Black Liberation Views on Palestine

In understanding global politics, it is important to look at Black liberation struggles as one important source of moral perspective. So, when looking at Palestine, we look to Black leaders to see how they perceived the Palestinian struggle in relation to theirs, from the 1960’s to today.

Why must we understand where the injustice lies? Because, as Desmond Tutu famously said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

Malcolm X

“The problem that exists in Palestine is not a religious problem... It is a question of colonialism. It is a question of a people who are being deprived of their homeland.”
— 1964, speech in Cairo

“Zionist logic is the same logic that brought Hitler and the Nazis into power... It is the same logic that says that because my grandfather came from Ireland, I have the right to go back to Ireland and take over the whole country.”
— 1965, “Zionist Logic” essay

“We need a free Palestine... We don't need a divided Palestine. We need a whole Palestine.”
— Speech in Detroit, 1965

June Jordan

“There are two issues of our time really that I think amount to a litmus test for morality, as far as I am concerned: one is, what you're prepared to do on behalf of the Palestinian people, and the other is, what are you prepared to do on behalf of gay and lesbian people?”
— “A Place of Rage” documentary, 1991

Huey P. Newton

“We support the Palestinians’ just struggle for liberation one hundred percent.”
— The Black Panther newspaper, 1970

Mohammad Ali

“The United States is the stronghold of Zionism and imperialism... I declare support for the Palestinian struggle to liberate their homeland and oust the Zionist invaders.”
— Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 1974

James Baldwin

“The state of Israel was not created for the salvation of the Jews; it was created for the salvation of the Western interests.”
— Essay in “The Nation”, 1979

Desmond Tutu

“We are opposed to the injustice of the illegal occupation of Palestine. We are opposed to the indiscriminate killings of Gaza. We are opposed to the indignity meted out to Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks. We are opposed to violence perpetrated by all parties. But we are not opposed to Jews.”
— Speech during protest, Cape Town, 1990

“I’ve been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa. I know first-hand that Israel has created an apartheid reality within its borders and through its occupation. The parallels to my own beloved South Africa are painfully stark indeed.”
— The Guardian, “Apartheid in the Holy Land”, 2002

“The Israeli government is placed on a pedestal and to criticise it is to be immediately dubbed anti-Semitic. People are scared in the US to say ‘wrong is wrong’ because the pro-Israeli lobby is powerful - very powerful. Well, so what? For goodness sake, this is God’s world! We live in a moral universe. The apartheid government [in South Africa] was very powerful, but today it no longer exists.”
— Foreword of Michael Prior’s “Speaking the Truth: Zionism, Israel, and Occupation”, 2005

Kwame Ture

“I am against Zionism … Zionism is a settler-colonialist ideology... Zionism must be destroyed. Judaism as a religion must be respected”

“Israel will always belong to the Palestinians just as America will always belong to the Indians.”
— Oberlin Alumni Magazine, 1996

Nelson Mandela

“The United Nations took a strong stand against apartheid; and over the years, an international consensus was built, which helped to bring an end to this iniquitous system…but we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians... All of us need to do more in supporting the struggle of the people of Palestine for self-determination.”
— Speech on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, 1997

“We agree with the United Nations that international disputes should be settled by peaceful means. The belligerent attitude which is adopted by the Israeli government is to us unacceptable. If one has to refer to any of the parties as a terrorist state, one might refer to the Israeli government, because they are the people who are slaughtering defenseless and innocent Arabs in the occupied [Palestinian] territories, and we don’t regard that as acceptable.”
— Press statement, 1990

“The histories of our two peoples, Palestinian and South African, correspond in such painful and poignant ways.”
— Speech in Gaza, 1999

Angela Davis

“We have a profound responsibility to support Palestinian struggles.”
— 2020, interview for Democracy Now!

“Black solidarity with Palestine allows us to understand the nature of contemporary racism more deeply.”

Alice Walker

“It is because I recognize the brutality with which my own multi-branched ancestors have been treated that I can identify the despicable, lawless, cruel, and sadistic behavior that has characterized Israel’s attempts to erase a people, the Palestinians, from their own land.”
— 2013, The World Will Follow Joy—Turning Madness into Flowers

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