While recent marches in solidarity with Palestine are taking place globally, solidarity between Black and Palestinian movements is nothing new.
Black-Palestinian solidarity has been built on decades of mutual support and unity, rooted in a shared struggle that gave way to a deeper political understanding. From the civil rights movement in the U.S. to current resistance against Israeli forces, these two communities have come together, calling for justice and liberation.
With recent claims that the two communities bump heads, it’s important to look back on how extensive their solidarity has been.
When examining the relationship between Black and Palestinian liberation struggles, it’s crucial to explore the late 1960s. During this time, leaders of the Black Power movement saw the fight for racial justice as a broader issue, looking specifically at the anti-colonial struggle.
In the summer of 1967, Ethel Minor, a Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee (SNCC) member, published a letter titled “Third World Round-Up: The Palestine Problem: Test Your Knowledge.” In the letter, Minor challenged mainstream views on the Israeli occupation of Palestine, urging readers to educate themselves on the displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 Nakba. While this piece sparked controversy within the group, it marked a critical moment in the emergence of Black internationalist perspectives, linking domestic civil rights to global liberation movements.
Huey Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party (BPP), supported the Palestinian liberation movement. He believed that “Israel was created by Western imperialism and is maintained by Western firepower,” drawing similarities between the oppression of Black-Americans in the Americas and Palestinians in the Middle East. Other BPP members, like David Hilliard, the party’s chief of staff, shared this perspective.
When assessing the policing, surveillance, and incarceration the Black community has been forced to endure in the U.S., it becomes easier to see the similarities between the attacks Palestinians face under Zionism. Additionally, the belief that Palestinians have no claim to the land they reside in and should, therefore, allow Israeli occupation to occur has connections to white supremacist rhetoric, a parallel that previous Black allies have drawn while showing support for Palestine.
Ultimately, this rhetoric, which denies an Indigenous people’s right to existence and self-governance, mirrors the logic of settler colonialism, one that has underpinned white supremacy in the U.S. Black activists have long understood and researched these connections.
In Freedom Is a Constant Struggle, Dr. Angela Davis examines the ties between global systems of oppression. She argues that the militarized frameworks that connect local police departments in the U.S. to Israeli security forces, often through training programs and shared military technology, are no coincidence; they are part of a larger global network of racialized control and oppression.
Davis and other Black radical scholars have challenged the framing of Zionism as solely a project of Jewish safety. While the issue of anti-semitism is alarming and should be addressed (and has been by the Black community), it’s just as dangerous to ignore the damaging racist implications the ideology holds. They believe that it’s important to investigate how it has been weaponized as a vehicle to achieve colonial domination and morphed into an agent of white supremacy in the context of Palestine. A tactic that mirrors how increased policing and carceral punishment were used to justify violence against Black communities in the U.S.
Ultimately, the relationship between Black and Palestinian liberation is complex but rooted in the shared mistreatment and oppression under white supremacy. Educating myself on the similarities between the two allowed me to further engage in local advocacy for Palestine. It will continue to shape and frame my activism for years to come.