Sunday, January 14, 2024

"What's Past is Prologue": A Strong and Celebratory Video Statement Of Transnational Solidarity Between Palestinians and Black Americans from October 2015

WHEN I SEE THEM I SEE US

June 26, 2020 


The Black-Palestinian Solidarity Campaign released this video in October 2015. Part of their statement: “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.” See more about this video: https://www.blackpalestiniansolidarit... 
 
See the video’s script here: https://www.blackpalestiniansolidarit... 
 
The video features dozens of leading artists and activists from the US and Palestine. Among the Black Americans who appear are Danny Glover, Cornel West, Angela Davis, Alice Walker, LisaGay Hamilton, and Lauryn Hill. Palestinians in the video include Omar Barghouti, Diana Buttu, Noura Erakat, Rashid Khalidi, Sandra Tamari, and Linda Sarsour. They are speaking of their shared experiences of racism and persecution, experiences that include militarized police violence in the US and a brutal military occupation in Palestine. 
 
See this video also at The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/...
 


2015 Black for Palestine Statement

Over 1,100 Black activists, artists, scholars, students and organizations signed the 2015 Black Solidarity Statement with Palestine. 

Excerpt:

"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. "
 

6,000 Black activists, artists, scholars, students and over 225 organizations
signed our Black Solidarity with Gaza #CeasefireNow statement, including:

Angela Davis | Indya Moore | kehlani | Marc Lamont Hill | Michael Bennett 
Mumia Abu-Jamal | noname | Pam Africa | Robin DG Kelley | Saul Williams


The Dream Defenders | Malcolm X Grassroots Movement |
Movement For Black Lives | 
Harriet’s Wildest Dreams