https://www.blackforpalestine.com/2023statement.html
NEW UPDATE: As of today [January 15, 2024] over 23,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza as a result of Israeli military actions and over 10,000 of them have been children with over 36,000 injured overall
*PLEASE NOTE: The original statement below contains the statistics about deaths and casualties as of December 1, 2023.
We are coming together to demand:
- an immediate ceasefire
- the unimpeded entry of humanitarian aid and services, medical teams, supplies, and trauma care
- the immediate restoration of water, food, fuel, electricity, and internet
- ending the U.S. obstruction of Palestinian protections against genocide under international law
- the prevention of forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza outside of Palestine
- an end to the siege on Gaza and the occupation of Palestine, including U.S. support
We refuse to remain silent or inactive as two million people in Gaza—half of whom are children—are fenced into an open-air prison, facing the bombs and barricades of the Israeli military. We condemn the displacement of over a million Gazans who have nowhere to run as their homes, shelters, evacuation routes, and border crossings are bombed. We cry out as Israel continues to target hospitals, mosques, churches, schools, bakeries, entire neighborhoods and entire families—the lifeblood and foundations of community.
We name the murderous responsibility of the United States government in particular, which is supplying aircraft, weapons and diplomatic cover to Israel as its forces commit these atrocities. After the Israeli Minister of Defense called the Palestinians of Gaza “human animals” on October 9th and announced that they would be denied life necessities—the U.S. Secretaries of State and Defense, and President Biden himself went to Tel Aviv to only affirm their support of Israel’s genocidal actions. We are angered that the U.S. was the sole country to veto the UN Security Council resolution for a humanitarian ceasefire.
All life is precious, we reject the targeting of civilians, and we mourn the loss of all civilian life. The Israeli government, its allies, and Western media have tried to isolate, demonize and dehumanize the people of Gaza to provide a false justification for Israel’s unjustifiable mass killing. Our solidarity is in defiance of those efforts and against the Israeli occupation of Palestine, which perpetuates a cycle of violence and death.
Israel is an occupying power engaged in countless violations of international law towards its occupied population. Our demands in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for self-determination and freedom are for more than the basic necessities under war. We stand with the Palestinian people who have been struggling for their land, their homes, their families and their future for a century and who remain steadfast in the face of the ongoing catastrophes and atrocities committed against them. We honor the strength, the resilience, the commitment, the love, the memories, and the songs of our kin in liberation.
We make this commitment in a long tradition of Black people standing with other peoples around the world in our shared struggle against oppression, racism, and colonialism. This includes calling for an end to U.S. aggression in the Vietnam war, standing with anti-colonial struggles around the world, and most recently with the Black uprising of 2014 and building solidarity with Palestinians over our shared terrain of U.S. and Israeli state violence and disregard for our lives.
We call on Black youth, elders, students, artists, workers, people of faith, activists, teachers and politicians to fearlessly mobilize and speak out for Palestinian freedom, to organize our communities and institutions to do the same. Our collective demands are stronger than any attempt to silence or attack us. We will meet those challenges together and united, we will overcome them.
We stand in solidarity with Palestinians and we will stand here until Palestine is free.
For media inquiries, please email blackforpalestine@gmail.com, or call 607-252-6575
Black Solidarity with Gaza - #CeasefireNow
- adrienne maree brown - Writer, activist and facilitator; author of Emergent Strategy
- aja monet - Surrealist blues poet; author of My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter
- Ajamu Baraka - International human rights activist, organizer, political analyst.
- Alan Pelaez Lopez - AfroIndigenous (Zapotec) poet, installation and adornment artist; author of Intergalactic Travels: poems from a fugitive alien
- Alexis Pauline Gumbs - Poet, independent scholar and human rights activist, author of Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals
- Andrea J. Ritchie - Organizer, Researcher, Author of Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black women and Women of Color
- Angela Y. Davis - Prison abolitionist, scholar and activist; author of Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement
- Angelica Ross - Actress in POSE and American Horror Story, Singer Songwriter, Founder of TransTech & Human Rights Advocate
- Arsema Thomas - Actress in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story
- Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson - Co-Executive Director of the Highlander Center
- Aurielle Marie - Award-winning poet, essayist, and cultural strategist
- Barbara Ransby - Activist, Historian and author of Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision
- Barbara Smith - Black feminist, lesbian, activist, author, lecturer and publisher; co-founder of the Combahee River Collective and co-author of the Combahee River Collective Statement
- Beverly Guy Sheftall - Black feminist scholar, writer and editor; founding director of the Women’s Research at Spelman College
- Bill Fletcher Jr. - Racial justice, labor, and international activist
- Bisi Adjapon - author of The Teller of Secrets and Daugher in Exile
- Bree Newsome Bass - artist, grassroots organizer, removed south carolina’s confederate flag on june 27, 2015
- Brittney Cooper - professor, activist, and cultural critic; author of Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower
- Chanda Prescod-Weinstein - Associate Professor of Physics and author of The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred
- Charlene A. Carruthers - writer, filmmaker, community organizer; founding national director of Black Youth Project 100
- Christina Sharpe - Professor and author of In the Wake: On Blackness and Being
- Cornel West - Philosopher, political activist, social critic, actor, and public intellectual
- Dara Cooper - activist, organizer, writer, and co-founder and former executive director of the National Black Food and Justice Alliance
- Derecka Purnell - human rights lawyer, writer, organizer, and author of Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom
- dream hampton - writer, organizer, award winning filmmaker
- Emory Douglas - Artist, Activist and Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party
- Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo aka SAMMUS - Black feminist rapper, producer, and scholar
- ericka huggins - educator, former Black Panther Party member, and political prisoner, human rights activist and poet.
- Eve L. Ewing- writer, scholar, cultural organizer and author of Electric Arches
- Feminista Jones - writer, public speaker, community activist, and retired social worker; author of Reclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminists Are Changing the World from the Tweets to the Streets
- Fred Moten - Cultural theorist, poet, author of In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition
- Gina Dent - Scholar, activist and co-author of Abolition. Feminism. Now with Angela Davis
- Ijeoma Oluo - Writer, speaker and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race
- Indya Moore - Actress in POSE, writer, director, model, and social activist
- Jalil Muntaqim - political activist, veteran of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, former political prisoner
- Jamilah Lemieux - award-winning writer, podcast host, and public speaker
- jessica Care moore - Poet, Live Arts Producer, Author, Recording Artist, Publisher
- Johanna Fernandez - Historian, abolitionist and author of The Young Lords: A Radical History
- Jourdain Searles - writer, critic, film programmer, and comedian
- Kali Akuno - co-founder and co-director of Cooperation Jackson and co-editor of Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi
- kehlani - Artist, singer and songwriter
- Kemi Alabi - Poet and author of Against Heaven
- Kierstan Bell - Professional basketball player and 2-time WNBA champion
- Kiese Laymon - writer, professor, author of Heavy and Long Division; 2022 MacArthur Fellow
- Kimya Dawson - singer-songwriter
- Lama Rod Owens - activist, authorized Lama (Buddhist Teacher), and author of Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation Through Anger
- LISBET TELLEFSEN - archivist, collector and curator
- Madison McFerrin - independent singer, songwriter and producer
- Malkia Devich Cyril - activist, writer and public speaker
- Marbrè Stahly- Butts - former Executive Director of Law for Black Lives and co-founder of the National Bail Out Collective
- Marc Lamont Hill - award-winning journalist, professor, and media host; co-author of Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics
- Mariame Kaba - organizer, educator, archivist and curator; author of We Do This 'Til We Free Us Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice
- Mary Hooks - LGBTQ+ activist, former co-director of Southerners on New Ground
- MaryLouise Patterson - Human rights activist, co-editor of Letters from Langston From the Harlem Renaissance to the Red Scare and Beyond
- Mereba - singer, rapper and producer
- Michael Bennett - retired NFL player and Super Bowl champion
- Montague Simmons - community organizer and human rights activist; former chair of the Organization for Black Struggle
- Mumia Abu-Jamal - political prisoner, award-winning radio journalist, and author of seven books
- Mustafa the poet - poet, singer, songwriter, and filmmaker
- Mykki Blanco - rapper, performance artist, poet and activist.
- Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah - New York Times-bestselling author of Friday Black
- Noname - rapper, poet, producer and founder of Noname Book Club
- nyle fort - minister, activist, and scholar
- Patrisse Cullors - artist, abolitionist, writer, and co-founder of the Black Lives Matter organization.
- Rahiel Tesfamariam - writer, public theologian, activist and speaker
- Ramona Africa - activist, sole adult survivor of the Philadelphia Police 1985 bombing of the MOVE headquarters
- Raquel Willis - award-winning activist, author, and media strategist dedicated to Black transgender liberation.
- Robin D. G. Kelley - historian, academic, and author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
- Robyn C. Spencer-Antoine - historian of Black radicalism, activist, author of The Revolution has Come: Black Power, Gender and the Black Panther Party
- Rosemari Mealy JD, PhD - activist-scholar and author of Fidel and Malcolm X: Memories of A Meeting
- Saul Williams - rapper, singer, songwriter, musician, poet, writer, and actor
- Sekou Odinga - member of Malcolm X’s Organization of Afro-American Unity; a founding member of the New York chapter of the Black Panther Party as well as the Black Panther International Section; combatant of the Black Liberation Army; and former political prisoner
- Sonya Renee Taylor - activist, artist, and New York Times best-selling author of The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self Love
- Toshi Reagon - composer, musician, with a profound ear for sonic Americana—from folk to funk, from blues to rock
- Vince Warren - Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights
- Warsan Shire - award winning poet and author of Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head
We advocate full sovereignty and rights for the Palestinian people and fully endorse the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. We seek to engage the margins of Palestinian society - including refugees in the Middle East, the prisoners’ movement, people in Gaza, and youth across the diaspora. Providing practical support towards the right of return is one of our priorities.
We oppose racism, capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, sexism, zionism, and all forms of oppression. We organize through an intersectional approach that values the struggles of women, LGBTQ, and indigenous people around the world.
We have members across the country who are part of a variety of Black organizations. We are an intergenerational group that includes artists, academics, full time activists, and students.
Our local and international work is grounded in meeting the people where they are, in refugee camps or in their homeland.
Art and film, the Black church and religion, the civil rights movement, Movement for Black Lives, Black Panther Party, New Afrikan Independence Movement, policing, mass incarceration, political prisoners, public education, Cuban solidarity, Puerto Rican liberation, Pan Africanism, Jews of Color, and much more.
Black4Palestine emerged in 2014 cultivated from the cross-movement solidarity between Palestinian activists and participants in the Ferguson uprisings.
Please email us if you would like to be in touch with a member in your area or working on a certain issue.
We are not able to accept new
national members at this time, but please reach out if you are
interested in doing B4P work in your own city.
https://www.blackforpalestine.com/2015-statement.html
2015 Black Solidarity Statement with Palestine |
(عربي)
Click above to read the statement in Arabic Download a PDF of the English version |
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 brutal war on Gaza and
chokehold on the West Bank—strengthened resilience and joint-struggle
have emerged between our movements. Palestinians on Twitter were among the first to provide international support for protesters in Ferguson, where St. Louis-based Palestinians gave support on the ground. Last November, a delegation of Palestinian students visited Black organizers in St. Louis,
Atlanta, Detroit and more, just months before the Dream Defenders took
representatives of Black Lives Matter, Ferguson, and other racial
justice groups to Palestine. Throughout the year, Palestinians sent multiple letters of solidarity to us throughout protests in Ferguson, New York, and Baltimore. We offer this statement to continue the conversation between our movements:
On the anniversary of last summer’s Gaza massacre, in the 48th year of Israeli occupation, the 67th year of Palestinians’ ongoing Nakba (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.
We
can neither forgive nor forget last summer’s violence. We remain
outraged at the brutality Israel unleashed on Gaza through its siege by land, sea and air, and three military offensives in six years. We remain sickened by Israel’s targeting of homes, schools, UN shelters, mosques, ambulances, and hospitals. We remain heartbroken and repulsed by the number of children Israel killed
in an operation it called “defensive.” 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 100,000 people still homeless in Gaza, the massacre's effects continue to devastate Gaza today and will for years to come.
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, within Israel’s 1948 borders, and into neighboring countries. The Israeli Occupation Forces continue to kill protesters—including children—conduct night raids on civilians, hold hundreds of people under indefinite detention, and demolish homes while expanding illegal Jewish-only settlements. Israeli politicians, including Benjamin Netanyahu, incite against Palestinian citizens within Israel’s recognized borders, where over 50 laws discriminate against non-Jewish people.
Our support extends to those living under occupation and siege, Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the 7 million Palestinian refugees
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.
Palestinian
liberation represents an inherent threat to Israeli settler colonialism
and apartheid, an apparatus built and sustained on ethnic cleansing,
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.
Israel’s widespread use of detention and imprisonment against Palestinians evokes the mass incarceration of Black people in the US, including the political imprisonment of
our own revolutionaries. 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 train side-by-side.
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. We recognize the racism that
characterizes Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is also directed
against others in the region, including intolerance, police brutality, and violence against Israel’s African population. Israeli officials call asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea "infiltrators" and detain them in the desert, while the state has sterilized Ethiopian Israelis without their knowledge or consent. These issues call for unified action against anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and Zionism.
We
know Israel’s violence toward Palestinians would be impossible without
the US defending Israel on the world stage and funding its violence with
over $3 billion annually.
We call on the US government to end economic and diplomatic aid to
Israel. We wholeheartedly endorse Palestinian civil society’s 2005 call
for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) 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.
As the BDS movement grows, we offer G4S, the world’s largest private security company, as a target for further joint struggle. G4S harms thousands of Palestinian political prisoners illegally held in Israel and hundreds of Black and brown youth held in its privatized juvenile prisons in the US. The corporation profits from incarceration and deportation from the US and Palestine, to the UK, South Africa, and Australia. We reject notions of “security” that make any of our groups unsafe and insist no one is free until all of us are.
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. 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. 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. 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.
Towards liberation,
