[Peace-discuss] Excellent column by Cha-Jua

Sun May 27 16:47:16 UTC 2018

Yes--and the Durham NC city council recently passed a resolution
prohibiting such relationships.

On Sun, May 27, 2018 at 11:05 AM, David Enstrom <daenstrom at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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>
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