Is there a natural alliance between BIPOC and Palestinians ?
Yes. Black and Native Americans on the one hand, and Palestinians on the other hand, have recognized affinities and have offered mutual solidarity for decades, dating back to the early days of the civil rights and Black and Native American power movements of the 1960s.
Representatives of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) meet with Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chair Yasser Arafat (center) in Beirut, Lebanon, on September 21, 1979. Archives/AFP via Getty Images
Yasser Arafat, right, and Rev. Jesse Jackson embrace in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1979. | AP Photos
Black Panther leaders such as Fred Hampton saw the Palestinians as part of a global opposition to racism, imperialism, and predatory capitalism. Black leaders have also been concerned by Israel’s discrimination against Black Jews (from Ethiopia and elsewhere) and harsh treatment of African asylum seekers.
The synergy between Black Americans and Palestinians has been re-invigorated in recent years as activists in the U.S. and Palestine are recognizing ever more organic ties. This is especially true of the efforts to end militarized policing which has been fostered by Israel’s active training of U.S. law enforcement. Palestinians were among the first to express solidarity with demonstrators in Ferguson in 2014, offering them guidance on how to cope with tear gas and other repressive police tactics. Palestinians were also present at the Standing Rock protest in 2016 against the Dakota Access Pipeline. The overarching principles uniting BIPOC and Palestinian struggles are anti-racism and the quest for justice, and equal rights for all human beings, regardless of color or creed.
Elected officials should welcome efforts to strengthen solidarity between BIPOC and Palestinians in the United States and in Palestine.
Palestinian and South African officials pose in front of a giant statue of Nelson Mandela during its inauguration ceremony in the West Bank city of Ramallah on April 26, 2016. (AFP PHOTO / ABBAS MOMANI)
Baladna’s youth program is so important, it remains one of the many medicines we have had to create. Medicines I wish never had to come but that completely intrigue and invigorate me. What is so interesting to me, is the very strong and salient fact that we, as indigenous, have this incredible ability of being resilient in a very intricate way. To me this is proof that we hold so much knowledge that carries through each generation. Our grounding allows us to be patient when understanding the truth, allowing ourselves to evolve with it and overcome all that does not belong. Colonizers, and I will refer to them as such because they are of the same entity, look to melt our minds and mold them into something other than what we are born from. This is toxic and this is something that needs to be recognized. It is so dangerous, and we know our ancestors have gone through it. To erase your genetic identity in order to enforce an attitude that perpetuates colonial views, is something I will never ever forgive. Why? Because I am a byproduct of it, and I live each day having to constantly combat what has been forcefully fed and engrained in me. My great grandmother kept it a secret that she held Hawaiian blood in her, not speaking of it until my dad was a junior in high school. Although he was born and raised in Hawaiʻi, he nor my grandma (his mom), grew up with our culture and language. I was born without hearing the stories of perpetuation, born without hearing my mother tongue, born without hearing our songs from my own parents’ voices. Identity is now a huge part of my struggle and a blockage I’m constantly having to break down within the wide scopes of what it means to decolonize ourselves. To bear witness to Nidaa’s words and description of this organizations work is something that I truly wish to uplift. The erasing of indigenous identity in ANY way is genocide. It does not have to be the simple murder of bodies, it also exists in the intricate murder of minds, language, culture, and stories. Baladna’s youth are solutions and also protectors for this. Reaffirming feelings that youth have in their life, within the holds of colonizers, especially within the communities that have already been heavily integrated with the colonizer energy. “Urban natives” is a term I adopted from my brother, Joey Montoya and his company, Urban Native Era. What it means to be a native with native lenses looking at their land, urbanized to the extent that you struggle to see what is genuinely indigenous. Urban natives hold a key of importance to the return of freedom for our lands and people. We possess the ability to have seats at tables with the colonizers and with our people, but it is not a key that is light to carry. Its heavy responsibility means that we have to prove — not only the colonizers, but also to our community — that our voices hold true weight. These youth programs create the real rivers for the flow that has been demanded to be a part of the bigger conflue