[Peace-discuss] Excellent column by Cha-Jua

Sun May 27 16:05:55 UTC 2018

Thanks, David.  I was not aware of the police exchange (as well as other
points).

https://theintercept.com/2017/09/15/police-israel-cops-training-adl-human-rights-abuses-dc-washington/

On Sun, May 27, 2018 at 10:46 AM, David Green via Peace-discuss <
peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:

> (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
> <http://www.news-gazette.com/author/sundiata-cha-jua>
>
> <https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/columns/2018-05-27/sundiata-cha-juareal-talk-i-still-see-us-african-american-solidarity-with>
> <https://twitter.com/share?url=http://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/columns/2018-05-27/sundiata-cha-juareal-talk-i-still-see-us-african-american-solidarity-with&text=Sundiata+Cha-Jua%2FReal+Talk+%7C+I+still+see+us%3A+African-American+solidarity+with+Palestine>
>
> 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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