[Peace-discuss] Excellent column by Cha-Jua

[David Green]

(Although I would question the lumping in together of black radicals and
black nationalists) - DG

Sundiata Cha-Jua/Real Talk | I still see us: African-American solidarity
with Palestine
Sun, 05/27/2018 - 7:00am | Sundiata Cha-Jua
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Do African-American radicals still support the Palestinian struggle? Alaina
Morgan, a scholar of Islam in the African Diaspora, recently posed this
question regarding black radicals' alleged silence in the face of the
Israeli slaughter of Palestinians during the "Great March of Return"
protests between the Land Day (March 30) and Al-Nakba (Day of Catastrophe,
May 15).

This alleged silence would contrast sharply with African-American radicals'
response in 2014. Then, in the wake of the Ferguson and Baltimore
uprisings, a coalition of radical black organizations issued the "When I
See Them, I See Us" video connecting the police killings of
African-Americans with the Israeli military killings of Palestinians.

Bill Fletcher Jr., a senior scholar at the Institute of Policy Studies who
led a delegation of African-American activists to occupied Palestine
compared it to being in apartheid South Africa or the pre-1965 U.S. South.
He observed, "It felt like being in a huge prison."

Silence would diverge from the history of African-American engagement with
the Palestinian question. The roots of African-American involvement with
Palestine go back to Israel's formation.

Ralph Bunche, an African-American, led the United Nations Special Committee
on Palestine, its secretariat on the Palestine Question and the
negotiations that produced the armistice between the Zionists and Arab
states.

Due to his concern for the Palestinians, Bunche opposed the establishment
of a Jewish state, failing that he worked to "restrict" Israel's
sovereignty and to protect Arab interests. A former Marxist, the then
liberal Bunche identified with both the Jews and the Arabs. Stating, "I
know the flavor of racial prejudice and racial persecution," and he added,
"A wise Negro can never be an anti-Semite." Yet, Bunche feared the fate of
the Palestinians under a partition, so he worked unsuccessfully against an
independent Israel.

By the mid-1960s, as black nationalism and radicalism became more
prominent, some African-Americans began to condemn Israel as a white
settler colony. In 1964, Malcolm X asked, "Did the Zionists have the legal
and moral right to invade Arab Palestine, uproot Arab citizens from their
homes and seize all Arab property for themselves just based on the
'religious' claim that their forefathers lived their thousands of years
ago?"

Malcolm's perspective grew exponentially after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
During the Black Power era, Bunche's attempt at an even-handed approach was
replaced among the most progressive sectors of Afro-America with strong
support for the Palestinian cause.

In part, the shift was motivated by Israel's vicious repression of the
Palestinians and its imperialist excesses during the war. In part, it was
the product of radical African-Americans accepting the United Nation's
interpretation of Zionism as a form of racism. And it was partly due to
U.S. blacks' belief that they shared a common experience of colonialism
with the Palestinians. They experienced settler colonialism and
African-Americans internal colonialism. Thus, since the 1967 Arab-Israeli
War, African-American radicals have routinely voiced solidarity with the
Palestinian struggle.

At both the 1967 Black Power Conference and the 1972 Black National
Political Convention, more than 1,000 and 5,000 delegates, respectively,
affirmed resolutions supporting the Palestinian struggle.

Huey P. Newton, leader of the Black Panther Party, best stated the black
radical position. In 1970, Newton offered a complex analysis in which he
argued, "We would like to make it clear the Black Panther Party is not
anti-Semitic ... As far as the Israeli people are concerned, we are not
against the Jewish people; we are against that government that would
persecute the Palestinian people ... we support the Palestinian's just
struggle for liberation 100 percent."

In fact, if anything, support has grown stronger as African-Americans have
learned about relationships between the Israeli military and U.S. police.
Since 2001, the Israeli military has trained thousands of U.S. police in
urban warfare. This provides a direct link between the two colonized
peoples.

Philosophically and politically, black radicals have not moved from the
Newton location.

For instance, Fletcher, a former leader of the Black Radical Congress, has
consistently defended the Palestinian struggle, including condemning the
most recent Israeli repression during "the Great March of Return." The New
Afrikan Peoples Organization, the Malcolm X Grass Roots Movement, perhaps
the leading black nationalist organizations and the Black Alliance for
Peace have all issued powerful statements condemning the Israeli massacres.
Contrary to silence, black radicals have continued to declare support for
the Palestinian liberation movement.

The problem is not silence, but that black radicals and nationalists are
marginalized from the mainstream media. Their statements are not reported,
and their leading activists are not interviewed on CNN or MSNBC. The
exclusion and marginalization of black radicals and nationalists does not
reflect their presence or influence in the African-American community.
Black radicals and nationalists greatly outnumber black conservatives. Yet,
representatives of an ideology that represents 2 to 4 percent of the black
community is routinely represented in mainstream media.

No, black radicals have not lost their voice, you just have to look hard
for their viewpoints.

*Sundiata Cha-Jua is a professor of African-American studies and history at
the University of Illinois and is a member of the North End Breakfast Club.
His email is schajua at gmail.com <schajua at gmail.com>.*
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