister of Culture
Emory Douglas, former SNCC chairman Phil Hutchings, as well as Kwame Somburu
and Emeritus Professor Charles E. Simmons. Hutchings, Somburu and Simmons
were all signatories of a 1970 ad in The New York Times of Black activists
and scholars in support of the Palestinian struggle against Zionism and the
occupation.

Over 330 current students signed, including Black or Afrikan Student Unions
at Columbia, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Yale, and the Stanford NAACP Executive
Committee. 150 scholars and 220 artists signed the statement as well. People
have signed onto the statement from 25 different countries, 37 U.S. states,
and the District of Columbia. Ten current political prisoners signed the
statement, including Mumia Abu-Jamal, Sundiata Acoli, Kevin "Rashid"
Johnson, Ayyub Abdul-Alim, and Shaylanna Luvme.

The statement comes in the wake of a year of high-profile  expressions of
solidarity between Black and Palestinian people that began last summer with
the simultaneous unfolding of Israel's killing of 2,200 people in Gaza and
the uprising in Ferguson, Missouri following the police killing of Mike
Brown.

Since last August,
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-f/>
a delegation of Palestinian students has visited Black organizers in St.
Louis, Detroit, and Florida among other locations. The Florida-based group
Dream Defenders voted to
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-z/>
unanimously endorse the BDS movement at its December congress, just weeks
before bringing a delegation of activists from Florida, Ferguson, and Black
Lives Matter to Palestine.

"We're at a crucial moment in the global struggle against racism, in which
the Black and Palestinian struggles play a crucial role," said statement
co-organizer Kristian Davis Bailey. "We wish to send a loud and clear
message to Palestinians, as well as the governments of the US and Israel
that now is the time for Palestinian liberation, just as now is the time for
our own in the United States."

Statement co-organizer Khury Petersen-Smith said that justice for
Palestinians is not simply limited to ending the occupation of the West Bank
and Gaza Strip.

"The foundation of the Israeli state came through the ethnic cleansing of
Palestinians, and every day since has involved oppression and violence
toward the Palestinian population, both within and outside of Israel's
recognized borders," Petersen-Smith said.  "While there are differences
between Israel and the US, we see parallels with a country that was founded
on the enslavement of Black people and where anti-Black racism remains at
the heart of US society centuries later."

Bailey said he hopes the statement reaches widely within Palestinian society
and encourages more constant interaction between the two movements: "Now is
the time for us to re-educate our communities about the struggles the other
group faces. Now is the time for us to unite across borders. Together we
will achieve our liberation."

Visit
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-v/>
www.blackforpalestine.com for the full list of signatories and more
information. You can also follow the statement on
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-e/>
Facebook and
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-s/>
Twitter.

###

 
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-g/>
Black Solidarity Statement with Palestine

The past year has been one of high-profile growth for Black-Palestinian
solidarity. Out of the terror directed against us-from numerous attacks on
Black life to Israel's
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-w/>
brutal war on Gaza and chokehold on the West Bank-strengthened resilience
and joint-struggle have emerged between our movements. Palestinians on
Twitter were
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-yd/
> among the first to provide international support for protesters in
Ferguson, where St. Louis-based Palestinians gave
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-yh/
> support on the ground. Last November, a delegation of Palestinian students
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-yk/
> visited Black organizers in St. Louis, Atlanta, Detroit and many other
cities, just months before the Dream Defenders took representatives of Black
Lives Matter, Ferguson, and other racial justice groups
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-yu/
> to Palestine. Throughout the year, Palestinians sent multiple letters of
solidarity to us throughout protests in
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-jl/
>  Ferguson,
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-jr/
> New York, and
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-jy/
> Baltimore. We offer this statement to continue the conversation between
our movements:

On the anniversary of last summer's Gaza massacre, in the 48th year of
Israeli occupation, the 67th year of Palestinians' ongoing Nakba (the Arabic
word for Israel's ethnic cleansing)-and in the fourth century of Black
oppression in the present-day United States-we, the undersigned Black
activists, artists, scholars, writers, and political prisoners offer this
letter of reaffirmed solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and commitment
to the liberation of Palestine's land and people.

We can neither forgive nor forget last summer's violence. We remain outraged
at the brutality Israel unleashed on Gaza through its
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-jj/
> siege by land, sea and air, and three military offensives in six years. We
remain sickened by Israel's targeting of
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-jt/
> homes,
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-ji/
> schools,
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-jd/
> UN shelters,
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-jh/
> mosques,
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-jk/
> ambulances,
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-ju/
> and hospitals. We remain heartbroken and repulsed by the
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-tl/
> number of children Israel killed in an operation it called "defensive." We
reject Israel's framing of itself as a victim. Anyone who takes an honest
look at the destruction to life and property in Gaza can see Israel
committed a one-sided slaughter. With
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-tr/
> 100,000 people still homeless in Gaza, the massacre's effects continue to
devastate Gaza today and will for years to come.

Israel's injustice and cruelty toward Palestinians is not limited to Gaza
and its problem is not with any particular Palestinian party. The oppression
of Palestinians extends throughout the occupied territories,
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-ty/
> within Israel's 1948 borders, and into neighboring countries. The Israeli
Occupation Forces
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-tj/
> continue to kill protesters-including children-
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-tt/
> conduct night raids on civilians, hold hundreds of people
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-ti/
> under indefinite detention, and
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-td/
> demolish homes while expanding illegal
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-th/
> Jewish-only settlements. Israeli politicians,
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-tk/
> including Benjamin Netanyahu, incite against Palestinian citizens within
Israel's recognized borders, where
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-tu/
> over 50 laws discriminate against non-Jewish people.

Our support extends to those living under occupation and siege, Palestinian
citizens of Israel, and the
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-il/
>  7 million Palestinian refugees exiled in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and
Palestine. The refugees' right to return to their homeland in present-day
Israel is the most important aspect of justice for Palestinians.

Palestinian liberation represents an inherent threat to Israeli settler
colonialism and apartheid, an apparatus built and sustained on
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-ir/
> ethnic cleansing, land theft, and the denial of Palestinian humanity and
sovereignty. While we acknowledge that the apartheid configuration in
Israel/Palestine is unique from the United States (and South Africa), we
continue to see connections between the situation of Palestinians and Black
people.

Israel's widespread use of detention and
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-iy/
> imprisonment against Palestinians evokes the
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-ij/
>  mass incarceration of Black people in the US, including the
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-it/
> political imprisonment of our own revolutionaries. Soldiers, police, and
courts justify lethal force against us and our children who pose no imminent
threat. And while the US and Israel would continue to oppress us without
collaborating with each other, we have witnessed police and soldiers from
the two countries
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-ii/
> train side-by-side.

US and Israeli officials and media criminalize our existence, portray
violence against us as "isolated incidents," and call our resistance
"illegitimate" or "terrorism." These narratives ignore decades and centuries
of anti-Palestinian and anti-Black violence that have always been at the
core of Israel and the US. We recognize the racism that characterizes
Israel's treatment of Palestinians is also directed against others in the
region, including intolerance,
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-id/
> police brutality, and
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-ih/
> violence against Israel's African population. Israeli officials call
asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea "
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-ik/
> infiltrators" and
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-iu/
> detain them in the desert, while the state has
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-dl/
> sterilized Ethiopian Israeliswithout their knowledge or consent. These
issues call for unified action against anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and
Zionism.

We know Israel's violence toward Palestinians would be impossible without
the US defending Israel on the world stage and funding its violence with
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-dr/
> over $3 billion annually. We call on the US government to end economic and
diplomatic aid to Israel. We wholeheartedly endorse Palestinian civil
society's 2005 call for
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-dy/
> Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and call on Black
and US institutions and organizations to do the same. We urge people of
conscience to recognize the struggle for Palestinian liberation as a key
matter of our time.

 
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-dj/
> As the BDS movement grows, we offer G4S, the world's largest private
security company, as a
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-dt/
> target for further joint struggle. G4S harms thousands of
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-di/
> Palestinian political prisoners illegally held in Israel and hundreds of
Black and brown
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-dd/
> youth held in its privatized juvenile prisons in the US. The corporation
profits from incarceration and deportation from the US and Palestine,
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-dh/
> to the UK,
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-dk/
> South Africa, and
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-du/
> Australia. We reject notions of "security" that make any of our groups
unsafe and insist no one is free until all of us are.

We offer this statement first and foremost to Palestinians, whose suffering
does not go unnoticed and whose resistance and resilience under racism and
colonialism inspires us. It is to Palestinians, as well as the Israeli and
US governments, that we declare our commitment to working through cultural,
economic, and political means to ensure Palestinian liberation at the same
time as we work towards our own. We encourage activists to use this
statement to advance solidarity with Palestine and we also pressure our own
Black political figures to finally take action on this issue. As we continue
these transnational conversations and interactions, we aim to sharpen our
practice of joint struggle against capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, and
the various racisms embedded in and around our societies.

Towards liberation,

(View list of signatories
<http://blacksolidaritywithpalestine.cmail1.com/t/r-l-fjdykid-dyhrhyijuj-hl/
> here.)

 

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