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Congress Must Affirm the Right to Boycott for Palestinian Rights

7/17/2019

 
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In a time of right-wing attacks on human rights and marginalized populations, we call on members of Congress to protect the right to boycott, and to cease demonizing the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights. 

We specifically call on the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus to honor the legacies they claim to represent - by vocally opposing anti-BDS legislation.

The CBC championed boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa at a time when the Reagan administration opposed these measures and promoted “constructive engagement.” Thirty years later, the CBC is being asked by the Trump administration to oppose these same measures against the apartheid regime in Israel. The CBC should not fall on the same side as Reagan and Trump.

There is nothing progressive about targeting a human rights movement for condemnation or governmental retaliation
for exercising our constitutionally protected right to boycott - one of the most celebrated nonviolent tactics of protest. Black people from Montgomery to Johannesburg have all relied on boycotts to exert pressure on racist and unjust power structures. Palestinians absolutely have the right to do the same.

We are heartened to see the resolution affirming the right to boycott introduced this week by Reps. Ilhan Omar, John Lewis, and Rashida Tlaib. We need more politicians to support this measure. ​

So as progressive people and Black people, we make four specific calls to our representatives:

1) Co-sponsor and endorse H.Res 496 "Affirming that all Americans have the right to participate in boycotts in pursuit of civil and human rights at home and abroad, as protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution." (H.Res. 496)

2) Vote against both pieces of anti-boycott legislation: H. Res. 246 (Opposing the Global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement targeting Israel) and H.R. 336 (Combating BDS Act of 2019)

3) Support the “Promoting Human Rights for Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act​” (H.R. 2407) sponsored by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN)

​4) Join the Congressional delegation to the West Bank for the purposes of seeing firsthand the conditions of Israel’s military occupation

Ultimately, we call on Congress to debate and enact policy that ends military aid to Israel and sanctions Israel until it complies with its human rights obligations under international law.

The issue of Palestinian rights, Israel’s occupation, human rights and other international law violations will not go away. Voting to condemn, censor, or punish this legitimate movement will not eliminate these issues. Congress can punt the ball to delay conversation for a while, but the ball will eventually return to your side of the field. 
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We are part of a growing movement that will ensure that debate and action on these topics reaches Congress one way or another. The only way to permanently remove this topic from Congress is to ensure full respect for human rights and international law.


Take Action:
Encourage your representatives to cosponsor the pro-boycott resolution here. 

H.Res. 246 against the BDS movement just passed committee today. Write Nancy Pelosi here and tell her not to bring the bill to the House floor. Call the Speaker's office here: 
(202) 225-0100

Contact the CBC and CPC below:
CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS
Black.Caucus@mail.house.gov


CBC Chair: Rep. Karen Bass

(202) 225-7084

CBC Vice Chairs
Rep. Joyce Beatty:
(202) 225-4324
Rep. Brenda Lawrence: (202) 225-5802
CONGRESSIONAL PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS

​Executive Director:
 
Michael.Darner@mail.house.gov

Co-Chairs
Rep. Mark Pocan: 
(202) 225-2906
Rep. Pramila Jayapal: 
(202) 225-3106

​Thinking of Gaza and Detroit

4/20/2019

 
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Photos from a joint protest for Detroit and Gaza in 2014. ​
by Kwasi A.
When i think of Palestine, Gaza is among the first things that come to mind.  The reason is, it shares several similarities with my city, Detroit.

Both Gaza and Detroit are approximately 140 square miles.  There are 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza. Known as the world's largest open air prison, residents suffer a unique oppression as they are blocked in by Egypt on the south, the Mediterranean Sea on the west, and Israeli-occupied Palestine on its northern and eastern borders. There is only one commercial road into Gaza, where essential goods are allowed to enter, and which is guarded by heavily armed Israeli military forces. It is the discretion of the Israelis whether or not goods are allowed to reach a desperate Palestinian population.

Although Detroit's population of less than 700,000 residents is less than half of Gaza's, i often imagine what life would be like if Detroiters — 85% of whom are New Afrikan (black)  — were blocked in: unable to leave by feet, car, boat or plane. Trapped in an urban space, with little resources, and an unemployment rate of a whopping 50%  — the World Bank declared Gaza to have the highest in the world.

Like Detroit, Gaza suffers major issues with basic services, such as access to water. In Detroit, nearly 50,000 of the poorest households have had municipal water service cut off for an inability to pay water bill. When the United Nations visited Detroit in 2014, they recommended that the water services be restored if city didn’t want to be in violation of basic human rights.
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Even still, Gaza faces far more severe issues with water. An estimated 90 percent of Gaza residents lack access to clean and safe drinking water. Add to this, Gaza's extremely limited access to electricity which is available for a limited number of hours per day. i imagine the impact on hospitals, which need both clean water and electricity to service the health concerns of a population suffering staggering levels of distress.

There is much more that links Detroit to Palestine. While it is rarely spoken of in these terms, but Detroit is a city of black refugees. Euphemisms are used often to sanitize the history and stunt the resistance of New Afrikan people. Detroit's New Afrikan population arrived in waves from the southern states in America. The southern states are where millions of Afrikans, victims of a pernicious state-sanctioned system of international human trafficking, were brutally subjected for 246 continuous years to chattel slavery.

When freed in 1865, New Afrikans — who developed a new identity and culture in the course of our long struggle against white supremacist domination, distinct from both the continental Afrikans from whom We descend and the Americans who oppressed them — ventured to create a new life for themselves in the southern states. Land grants were issued and then reneged upon, and white supremacy reascended with great force and intensity. In turn,  New Afrikans were subjected to a neo-slavery existence via publicly-sanctioned lynchings, Black Codes (racist laws), tenant farming, false imprisonment and forced to work on chain gangs, and a form of humiliating and life-threatening subservience to white authority. White supremacist organizations sprouted up across the southern states, determined to restore as much of the lifestyle that Americans (whites) enjoyed under slavery.

In response, many New Afrikans fled the south, the land where their blood, sweat and tears fertilized the soil, where for 246 years they buried their loved ones. Millions left the land known as the Black Belt due to the majority black population across the former slave states, and headed north and west as refugees.

Similarly, some 7.2 million Palestinians are scattered around the globe as refugees from their homeland. i had the pleasure to meet some of these refugees during a visit to Lebanon in March 2018. The enduring courage and steadfastness of the refugees at camps in Tripoli and Beirut speaks volumes to the humanity and righteousness of the Palestinian cause as they face mounting hardships, especially as the United States contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which allocates dedicated and desperately needed services and resources to more than five million Palestinians, has been abruptly cut.

Since 1948 — known as the Nakba, the "Catastrophe"  — many Palestinians fled their homeland due to life-threatening risks and hardships caused by the war of Israeli occupation, and are unable to return to their homeland. In Gaza, an estimated 70 percent of the population are refugees from other areas of occupied Palestine. Hence, the Great March of Return, which i have followed intensely since it was launched in Gaza in March 2018.

i deeply empathize and draw inspiration from the Palestinian people who courageously protest dire living conditions through nonviolent but determined protest at the border fence to Israeli-occupied Palestine. In the past year, thousands of grassroots Palestinians of all ages and genders have participated in the weekly Friday protest. And to be clear, though the Palestinians have exercised nonviolence, they have suffered continued casualties from Israeli military, who have used drones to drop tear gas on the protesters, and live gunfire resulting in over 250 Palestinians killed and over 28,000, including women and children.

Detroit and Gaza has many similarities, but the fact is that my city isn't an open air prison, and black Detroiters with a desire to return to the black belt south are presently free to do so (many New Afrikans refer to this as our national territory, and i plan to return here very soon).

Palestinians do not enjoy this privilege, and ultimately, that is all the Great March of Return is about: the freedom to return to their homeland without conflict.

A Message of Love & Solidarity to Our Muslim Family

3/19/2019

 
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We are horrified to see our Muslim family attacked in such a violent and public way. Words cannot soothe the devastation, pain and fear that acts of Islamophobic terrorism create. Whether they be the violent actions of a lone gunman or the coordinated imperial wars of the West, violence against Muslims and Arab people must end.

Black for Palestine condemns this horrible and callous act of violence. Our hearts go out to the survivors of the Christchurch mosque shooting and to the families of the victims. And we mourn the millions of lives that the U.S. government has stolen in its decades-long wars of imperialism in Africa and the Middle East.

We know this act of terrorism is not a one-off incident. It is the culmination of years of Western propaganda. Corporate media, politicians, and militaries spread the lie that Islam is an extremist ideology. Donald Trump has further emboldened white supremacy and Islamaphobia, even calling non-white migrants “invaders” who bring extremism and crime.
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Yet these fascists ignore the Western militaries that invade and occupy Muslim communities and kill innocent people. Arguably, the U.S.-led wars and occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia and elsewhere have been the greatest source of violence against Muslims in the past three decades.

Another result of the so-called War on Terror has been the criminalization and dehumanization of Muslims across the West. This has included profiling, surveillance, and entrapment of entire communities, mistreatment of and bans against refugees, and the lack of sympathy for Muslim victims of violence (especially as compared with victims from other religious groups).

To our Muslim family:
Your life matters. Your people matter. Your religion matters.

Black for Palestine stands with you. We recommit ourselves to achieving peace, healing, and collective liberation. We know Islam is a religion of peace.

An attack against one is an attack against all.

We love you. We’ll fight for our freedom with you.
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As-salam alaykom

Here Is What Ilhan Omar Actually Said

3/6/2019

 
In the wake of yet another false accusation of anti-semitism against Rep. Ilhan Omar, we are reprinting her full remarks from a DC event on Feb. 27.  These are the words which the Democratic establishment attempted to condemn her for. Read our statement of support for Rep. Omar here.
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Q: [Moderator] We have a couple of questions from the audience on Venezuela.
 
[Audience Member] What do you and the Progressive Caucus or Congress in general think you can be doing or should be doing to fight this administration’s super hard line on this?

 
Rep. Omar: I must confess I spent many years watching hearings, Congressional hearings at home and screaming at the TV. Thinking about all the questions people should be asking and no one was. So when I got the opportunity I could not resist. And I had to go for it.
 
We have foreign policy that really has been detrimental to our security, detrimental to uplifting and living up to American ideals, one that has been detrimental in having positive American outlook around the world. It’s almost as if people in Congress and many of these administrations – regardless of whether it's Republican or Democrat, even progressive and not progressive – there’s just this facile memory. It’s like everybody has their statements ready and they just insert the name of the country. And there is no thought that goes into what our involvement in this nation is going to look like, what are the collateral damages, what happens after we engage? And today I had the opportunity to ask these questions to Secretary Albright, who came to committee, because I was concerned that we seem to be engaging in the same kinds of policies over and over again. There’s a country that has a government we don’t like, there’s a complaint, there’s some sort of humanitarian crisis that’s happening, there’s a civil war that might take place, and we just decide – these are our allies, this is what our interest is, and we go in. The risk of 100,000 people dying might have existed, that we end up killing or being part of the deaths of 300,000 half a million, or more. And then it’s like, “Oh, we helped!” and there’s the destruction of hospitals, of schools, of every kind of infrastructure.
 
And she was in agreement that there’s really no thought process that goes into thinking through, 'Oh if we engaged in this kind of way, what happens 6 months, 8 months 6 years, 10 years from now? And so, when it comes to Venezuela, for me it is an opportunity for us to really awaken the peoples’ conscience to this kind of sad reality of our foreign policy. We shouldn’t just issue our press releases with a new name on it, with a new country on it. We should say “what is really happening in this country?” If we are for the advancement of democracy, what does this country’s constitution actually call for? You can’t be in the business of recognizing a country’s new leader, when you would not allow that for yourself. None of this are happy with the kind of president we have. If a foreign country said “we think because Hillary got lots of votes, we’re just going to acknowledge Hillary as the leader of the United States, we would have a problem with that because you would say ‘our constitution says that it’s not about the number of votes you get', but… [audience answers – electoral college]. Fortunately and unfortunately that is what our constitution says. We govern within the constitution. So we should be in the business of allowing people to govern within their constitution. So for me I acknowledge there is a humanitarian crisis that’s taking place. And it is not only okay for us to acknowledge that but we also have to reckon with the fact that there are humanitarian crises going on in Yemen and we have not blocked our mind and threatened an intervention because of it. Because the people who are causing the humanitarian crises are our friends. So I’m not in the business of sitting around because my friend is killing, and I’m not in the business of screaming because my enemy is killing. I’m in the business of saying no human life is worth less than the other. And as much as we care about our sovereignty about the protection of our constitution, we should afford other people the same dignity and respect to do that. And yes we have a responsibility as the leader of the world, but our responsibility should be one that is guided by morality, one that is guided by justice, one that is guided buy ethics, one that is guided by humanity. And not by profits, by interests. So I get upset about these things and everybody says “You know Ilhan, you’re not Palestinian, why are you screaming about Palestine?”  “Ilhan, you’re not Saudi, why are you screaming about Yemen and what is happening in Saudi Arabia? Ilhan, you’re not Venezuelan. Well I’m a member of Congress. And in Congress we’re debating these issues. You might want to continue to see me as Somali, but I am a member of Congress. An American member of Congress. And people will just have to deal with it.
 
Q: Moderator: I want to pivot a little bit and talk about an issue that tends to keep cropping up over and over again and that’s the issue of antisemitism. I know that’s a sensitive topic and I now it’s an issue that has been out there and is used oftentimes to quiet people, to disparage them, to isolate them, and to make them feel like they’re not connected to something bigger. Can you please speak to the process by which this happens and what can we as a community do to help support you, so that when we are criticizing Israel for some of the war crimes it has done, it is not seen as ‘you’re anti-Semitic,’ because you’re not criticizing the religion, you’re not criticizing Jewish people, you’re criticizing government policies. It’s like we criticize different polices here in the US when our government doesn’t do something right. Can you talk a little bit about that?
 
Ilhan: I know that I have a huge Jewish constituency. And every time I meet with them, they share stories of safety and sanctuary that they would love for the people of Israel. And most of the time when we’re having the conversation, there is no actually relative that they speak of [Rashida Tlaib had just spoken of her grandmother who lives under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank]. And there is still lots of emotions that come through because it’s family. My children still speak of Somalia with passion and compassion even though they don’t have a family member there. But we never really allow space for the stories of Palestinians seeking safety and sanctuary to be uplifted. The dehumanization and the silencing of a particular pain and suffering of people should not be okay and normal. You can’t be in the practice of humanizing and uplifting the suffering of one if you’re not willing to do that for everyone. So for me, I know that when I hear my Jewish constituents or friends of colleagues speak about Palestinians who “don’t want safety” or Palestinians who aren't deserving, I stay focused on the actual debate about what that process should look like. I never go in the dark place of saying ‘here’s a Jewish person, they’re talking about Palestinians, Palestinians are Muslim, maybe they’re Islamophobic.' I never allow myself to go there because I don’t have to. What I am fearful of, is that because Rashida and I are Muslim, that a lot of our Jewish colleagues, a lot of our constituents, a lot of our allies, go to thinking that everything we say about Israel [is] anti-Semitic because we are Muslim. To me it becomes something that is designed to end the debate.
 
I know what intolerance looks like and I’m sensitive when someone says, “the words you use Ilhan, are resemblance of intolerance.” And I am cautious of that and I feel pained by that. But it’s almost as if every single time we say something, regardless of what it is we say, that it’s supposed to be about foreign policy or engagement, our advocacy about ending oppression, or the freeing of every human life and wanting dignity, we get to be labeled in something, and that ends the discussion, because we end up defending that, and nobody ever gets to have the broader debate of “what is happening with Palestine?” So for me, I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country. I want to ask, why is it OK for me to talk about the influence of the NRA, of fossil-fuel industries, or Big Pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobby that is influencing policy?

I mean, most of us are new, but many members of Congress have been there forever. Some of them have been there before we were born. So I know many of them, many of them, were fighting for people to be free, for people to live in dignity in South Africa. I know many of them fight for people around the world to have dignity, to have self-determination. So I know, I know that they care about these things. But now that you have two Muslims who are saying, “here is a group of people that we want to make sure they have the dignity that you want everyone else to have!”…we get to be called names, we get to be labeled as hateful.

No, we know what hate looks like. We experience it every single day. We have to deal with death threats. I have colleagues who talk about death threats. And sometimes…there are cities in my state where the gas stations have written on their bathrooms “assassinate Ilhan Omar.” I have people driving around my district looking for my home, for my office, causing me harm. I have people every single day on Fox News and everywhere, posting that I am a threat to this country. So I know what fear looks like. The masjid I pray in in Minnesota got bombed by two domestic white terrorists.

​So I know what it feels to be someone who is of faith that is vilified. I know what it means to be someone whose ethnicity is vilified. I know what it feels to be of a race—like I am an immigrant, so I don’t have the historical trauma that some of my Black sisters and brothers have in this country, but I know what it means for people to just see me as a Black person, and to treat me as less than a human. And so, when people say, “you are bringing hate,” I know what their intention is. Their intention is to make sure that our lights are dimmed. That we walk around with our heads bowed. That we lower our face and our voice.

But we have news for people. You can call us any kind of name. You can threaten us any kind of way. Rashida and I are not ourselves. Every single day we walk in the halls of Congress, we have people who have never had an opportunity to walk – they are walking with us. So we’re here to represent the voices of people who have been silenced for many decades and generations. And we're here to fight for the people of our district, who want to make sure that there is actual prosperity being guaranteed. Because there is a direct correlation between not having clean water and starting endless wars. It’s all about the profit and who gets benefits. There is a direct correlation between corporations that are getting rich and the fact that we have students that are shackled with debt. There is a direct correlation between the White House and the people who are benefitting from having detention beds that are profitized. So what people are afraid of is not that there are two Muslims in Congress. What people are afraid of is that there are two Muslims in Congress that have their eyes wide open, that have their feet to the ground, that know what they’re talking about, that are fearless, and that understand that they have the same election certificate as everyone else in Congress.
Condensed version of Ilhan's remarks and full copy of the entire event below:

Black for Palestine Stands with Ilhan Omar

2/14/2019

 
Black for Palestine offers our unequivocal support to our sister Rep. Ilhan Omar. Ilhan Omar is the first Somali-American and the first Black Muslim woman elected to the United States Congress.
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Omar has been a long-time critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the Israeli government’s ongoing human rights crimes against the Palestinian people. She and Rep. Rashida Tlaib are also the first elected Congress members to openly support the BDS movement.
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On Feb 8, Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy threatened to take action against Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar, supposedly for their criticisms of Israel and for their pro-BDS stances⎯views which McCarthy suggested were anti-Semitic and “not allowed in this country.”

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When Rep. Ilhan Omar suggested in a tweet that AIPAC money was behind Kevin McCarthy’s attack, pro-Israel organizations and writers and Congress members from both parties said her statement was anti-semitic and hateful.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.
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AIPAC does spend a lot of money lobbying and fundraising for Congress members, and so does the Israeli government directly. Organizations and governments don’t spend money for their health. They do so to gain influence. On Twitter, Omar retweeted a follower who said, “accurately describing how the Israel lobby works is not anti-semitism.”

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Lobbyist Spending by Israeli Government and Zionist Organizations
Source: Open Secrets 
As a black woman. As a Muslim. As a Somali immigrant and a supporter of Palestine and human rights, there are double and triple standards against Rep. Ilhan Omar.

According to Israel supporters, every criticism of Israel and every passionate cultural reference is an anti-Semitic dog-whistle. By putting Ilhan Omar on the defensive in this way, Israel supporters hope to stop her from boosting a national movement against the Israeli occupation.

But the threat the Israeli government sees in Rep. Omar and so many others is precisely the reason why we must push back even harder.

Just imagine what it would look like for a conscious black immigrant woman to co-lead a popular movement in support of Palestine, as a sitting U.S. Congress member? Israel supporters don’t want to find out what that would look like or what the results of that would be. After all, one of the very clear goals of the BDS movement is to pressure governments to place sanctions on Israel.

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We know that Ilhan Omar stands on the side of justice, human rights and against bigotry and anti-Semitism. She is against corruption, occupation, imperialism and genocide. And that’s why Black for Palestine is proud to stand with Ilhan.

#WeStandWithIlhan #AntiIsraeliOccupation #FreePalestine #RightofReturn #NoIsraelLobby

Birmingham institute cancels human rights award for Angela Davis over her Palestine activism

1/6/2019

 
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Photo courtesy of Black-Palestinian Solidarity
The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute canceled its prestigious human rights award for Angela Davis following outcry from "concerned individuals and organizations." Davis, the Black revolutionary feminist icon, grew up in Birmingham under the Jim Crow apartheid regime.

"Upon closer examination of Ms. Davis’ statements and public record, we concluded that she unfortunately does not meet all of the criteria on which the award is based," the institute wrote in a statement on Sunday.

While the institute has not provided specifics on the concerns or their award criteria, it is clear that Davis's support for Palestine is one of the main reasons for the reversal.

A statement from Birmingham's mayor revealed that these concerned individuals were from the "local Jewish community and some of its allies."


The only public objections to Davis's award is a December 2018 article from Southern Jewish Life:
"Her 2015 book was entitled “Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement,” and she frequently compares Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to police shootings of African-Americans. She has also said Israel gets its tear gas to use against Palestinians from the same company that supplies the police force in Ferguson.

There is a national effort among advocates for the Palestinians to get police departments to refuse joint training with Israeli police on best practices for fighting terrorism and enhancing emergency response.

She also connects Israel with one of her primary causes, the abolition of the prison system in the U.S., which she calls the “prison-industrial complex.” Palestine under Israeli occupation is “the worst possible example of a carceral society” as the world’s “largest open air prison,” she has stated.

Davis compares Israel to apartheid South Africa, but has stated that Israel is worse in its treatment of Palestinians. She refers to the security barrier Israel erected following a long series of deadly suicide bombings by Palestinians in Israel in the early 2000s as an “apartheid wall.”

Davis has called for “political prisoner” Marwan Barghouti to be released from jail. A leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Barghouti is serving five life terms for participation in murders of Israelis. A leader of the First and Second Intifadas, in 2014 he called for an end to Palestinian security cooperation with Israel and advocated a Third Intifada.

Davis also was a supporter of Rasmea Odeh, who was convicted of a 1969 bombing in a Jerusalem grocery store, killing two students. A member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Odeh was deported from the U.S. for immigration fraud, lying about her terror ties and not disclosing her terrorism conviction. Davis spoke at Odeh’s farewell celebration in Chicago in 2017."
Attempts to frame Rasmea Odeh as a "terrorist" fall into the attempts to criminalize Assata Shakur, Mumia Abu-Jamal, the Black Panther Party and Davis herself in the same light. 

The cancelation comes roughly a month after Marc Lamont Hill was fired from CNN for speaking up about Palestine at the UN.

CNN and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute each claim to care about civil rights and human rights until it comes to the application of those rights for Palestinians.

The Israel lobby is increasingly isolating itself by attacking revered Black activists for speaking up about Palestine. 


​As backlash like this continues, more and more people will understand that Palestine is a human rights issue that must be included in the global call for freedom, justice, and liberation.
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Available at Haymarket Books
Read more about Rasmea Odeh's activism, forced confession and Angela Davis's support for her at Ebony. 

You can also read our statements of support for Marc Lamont Hill and Rasmea.

Solidarity with Brazil is Imperative Against the Global Rise of Fascism

12/7/2018

 
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2015 protest in São Paulo against the police killing of Afro-Brazilian youth.
We are writing this statement to extend our solidarity to our comrades in Brazil, who are facing a rising fascist threat in their country. We commit ourselves to building a resistance to right-wing authoritarianism in Brazil, the US, and around the world.

Far-right figure Jair Bolsonaro’s win in Brazil’s most recent presidential election is cause for alarm for anyone concerned with the fight against oppression. Bolsonaro is a misogynist who has spoken casually about raping women.  He supports the use of torture and speaks with nostalgia about Brazil’s twenty-one year dictatorship.

Bolsonaro’s election is the latest development in a series of disturbing events in Brazil. In 2016, the right wing impeached leftist president Dilma Roussef—the first female president of Brazil—ending her presidency not with a democratic election, but with a quiet coup. In that same year, left-wing former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was jailed and he has remained in prison ever since. A Brazilian electoral court then prevented Lula from running in the most recent Presidential election while he appealed his case. And earlier this year, Black, queer, socialist militant and politician Marielle Franco was assassinated in Rio de Janeiro while she was on way home from delivering a speech.
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Left: rally in support of Dilma and Lula. Right: Bolsonaro at a rally.
As Black activists who build solidarity with the Palestinian struggle, our outlook is always one that connects freedom struggles around the world with our struggles within the borders of the US state. As internationalists, we know that the fates of oppressed groups of people around the world are bound up with each other; we rise or fall together. 

We also know that our enemies support each other and work together to undermine democracy and people’s liberation movements. The United States for instance, has long been a friend of dictatorships and reactionary violence around the world, and with Trump as president, we know that Bolsonaro has a friend in the White House. The U.S. has a history of meddling in the politics countries around the world, specifically, funding right-wing opposition movements and inciting coups in Latin America. 

In 2013, WikiLeaks revealed that the NSA was spying on world leaders, including former President Roussef and members of her administration. Wikileaks also revealed that Rouseff’s successor, Michele Temer was an informant for US intelligence services. With the U.S. government’s long history of supporting right-wing coups and interfering in the politics of countries around the world, its spying capabilities and its alignment with Brazil’s corporate right-wing, it has undermined and continues to undermine democracy in Brazil.  It must be stopped.

We are concerned for Indigenous peoples, as Bolsonaro calls for the seizure of more Native land to feed the desires of Brazilian and international corporations and banks. We are concerned for LGBTQ people and women, whom Bolsonaro speaks about with hateful contempt.  We are concerned for migrants, who are particularly vulnerable to Bolsonaro’s nationalism. We are concerned for the poor and working class of Brazil, who will suffer because of Bolsonaro’s policies.
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On the left, Marielle Franco, the Black, queer, socialist politician who was assassinated earlier this year. On the right, Brazilians marching for justice against her killers.
We are also concerned for Afro-Brazilians, who already face alarming levels of state violence and who Bolsonaro explicitly denigrates.  We want to call attention to this population—and what it is facing--in particular. More enslaved Africans were sent to Brazil than any other country during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, and Brazil today has the largest population of African descent outside of the continent. The result is that the largest Black populations in the Americas each live and struggle under right wing rule. It is essential for us to learn more about the conditions of our family in Brazil and to resist the U.S.’ efforts to further destabilize the country.
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Posters by Carlos Latuff representing solidarity and shared experiences of state violence between Palestinians and Brazilians.
Black for Palestine specifically offers our support to the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), a mass movement in Brazil that has helped almost 400,000 landless families settle on land that corporations stole from the people. The MST offers international solidarity and training to peoples’ struggles around the world, including the Black struggle here, Palestine, and movements on the African continent, from South Africa to Tanzania and Kenya. Bolsonaro wants to designate the MST as a terrorist organization and police have recently raided and attacked MST encampments. From the Palestinian resistance to the Black Panthers, we reject the work of oppressive states to criminalize and delegitimize our resistance. We offer our unequivocal solidarity and gratitude to the MST.

Lastly, as activists especially concerned with building solidarity with the Palestinian struggle, we are not surprised that Bolsonaro is a vocal supporter of the Israeli state.  Following after Trump, Bolsonaro wants to move the Brazilian Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This action is meant to embolden ever aggressive Israeli violence. 
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With friends like these, our enemies should be clear.

We call on others where we are and around the world to join us in building solidarity with our comrades in Brazil. We will do what we can to contribute to that solidarity. From the streets of US cities to Brazil, to Palestine, we fight with each other and for each other.

What Justice Requires: in Support of Palestine and Marc Lamont Hill

11/30/2018

 
“Regarding the question of Palestine, beyond words we must ask the question, what does justice require? To truly engage in acts of solidarity, we must make our words flesh. Our solidarity must be more than a noun. Our solidarity must become a verb.”

-Marc Lamont Hill, speaking to the United Nations, November 28, 2018

Black for Palestine expresses our full support for journalist and professor Marc Lamont Hill and condemns CNN's decision to fire him for speaking in support of Palestinian human rights.

Marc was the sole representative of civil society invited to speak at the United Nations’ International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on November 28. By the following day, Zionist groups including the Anti Defamation League alleged that Marc was an anti-Semite and called on CNN to drop Marc as a political commentator. The corporate news outlet fired him a few hours later.
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Marc has been an outspoken advocate for human rights for all people. His most notable work has been his advocacy for Palestinian rights and for Black people in the U.S. settler state. He was one of the only voices on CNN, Black or otherwise, with a commitment to speaking truth to power.

Groups like the Anti Defamation League and CNN claim to be liberal supporters of “civil rights” and “free speech,” except when it comes to the actual liberation of oppressed people, whether they are Palestinian or Black. The ADL’s attack on Marc Lamont Hill fits into a longer legacy of Zionists attacking Black activists for their stances on Palestine, including SNCC in 1967, the Black Panther Party, and UN ambassador Andrew Young, who was fired from his position for speaking to the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1979.

At the end of his speech at the UN, Marc said “Free Palestine, from the river to the sea.” Zionists claimed this comment was anti-Semitic and suggested that Marc was advocating for violence against Jewish people. This is akin to the people who think “Black Lives Matter” is a call to kill or destroy white people.

Criticizing Israel is not the same as criticizing Jewish people. The Israeli occupation state (like the US settler state) is a political entity, not a religion or a people.
Calling for the end of systems that have murdered, expelled and segregated innocent people is not anti-Semitism or reverse racism, it's justice.

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Zionists and white supremacists are uncomfortable with the phrases “Free Palestine” or “Black Lives Matter” because they understand that Israel and the US are built on racism and oppression. They implicitly understand that righting these wrongs requires them to give up their privileges, including access to land, wealth and social power.

As other commenters have pointed out, we wish violence and racism against Black and Palestinian people was taken as seriously as allegations of anti-semitism. We live in a world that murders and subjugates us on a daily basis. Our own cries for justice are ignored or distorted by the media and politicians who justify our oppression.

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Zionism and white supremacy are incompatible with human rights. Marc Lamont Hill spoke on a moral obligation to criticize American and Israeli state violence. His demonstrates what solidarity means as a verb and not just a noun. 

We close with the closing remarks of his speech: "A
s we stand here on the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the tragic commemoration of the Nakba, we have an opportunity to not just offer solidarity in words but to commit to political action, grassroots action, local action, and international action that will give us what justice requires. And that is a free Palestine from the river to the sea. "


Take action by signing this petition or contacting by phone, email, or Twitter:

Phone: +1 (404)-827-1500
Email: cnn.com/feedback
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CNN

View a full transcript of Marc's remarks here or watch the video below:

In support of Students for Justice in Palestine and Black UCLA students

11/16/2018

 
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UCLA divestment hearing, November 2014 (courtesy of The Daily Bruin)
Black for Palestine joins human rights organizations around the country in supporting the National Students for Justice in Palestine conference taking place in Los Angeles this weekend. NSJP has faced attempts at legal intimidation and censorship from the UCLA administration, Zionist organizations, and even the Los Angeles City Council, which unanimously passed a resolution condemning and calling for the cancellation of the event.

While attacks on Palestine organizing are common, the institutional threats and intimidation against college students are deeply troubling. Black for Palestine has learned that members of UCLA’s Afrikan Student Union were added to a Zionist blacklist website in retaliation for their pro-Palestinian organizing on campus.

The Afrikan Student Union at UCLA has long been an ally in the struggle for Palestinian rights. The ASU used its success in pushing the University of California to divest from prisons to support SJP’s efforts to divest from Israeli human rights violations. SJP has in turn supported the ASU in its mobilizations for the Black campus community.

The students were apparently targeted for their participation in a protest during the spring quarter. Zionists filed a police report against the students and attempted to have them prosecuted.

The anonymous blacklist aims to threaten the professional aspirations of pro-Palestinian students, youth, and faculty by labeling them “anti-American, anti-Semitic, and anti-freedom.”
 

The site has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in support from US Jewish organizations including the Jewish Community Federation in Los Angeles and San Francisco. This well-funded pro-Israel site is engaging in class and political warfare against progressive youth who are low income, working class, immigrants, or from communities of color, as it has the potential to affect their livelihoods and make them targets for rightwing harassment.  

This blacklist is part of a decades long history of Zionist assaults against progressive movements, including the Anti Defamation League's spying on Arab-American and other civil rights groups. Black students and youth from UCLA to Stanford to the Dream Defenders have also been targeted by this current blacklist for their solidarity work. The site also targets Black historian and UCLA professor Robin D.G. Kelley.

We offer our wholehearted support to National SJP, and to all Black students who have taken a principled stance in supporting our shared struggle in Palestine. 

These smears are a clear attempt to redirect attention away from Israel’s human rights abuses and occupation of Palestinian territory.  Israel is not only an enemy of Palestinian liberation but of peoples’ liberation struggles everywhere.

The Zionist state supported European colonial regimes in their fight against African national liberation movements: providing arms and military training to the Portuguese in Mozambique and Angola, and supporting the apartheid regimes in South Africa and Zimbabwe until their fall. As an ethno-supremacist political ideology supported by U.S. imperialism, Zionism represents a clear and present threat to Black and African liberation--on the continent and in the diaspora.


We join SJP and the Afrikan Student Union in calling for unity among all oppressed people from Los Angeles to Palestine!

Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon Are at the Heart of the Struggle and They Must Return Home in 2018

1/30/2018

 
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Palestinian flags overlook Israeli-occupied Palestine from the Lebanese border.
The following is a reflection a member of Black4Palestine on his 2017 work with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.  Read this and other reflections in our 2017 year in review newsletter
Zionist forces ethnically cleansed over 75 percent of Palestinians from their land to create their state in 1948. Today it still denies these refugees their right to return to their homelands, and the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon live among the worst conditions across the diaspora.

Last year I took two trips to Lebanon to get a better sense of conditions facing Palestinian refugees in the country and of what local work on Black-Palestinian solidarity might look like. Part of my work is sharing the plight of Black people in the US and helping to draw parallels between our experiences. 

After talking to a family in Burj el Barajneh camp that knew nothing about the Black struggle in the US for five minutes, they all sucked their teeth in disbelief and immediately noted our similarities. In many ways, Palestinians in Lebanon are the “Black” population of the country. Both Palestinians and Black people face exploitation because of discrimination against our racial or national background. A majority of us are poor both because we were dispossessed from our homelands and because our national economies rely on us for cheap labor.

In Lebanon, Palestinians are legally barred from working in 70+ professions, largely forced to live in camps with inadequate electricity, water, and sewage, and face an educational system that guarantees they won’t succeed. Palestinian refugees deal with decades of trauma, poverty, and inadequate social services. The camps are seen as violent and ridden with drugs and crime, and most Lebanese avoid the camps like most Americans avoid Black neighborhoods. The camps are often the only places where other marginalized national groups (e.g. Syrians, Iraqis) can afford to live.

While many people are disillusioned about the conditions of the camps and the liberation struggle, the camps still feel like Palestine.  Generations of people continue to fight for their country and their people. At the Naqab Center for Youth Activities in Burj el Barajneh Camp, youth are given a map to trace the route to return to Akka in ‘48 Palestine from their camps in Lebanon.  At the Arab Palestinian Cultural Club in Baddawi Camp, posters honor the martyr Basil Araj, who was assassinated in Palestine by the Zionist military in March 2017 (pictured below). The map of Palestine hangs everywhere—on the inner walls of people’s homes and on the outer walls of the buildings of the camps (pictured below). Palestine’s spirit and life blood continues, even though Zionists have separated the land from its people for 70 years.
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I had the chance to visit the Lebanese border with “Israel,” guided by a Nakba survivor who could point to the site of his original village from where we were. Israel has denied him and 7 million other Palestinian refugees their ability to go back home for 69 years now. One look at the land and it is clear why the refugees will never abandon their right to return: the camps are an insulting solution to the beautiful, fertile land they know is theirs. In a world where many of us struggle to say what liberation looks like, Palestinians can see it: it is returning to their land and their homes.

Palestinian travels are restricted throughout the Middle East. Palestinians from Lebanon can’t visit Jordan or Palestine; Palestinians from Palestine can’t visit Lebanon; many Palestinians from Syria are now double or triple refugees in the Middle East or Europe. This is the essence of Zionist violence to the region: that indigenous populations that could once move freely between Beirut, Damascus, Haifa, Jerusalem and Gaza are now divided and confined to Western-imposed borders.

The right to return of all Palestinian refugees is the most basic line that we in the West owe Palestine and we must name it and fight for it every time we talk about it. “End the occupation” is not sufficient unless we’re talking about the occupation of all Palestine, not just the West Bank and Gaza. Right of return is necessary for justice.  

Please help us make trips like this possible for more people in 2018 by supporting our work.
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