Black & Palestinian Solidarity
Photographer credits (left to right): Juan Figueroa, Adrees Latif, Palestinian Youth Movement (حركة الشباب الفلسطيني), Gabriel Khoury, Julia Wallace
1950's - 1980's Solidarity
|
My Struggle Embraces Every Struggle: Palestinians in Israel and Solidarity with Afro-Asian Liberation Movements
By: Maha Nassar Because of numerous political and ideological constraints that hindered their ability to organize sustained, large-scale and contentious collective action, Palestinian activists in Israel relied upon cultural production to express their solidarity with Afro-Asian liberation movements. |
| ||
|
To Build a New World: Black American Internationalism and Palestinian Solidarity
By: Russell Rickford For more than half a century, Black internationalists identified with Zionism, believing that the Jewish bid for a national homeland paralleled the African American freedom struggle. During the 1950s and 1960s, however, colonial aggression in the Middle East led many African American progressives to rethink the analogy. |
| ||
|
Palestinian Engagement with the Black Freedom Movement Prior to 1967
(from Journal of Palestine Studies Special Issue: Black-Palestinian Transnational Solidarity (Summer 2019, Vol. 48, No. 4) By: Maha Nassar This article examines early Palestinian engagements with multiple facets of the Black American struggle for freedom through a content analysis of influential Palestinian press outlets in Arabic prior to 1967. |
| ||
|
Black Power for Palestine
By: Michael R. Fischback The 1967 Arab-Israeli War rocketed the question of Israel and Palestine onto the front pages of American newspapers. Black Power activists saw Palestinians as a kindred people of color, waging the same struggle for freedom and justice as themselves. Soon concerns over the Arab-Israeli conflict spread across mainstream Black politics and into the heart of the Civil Rights Movement itself. Black Power and Palestine uncovers why so many African Americans—notably Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Muhammad Ali, among others—came to support the Palestinians or felt the need to respond to those who did. |
| ||
|
Zionist Logic
By: Malcolm X Malcolm X critiques the religious arguments in support of zionism and examines zionism as a colonialist enterprise. |
| ||
|
'Black Intifada': Black Arts Movement, Palestinian Poetry of Resistance, and the Roots of Black and Palestinian Solidarity
By: Nadia Alahmed This dissertation examines major manifestations of the Black Solidarity Movement and how it affected articulations of Black and Palestinian identity, internationalist ideology and discourse and vision of liberation. |
| ||
|
The Middle-East Crisis (statement)
By: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Drafted in August 1967, this statement marks SNCC’s statement in support of Palestine and opposition to Zionism. It was written after SNCC member Ethel Minor drafted an article titled "The Palestine Problem" in support of Palestine, published in SNCC's Newsletter. |
| ||
|
George Jackson in the Sun of Palestine
By: Shireen Hamza & Greg Thomas, Ottoman History Podcast George Jackson, a Black revolutionary writer, was incarcerated in California for more than a decade, until he was killed in 1971 by prison guards. Among the ninety-nine books Jackson had in his cell at the time of his death, one was "Enemy of the Sun," a collection of Palestinian resistance poetry. For four decades, the title poem of the collection has circulated in Black Panther newspapers and other venues under George Jackson's name. In this episode, Professor Greg Thomas discusses his recovery of this shared history, and the traveling exhibition that emerged from his research. The traveling exhibition is currently on display at the Abu Jihad Center’s Museum for Prisoner Movement Affairs, on the Abu Dis campus of Al Quds University. Listen to the podcast |
|
Kwame Ture’s Debate with a Zionist
Kwame Ture (previously known as Stokely Carmichael) debates a Zionist in 1973 at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). He began his activism as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). |
|
|
Apologies to All the People in Lebanon
By: June Jordan A poem dedicated to the 600,000 Palestinian men, women, and children who lived in Lebanon from 1948-1983. |
| ||
|
Moving Towards Home
By: June Jordan June Jordan wrote the poem “Moving towards Home” upon reading a quote in the New York Times shortly after the September 16-18, 1982 Phalangist/Israeli massacre of Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Shatila outside of Beirut, Lebanon. |
| ||
Present-Day Solidarity
|
How Palestinian protesters helped Black Lives Matter
By: Imani J. Jackson, USA Today Social media support from Palestinians was essential for Black Lives Matter in Ferguson, Missouri. |
| ||
|
1,000 Black Activists, Artists and Scholars Demand Justice for Palestine
By: Christopher Hazou, Ebony Magazine Over 1,000 Black activists, artists, scholars, students, and organizations have launched a statement expressing their solidarity and commitment to ensuring justice for Palestinians. Signatories to the statement span a wide cross-section of Black activists and scholars, including Angela Davis, Boots Riley, Cornel West, dream Hampton, Emory Douglas, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Pam Africa, Patrisse Cullors, Phil Hutchings, Ramona Africa, Robin DG Kelley, Rosa Clemente, Talib Kweli, and Tef Poe. |
| ||
|
2015 Black Solidarity with Palestine Statement
By: Black for Palestine في الذكرى السنوية للمجزرة الاسرائيلية في غزة التي تمت في الصيف الماضي و في السنة الثامنة و الاربعين للاحتلال الاسرائيلي لأرض فلسطين و في السنة السابعة و الستين للنكبة الفلسطينية المستمرة و التي تجسد التطهير العرقي للفلسطينيين, و في القرن الرابع من اضطهاد السود في ما تعرف اليوم بالولايات المتحدة, نقدم نحن الموقعون ادناه, من ناشطين/ات وفنانين/ات وعلماء وكتّاب ومعتقلين سياسيين سود, رسالةً لتأكيد التضامن مع النضال الفلسطيني و التزامنا بتحرير أرضِ فلسطين و شعبها. |
| ||||
|
Angela Davis & Noura Erakat on Palestinian Solidarity, Gaza, & Israel’s Killing of Ahmad Erakat
By: Democracy Now Activist and scholar Angela Davis discusses her protest of the White House Eid event and the murder of Ahmad Erekat at a checkpoint, in conversation with Ahmad’s cousin Noura Erakat |
|
|
Black and Palestinian Solidarity in the Ferguson-Gaza Era
American Quarterly, Vol. 67, No. 4, December 2015) By: Kristian Davis Bailey Protestors from Oakland to New York changed "from Ferguson to Palestine, occupation is a crime" and began to highlight connections between the two struggles. |
| ||
|
Building Unity, Wrecking Walls: Palestinians Come to Ferguson
By: #TeamEbony (Ebony Magazine) Ten Palestinian students from the Right to Education Campaign (R2E) in the West Bank visited with local organizers in the movements for Von Derrit Myers, Jr. and Mike Brown in St. Louis. |
| ||
|
Bush & Tlaib Joint Statement (press release)
By: Rep. Cori Bush & Rep. Rashida Tlaib Representatives Cori Bush (MO-01) and Rashida Tlaib (MI-12) released a joint statement on boycotting Israeli President Herzog’s joint address to Congress. |
| ||
|
Dream Defenders, Black Lives Matter, & Ferguson Reps Take Historic Trip to Palestine (magazine article)
By #TeamEbony, Ebony Magazine Representatives at the forefront of the movements for Black lives and racial justice have taken a historic trip to Palestine this week to connect with activists living under Israeli occupation. |
| ||
|
Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement
By: Angela Davis Activist Angela Davis discusses the struggle against capitalism, the global nature of liberation struggles, making systemic change, Black solidarity with Palestine, and combatting the prison-industrial complex. |
| ||
|
In Ferguson, I am Reminded of Palestine
By: Bassem Masri Bassem Masri was a Palestinian activist who was very engaged in protests in St. Louis after Mike Brown was murdered. After his death, Bassem's article was re-published by American Friends Service Committee. |
| ||
Journal of Palestine Studies Special Issue: Black-Palestinian Transnational Solidarity (Summer 2019, Vol. 48, No. 4)
|
From the Editor
By: Rashid I. Khalidi An introduction to the journal’s 2019 special issue on Black and Palestinian solidarity |
| ||
|
Black-Palestinian Transnational Solidarity: Renewals, Returns, and Practice
By: Noura Erakat and Marc Lamont Hill The authors point to the recent increase in individual and collective energies directed toward developing effective, reciprocal, and transformative political relationships within various African-descendant and Palestinian communities around the world. |
| ||
|
Troubling Idols: Black-Palestinian Solidarity in U.S. Afro-Christian Spaces
By: Taurean J. Webb The tools of the Black radical tradition, coupled with a reimagining of coalitional politics, carve out a radical Black Christian sensibility that is best equipped to speak to the devastations of military occupation and racist exclusion and forge life-giving relationships within the freedom struggles against them. |
| ||
|
From the River to the Sea to Every Mountain Top: Solidarity as Worldmaking
By: Robin D. G. Kelley This essay revisits three recent spectacular moments involving Black intellectuals advocating for Palestine—Michelle Alexander’s op-ed in the New York Times criticizing Israeli policies, CNN’s firing of Marc Lamont Hill, and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute’s initial decision to deny Angela Davis its highest honor. |
| ||
|
On Solidarity Delegations
By: Ahmad Abuznaid, Phillip Agnew, Maytha Al Hassen, Kristian Davis Bailey, and Nadya Tannous Delegations of Black revolutionary leaders to the Middle East were a prominent feature of Black-Palestinian transnational solidarity at the height of the worldwide revolt against imperial domination in the decades following World War II. This roundtable, featuring leading organizers of recent delegations, aims to reveal the ruptures and continuities of a historical legacy. *This article mentions delegations with Birzeit University students. |
| ||
|
Pan-Africanism and Zionism: The Delusion of Comparability (journal article)
By: Michael W. Williams Despite some similarities, there are a significant number of differences between Pan-Africanism and Zionism. |
| ||
|
USCPR's Black-Palestinian Solidarity Page
By: U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) Resources on Black and Palestinian Solidarity since 2014 |
|
We Know Occupation: The Long History of Black Americans’ Solidarity with Palestinians
By: Sam Klug An article for USA Today about honoring Bassem Masri, a Palestinian American activist who linked the occupation of Palestine with police occupation in Ferguson (St. Louis), Missouri. It also details Black Live Matter’s work to transform views on Palestine. |
Read online
| ||
|
Black-Palestinian Solidarity: Towards an Intersectionality of Struggles
By: Joey Ayoub The Black Palestinian Solidarity movement was born in the context of the July-August 2014 Israeli war on Gaza and the murder of Eric Garner in New York City on July the 16th 2014 and of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, on August the 9th 2014, two of the killings largely credited for launching the Black Lives Matter movement. But in order to understand the politics of Black-Palestinian Solidarity, it is important to uncover the conditions that have allowed such solidarity to take place in the first place. |
| ||
|
When I See Them, I See Us
By: Black-Palestinian Solidarity Campaign “We choose to join one another in resistance not because our struggles are the same but because we each struggle against the formidable forces of structural racism and the carceral and lethal technologies deployed to maintain them. This video intends to interrupt that process – to assert our humanity – and to stand together in an affirmation of life and a commitment to resistance. From Ferguson to Gaza, from Baltimore to Jerusalem, from Charleston to Bethlehem, we will be free.” |
|
|
Prisons, the Black Liberation Movement, and the Struggle for Palestine
By: Ahmad Sa’adat Sa’adat published the following essay in solidarity with political prisoners of the Black Liberation Movement. The essay appears as the forward to a new French edition of Huey Newton's "Revolutionary Suicide" in September 2018, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Black Panther Party. |
| ||
|
Why Black People Should Care About Palestinian Liberation
By: Marc Lamont Hill Journalist and scholar Marc Lamont Hill details the history of Black and Palestinian solidarity. |
|
|
Why Solidarity Between The Movement for Black Lives and Palestine Makes Sense
By: David Palumbo-Liu Zionist organizations worry that Black people and other oppressed groups will align themselves with Palestinians. Thus, Zionist groups argue they must frame apartheid as being about Israel’s right to exist. |
| ||
|
At the Age of 31, Ferguson Activist Bassem Masri Reportedly Died of a Heart Attack. Why?
By: Anne Branigin, The Root Bassem Masri, a Palestinian-American civil rights activist best known for his participation in and live-streaming of the Ferguson Uprising in 2014, died Tuesday morning after being found unresponsive on a bus, officials say. While the cause of death still hasn’t been confirmed, at least one outlet is reporting that Masri died of a heart attack. |
| ||
|
Palestine Solidarity Principles of Unity
By: National Jericho Movement The National Jericho Movement (in support of political prisoners) sent out these principles as a call to organizers in movements for social and political change to adopt anti-Zionist principles as part of their work. |
| ||
|
All about Shirien Damra, the artist who made those images of #BLM that broke your heart!
By: E. Nina Rothe The artwork of Shirien Damra has risen like a phoenix out of the protests in support of #BlackLivesMatter, following the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police in Minneapolis. Her beautiful illustrations appear to be today’s answer to Frida Kahlo’s activist artwork, a way to point to what’s important in our world framed by color, grace and elegance. |
| ||
|
Artwork by Shirien Damra
Public art honoring the lives of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd. More art is featured on Instagram at @shirien.creates. |
Blackness and Palestine: Racism and Solidarity from Palestine to the U.S.
By: Makan Rights
In the wake of the police’s brutal murder of George Floyd and the eruption of Black Lives Matter protests across the world, the urgent call to address global anti-black racism has reached new heights. In this talk, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill and Yasser Qous will talk about the experiences of Black Palestinians, their histories, contributions and struggles. The talk will explore the intersection of race, identity and ethnicity and the connections between Black experiences in Palestine and the US, and the ways in which anti-Blackness functions in both places. Finally, the talk will look at historic Black-Palestinian solidarity and movements for liberation, highlighting how anti-racism is essential to the fight against oppression everywhere.
By: Makan Rights
In the wake of the police’s brutal murder of George Floyd and the eruption of Black Lives Matter protests across the world, the urgent call to address global anti-black racism has reached new heights. In this talk, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill and Yasser Qous will talk about the experiences of Black Palestinians, their histories, contributions and struggles. The talk will explore the intersection of race, identity and ethnicity and the connections between Black experiences in Palestine and the US, and the ways in which anti-Blackness functions in both places. Finally, the talk will look at historic Black-Palestinian solidarity and movements for liberation, highlighting how anti-racism is essential to the fight against oppression everywhere.
|
Association of Black Anthropologists Endorses the Resolution to Boycott Israeli Academic Institutions
The Association of Black Anthropologists (ABA) hereby endorses the Resolution to Boycott Israeli Academic Institutions. In 2021, the ABA was a signatory on the AAA Middle East Section (MES)’s statement condemning the forced evictions and retaliatory violence by Israeli state forces against Palestinians. In 2023, the ABA stands once again in solidarity with Palestinian academics, against Israeli apartheid and the oppression of Palestinians. |
| ||