Shame on Senator Kamala Harris. But if you remember only one point
from this article, forget Kamala Harris and recall the words of James
Baldwin who famously wrote that, "The state of Israel was not created
for the salvation of the Jews; it was created for the salvation of the
Western interests."
It seems to me that a large number of Black Politicians have
compromised their long standing social values in order to appear to be
unquestionable, Patriotic Americans. In so doing, they have been
rendered useless to the cause of Black Justice in America, or Human
Respect among the down trodden billions of the world.
Carl Jarvis
On 12/27/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Alternet
Published on Alternet (https://www.alternet.org)
Home > By Clasping Hands with Netanyahu, Sen. Kamala Harris Reveals Herself
as Just Another 'Progressive Except For Palestine'
By Clasping Hands with Netanyahu, Sen. Kamala Harris Reveals Herself as
Just
Another 'Progressive Except For Palestine'
By Hamzah Raza [1] / AlterNet [2]
December 18, 2017, 10:43 AM GMT
As the second black female senator in American history, Kamala Harris has
been a pioneer in American politics. Many consider her to be a serious
contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. Harris has
even been branded [3] by the New York Times as a "'Top Cop' in the era of
Black Lives Matter," a tip of the hat to the former California attorney
general's progressive politics and support for issues of social justice.
But
while Harris has been praised as someone who fights racism in the United
States, some critics feel she has failed to be consistent in that approach
abroad.
On November 20, California Sen. Kamala Harris met [4] with Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Through the meeting, Harris ignored the
avalanche of officially sanctioned [5] anti-black racism in Israel, turned
her back on historic black solidarity with the Palestinian cause and
ignored
the human rights demands of Palestinians living under apartheid. She
revealed herself as the latest in a long line of "Progressives Except for
Palestine," and one of the most egregious examples given her personal and
political background.
The day before Netanyahu's meeting with Harris, the Israeli prime minister
announced [9] a plan to expel 40,000 non-Jewish African migrants, branding
the asylum seekers as "infiltrators" whose existence poses a threat to
Israel's "Jewish character." This came after years of anti-black protests
in
Israel where Israeli politicians across the political spectrum, including
those from Netanyahu's own party, made statements referring [10] to African
immigrants as a "cancer" and "emitting a bad stench" and "likely to cause
all kinds of diseases."
Historical black solidarity with Palestine
For over half a century, black Americans have stood in solidarity with the
Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation. The Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee [11], the Black Panther Party [12], and the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference [13] were all groups that consistently
stood
in solidarity with the Palestinian cause. Malcolm X [14], Angela Davis [15]
and Stokely Carmichael [11] were passionate opponents of Zionism and James
Baldwin famously wrote [16] that, "The state of Israel was not created for
the salvation of the Jews; it was created for the salvation of the Western
interests."
In the present day, black intellectuals such as Michelle Alexander [17],
Eddie Glaude [18], Alice Walker [19] and Cornel West have all endorsed a
movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions, or BDS, to pressure the
state
of Israel to comply with international human rights conventions. West has
referred [20] to the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza as "the hood on
steroids." Athlete Colin Kaepernick has endorsed [21] the BDS movement. The
Movement for Black Lives platform supported the BDS movement and condemned
Israel as an apartheid state. Black Lives Matter activists have been taking
yearly solidarity trips to Palestine since 2014. The most recent trip
included [22] rapper Vic Mensa, who is currently on tour with Jay Z. Black
artists such as Snoop Dogg, Future and Lauryn Hill have refused [23] to
perform in Israel, in cooperation with the BDS movement's call for cultural
boycott of Israel.
Black American solidarity with Palestine has been accompanied by a broader
international black solidarity with Palestine. The African Charter on Human
and Peoples Rights, ratified by 53 of 54 African nations, calls [24] for
the
elimination of Zionism as necessary to bringing about an end to racism.
A week after Harris' meeting with Netanyahu, Mandla Mandela, the grandson
of
Nelson Mandela and Member of Parliament in South Africa, visited occupied
Palestine and stated [25] that "Palestinians are being subjected to the
worst version of apartheid." Mandela cited the words of his grandfather,
who
said that, "Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the
Palestinians."
Israel's racist demographic engineering
At a speech at AIPAC in 2016, Harris cited [26] her biracial background as
her inspiration for supporting the US sending tens of billions of dollars
in
aid to the Israeli military. Yet the Israeli government demands its right
to
engineer demographic purity through violence, walls and laws that have
forbidden Palestinian residency in certain areas and even restrict
marriages
between Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza and Israeli
citizens.
Her opportunism mirrors that of another Democratic black senator in
Congress, Cory Booker. Last December, I attended [27] a town hall with
Booker. After the town hall, a constituent asked Booker about illegal
settlements in the West Bank that were destroying his family's village in
Palestine. In response, Booker brought the conversation around to Israel's
"right to defend herself." When I asked Booker if he considered Israel to
be
an apartheid state, he responded "no."
Booker is one of the leading recipients of pro-Israel cash, which goes a
long way toward explaining how he can so shamelessly square his pro-Israel
politics with rhetorical support for civil rights in America.
Progressive Democrats rally for Palestinian human rights while Harris turns
her back
By clasping hands with Netanyahu, Harris stood against the historical
momentum for justice that is even sweeping through the halls of Congress.
This past June, 35 members of Congress wrote [28] a letter in support of
Issa Amro, an activist from the occupied city of Hebron who has been lauded
as the Palestinian Gandhi for his nonviolent approach to confronting
Israeli
occupation. Israel's occupation authorities had put Amro on trial for 18
trumped-up charges, ranging from "insulting a soldier" to "assault."
Amnesty
International has stated that "the deluge of charges against Issa Amro do
not stand up to any scrutiny," describing the charges as "baseless and
politically motivated." In the letter, the 35 House Democrats defended
Amro's right to peacefully protest.
On November 14, 10 House Democrats co-sponsored [29] the Promoting Human
Rights by Ending Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act, which
requires the Secretary of State to annually certify that no American tax
dollars given in the form of military aid to Israel are used to "support
military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian
children."
In an unprecedented move on November 29, 10 Democratic senators wrote [30]
a
letter to Benjamin Netanyahu urging him to put a halt to the Israeli
government's planned demolition of the Palestinian village of Susiya, in
order to create yet another illegal settlement. Cory Booker and Kamala
Harris did not sign the letter.
As activists, intellectuals, entertainers, and progressive forces within
the
Democratic Party began to advocate for Palestinians living under
occupation,
Harris remains a prisoner of her own opportunism. Desperate to remain in
good standing with the powerful pro-Israel lobby, Harris has attempted to
reconcile her progressive politics at home with her support for an
apartheid
regime that is responsible for racism and violence against communities of
color abroad.
Hamzah Raza is a sophomore at Vanderbilt University in Nashville,
Tennessee.
Follow him on Twitter @hr609.
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Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [31]
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Source URL:
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alestine
Links:
[1] https://www.alternet.org/authors/hamzah-raza
[2] http://alternet.org
[3]
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/magazine/kamala-harris-a-top-cop-in-the-e
ra-of-black-lives-matter.html
[4] https://twitter.com/netanyahu/status/932684579097534465?lang=en
[5]
https://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/israel-white-supremacy-anti-black-
racism-african-refugees-ethiopian-jews
[6] https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[7] https://t.co/L5qdcgwWG0
[8]
https://twitter.com/netanyahu/status/932684579097534465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[9]
http://www.dw.com/en/israel-to-deport-40000-african-refugees-without-their-c
onsent/a-41443084
[10]
https://www.thenation.com/article/israels-new-racism-persecution-african-mig
rants-holy-land/
[11] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z0Etv9BPE4
[12]
http://blacklivesmatteralliancebroward.org/why-the-black-panther-party-pales
tine-solidarity-is-still-relevant-today/
[13]
http://www.nytimes.com/1979/08/21/archives/civil-rights-leader-backs-cause-o
f-plo-after-meeting-at-un.html
[14] http://www.malcolm-x.org/docs/gen_zion.htm
[15]
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/angela-davis-supp
ort-bds-and-palestine-will-be-free
[16] https://www.thenation.com/article/open-letter-born-again/
[17] http://fpif.org/gaza-ferguson-exposing-toolbox-racist-repression/
[18]
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/usaama-alazami/princetons-faculty-petiti_b_61
29440.html
[19]
https://www.democracynow.org/2012/9/28/palestine_conditions_more_brutal_than
_in
[20]
http://portside.org/2015-03-09/cornel-west-gaza-hood-steroids-thanks-israel
[21]
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/michael-f-brown/colin-kaepernick-pays-p
rice-standing-justice
[22]
https://www.facebook.com/PalestineInAmerica/photos/pcb.1510906112332666/1510
905985666012/?type=3
[23]
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20171030-growing-number-of-hip-hop-artists
-cancel-gigs-in-israel-report/
[24] http://www.achpr.org/instruments/achpr/
[25]
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mandla-Mandela-Israel-Imposing-Worst-
Version-of-Apartheid-20171129-0003.html
[26] https://twitter.com/zaidjilani/status/862028753433702400
[27]
https://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/meet-cory-bookers-top-donor-group-
right-wing-islamophobic-pro-israel-outfit-backs
[28]
https://www.fcnl.org/updates/35-reps-stand-up-for-palestinian-human-rights-9
10
[29] http://mondoweiss.net/2017/11/palestinian-introduced-congress/
[30]
https://theintercept.com/2017/11/29/in-unprecedented-move-ten-democratic-sen
ators-write-to-israeli-leader-netanyahu-and-demand-he-halt-demolition-of-pal
estinian-village/
[31] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=Typo on By Clasping Hands
with
Netanyahu, Sen. Kamala Harris Reveals Herself as Just Another
'Progressive Except For
Palestine'&body=URL:http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/kamala-har
ris-progressive-except-palestine
[32] https://www.alternet.org/
[33] https://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
