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class="header"> <b><small><small><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinian-liberation-key-matter-our-time-say-black-leaders/14783"
id="reader-domain" class="domain"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinian-liberation-key-matter-our-time-say-black-leaders/14783">https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinian-liberation-key-matter-our-time-say-black-leaders/14783</a></a></small></small></b>
<h1 id="reader-title">Palestinian liberation is “key matter of
our time,” say Black leaders</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">Tess Scheflan<br>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single" property="dc:date"
datatype="xsd:dateTime"
content="2015-08-18T20:51:00+00:00">8 August 2015</span></span><br>
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<p><em>More than 1,000 Black activists, artists, scholars,
students and organizations have released this
statement reaffirming their “solidarity with the
Palestinian struggle and commitment to the liberation
of Palestine’s land and people.”</em></p>
<p><em>The list of signatories includes scholar-activists
<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/angela-davis">Angela
Davis</a> and <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/cornel-west">Cornel
West</a>, political prisoners Mumia Abu-Jamal and
Sundiata Acoli, rappers <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/talib-kweli">Talib
Kweli</a>, Boots Riley and <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/jasiri-x">Jasiri
X</a> and Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse
Cullors. Forty 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 <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/trayvon-martin">Trayvon
Martin</a> and <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/michael-brown">Michael
Brown</a>, respectively, as well as the 35-year-old
Organization for Black Struggle in St. Louis.</em></p>
<p><em>This statement was originally published at <a
href="http://www.blackforpalestine.com">blackforpalestine.com</a> and
also appears in </em><a
href="http://www.ebony.com/news-views/1000-black-activists-artists-and-scholars-demand-justice-for-palestine-403#axzz3jCGknK1O">Ebony</a><em>.
You can also read this statement <a
href="http://www.blackforpalestine.com/arabic-version-1593158515761610.html">in
Arabic</a>.</em></p>
<p>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 <a
href="http://imeu.org/article/50-days-of-death-destruction-israels-operation-protective-edge">brutal
war on Gaza</a> and chokehold on the West Bank –
strengthened resilience and joint struggle have emerged
between our movements. Palestinians on Twitter were <a
href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/palestinians-and-ferguson-protesters-link-arms-via-social-media">among
the first</a> to provide international support for
protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, where St. Louis-based
Palestinians <a
href="http://www.merip.org/ferguson-palestine">gave
support on the ground</a>.</p>
<p>Last November, a delegation of <a
href="http://www.ebony.com/news-views/building-unity-wrecking-walls-palestinians-come-to-ferguson-032">Palestinian
students visited Black organizers in St. Louis</a>,
Atlanta, Detroit and more, just months before the Dream
Defenders took representatives of Black Lives Matter,
Ferguson, and other racial justice groups <a
href="http://www.ebony.com/news-views/dream-defenders-black-lives-matter-ferguson-reps-take-historic-trip-to-palestine">to
Palestine</a>. Throughout the year, Palestinians sent
multiple letters of solidarity to us throughout protests
in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rana-baker/palestinians-express-solidarity-people-ferguson-mike-brown-statement">Ferguson</a>,
<a
href="http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/12/05/palestinians-show-solidarity-with-americans-over-eric-garner-injustice-images/">New
York</a> and <a
href="http://palsolidarity.org/2015/05/solidarity-from-palestine-to-baltimore/">Baltimore</a>.
We offer this statement to continue the conversation
between our movements:</p>
<p>On the anniversary of last summer’s Gaza massacre, in
the 48th year of Israeli occupation, the 67th year of
Palestinians’ <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/05/palestinians-testify-ongoing-nakba-201451561986950.html">ongoing
Nakba</a> (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.</p>
<p>We can neither forgive nor forget last summer’s
violence. We remain outraged at the brutality Israel
unleashed on Gaza through its <a
href="http://blog.amnestyusa.org/middle-east/gaza-blockade-still-operational-still-violating-human-rights/">siege
by land, sea and air</a>, and three military
offensives in six years.</p>
<p>We remain sickened by Israel’s targeting of <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/28/israel-policy-targeting-gaza-homes-human-rights">homes</a>,
<a
href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/09/11/israel-depth-look-gaza-school-attacks">schools</a>,
<a
href="http://news.yahoo.com/israel-responsible-gaza-shelter-attacks-un-165235408.html">UN
shelters</a>, <a
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/13813-one-third-of-gazas-mosques-destroyed-by-israeli-strikes">mosques</a>,
<a href="http://www.haaretz.com/beta/.premium-1.638179">ambulances</a>,
<a
href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2014/08/mounting-evidence-deliberate-attacks-gaza-health-workers-israeli-army/">and
hospitals</a>.</p>
<p>We remain heartbroken and repulsed by the <a
href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/gaza/11056976/The-children-killed-in-Gaza-during-50-days-of-conflict.html">number
of children Israel killed</a> in an operation it
called “defensive.”</p>
<p>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 <a
href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/04/25/gaza-homeless-eight-months-after-war-with-israel/26122249/">100,000
people still homeless in Gaza</a>, the massacre’s
effects continue to devastate Gaza today and will for
years to come.</p>
<p>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, <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/12/are-not-citizens-with-equal-rights-201412214135428310.html">within
Israel’s 1948 borders</a>, and into neighboring
countries. The Israeli occupation forces <a
href="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2015/0801/Palestinian-teenager-killed-while-protesting-toddler-s-death-in-West-Bank-video">continue
to kill protesters</a> – including children – conduct
<a
href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israeli-soldiers-raid-homes-question-kids-young-9-n322706">night
raids on civilians</a>, hold hundreds of people <a
href="http://www.btselem.org/topic/administrative_detention">under
indefinite detention</a> and <a
href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/1/24/un-israel.html">demolish
homes</a> while expanding illegal <a
href="http://www.btselem.org/topic/settlements">Jewish-only
settlements</a>.</p>
<p>Israeli politicians, <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/03/17/on-israeli-election-day-netanyahu-warns-of-arabs-voting-in-droves/">including
Benjamin Netanyahu</a>, incite against Palestinian
citizens within Israel’s recognized borders, where <a
href="http://www.adalah.org/en/law/index">over 50 laws
discriminate against non-Jewish people</a>.</p>
<p>Our support extends to those living under occupation
and siege, Palestinian citizens of Israel and the <a
href="https://afsc.org/resource/palestinian-refugees-and-right-return">7
million Palestinian refugees</a> 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.</p>
<p>Palestinian liberation represents an inherent threat to
Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid, an apparatus
built and sustained on <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2015/05/ethnic-cleansing-palestine-150514130231067.html">ethnic
cleansing</a>, 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.</p>
<p>Israel’s widespread use of detention and <a
href="http://www.btselem.org/statistics/detainees_and_prisoners">imprisonment
against Palestinians</a> evokes the <a
href="http://www.naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet">mass
incarceration of Black people</a> in the US, including
the <a
href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/32043-beyond-innocence-america-s-political-prisoners-and-the-fight-against-mass-incarceration">political
imprisonment</a> of our own revolutionaries.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="http://www.ebony.com/news-views/the-fergusonpalestine-connection-403">train
side-by-side</a>.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>We recognize the racism that characterizes Israel’s
treatment of Palestinians is also directed against
others in the region, including intolerance, <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/05/israel-ethiopian-jews-rally-police-brutality-150503155817247.html">police
brutality</a> and <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPxv4Aff3IA">violence
against Israel’s African population</a>. Israeli
officials call asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea “<a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/20/israel-netanyahu-african-immigrants-jewish">infiltrators</a>”
and <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/toughening-its-stance-toward-migrants-israel-pushes-africans-to-leave/2015/05/14/e1637bce-f350-11e4-bca5-21b51bbdf93e_story.html">detain
them in the desert</a>, while the state has <a
href="http://www.salon.com/2013/01/28/israel_admits_ethiopian_jewish_immigrants_were_given_birth_control_shots/">sterilized
Ethiopian Israelis</a> without their knowledge or
consent. These issues call for unified action against
anti-Blackness, white supremacy and Zionism.</p>
<p>We know Israel’s violence toward Palestinians would be
impossible without the US defending Israel on the world
stage and funding its violence with <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/17/world/middleeast/17israel.html">over
$3 billion annually</a>. We call on the US government
to end economic and diplomatic aid to Israel. We
wholeheartedly endorse Palestinian civil society’s 2005
call for <a href="http://www.bdsmovement.net/bdsintro">boycott,
divestment and sanctions (BDS)</a> 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.</p>
<p><a
href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/55dccdf1c3de42f2a996d422e8ca2b75/boycott-israel-drive-gains-strength-raising-alarm">As
the BDS movement grows</a>, we offer G4S, the world’s
largest private security company, as a <a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/23/us/columbia-university-prison-divest/">target
for further joint struggle</a>.</p>
<p>G4S harms thousands of Palestinian political prisoners
<a
href="http://www.palestinecampaign.org/campaign/prisoners/">illegally
held in Israel</a> and hundreds of Black and brown <a
href="http://www.djj.state.fl.us/programs-facilities/residential-facilities">youth
held in its privatized juvenile prisons</a> in the US.
The corporation profits from incarceration and
deportation from the US and Palestine, <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/22/g4s-convictions-deaths-employees-racial-overtones">to
the UK</a>, <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/13/south-african-prisoners-sue-g4s-over-torture-claims">South
Africa</a> and <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/23/manus-security-firm-g4s-responsible-for-february-violence-says-law-centre">Australia</a>.
We reject notions of “security” that make any of our
groups unsafe and insist no one is free until all of us
are.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Towards liberation,</p>
<p><a
href="http://www.blackforpalestine.com/view-the-signatories.html">View
the list of signatories</a></p>
<br>
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