Mondoweiss
Palestinian anti-racist struggle against Zionism and Black anti-racist struggle
against White supremacy are crucial to building a just world
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network on August 16, 2016 9 Comments
Poster published by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
circa 1988 Publisher. (Image: IJAN, Caption: Palestine Poster Project Archives)
The International Jewish anti-Zionist Network strongly embraces the entire
Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) platform, and we affirm its support for the
Palestinian struggle and efforts to Boycott, Divest, and Sanction Israel.
In the United States and internationally, racism has been central to how power
works and money flows. Both the Palestinian anti-racist struggle against
Zionism and the Black anti-racist struggle against White supremacy are crucial
to peoples’ efforts to build a just world. For that reason, the Black Power
movement both past and present is one of our key reference points in all fights
for justice. Since the 1960s, there has been a tradition of Jewish support for
the Black liberation struggle. Jews were important participants in the Freedom
Rides and their work to desegregate the South. In the late 1960s some of that
political and financial aid disappeared as the Black Power movement became
increasingly vocal in its anti-Zionism. Much of the financial contributions
from Jewish donors for the revolutionaries of the Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee evaporated when SNCC started to speak out strongly in
favor of liberation not just for Blacks but also for Palestinians.
Now, in response to the statement, we see certain elements of US Jewry,
self-appointed “Jewish leaders,” again attacking and rejecting the Black
anti-racist struggle for its support for Palestine.
The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) has responded most strongly to
the statement. It writes of the “co-opting and manipulation of a movement for
addressing concerns about racial disparities in criminal justice.” First, JCRC
misrepresents the movement. The M4BL’s platform speaks of “collective
liberation,” and condemns “patriarchy, exploitative capitalism, militarism, and
white supremacy.”
JCRC accuses the M4BL of manipulation, yet closes its eyes to the self-defined
goals of the Black liberation movement. It erases the long history of Black
internationalism and support for the Palestinian liberation struggle, including
the Black Panthers. It also erases the history of Palestinian support for Third
World liberation, and the long-standing solidarity between the struggles
against South African apartheid and Israeli apartheid. So, who is doing the
manipulating?
On this basis, the JCRC states, it “cannot and will not align ourselves with
organizations that falsely and maliciously assert that Israel is committing
‘genocide.’” It goes on to say, “[while we] dissociate ourselves from the Black
Lives Matter platform and those BLM organizations that embrace it, we recommit
ourselves unequivocally to the pursuit of justice for all Americans.” With
these words, it actually dissociates itself from much of the Black liberation
movement. On its website, the JCRC claims that its “purpose is to define and
advance the values, interests and priorities of the organized Jewish community
of Greater Boston.” It seems that one of those purposes is to define and limit
the scope of the Black movement in the United States. Furthermore, like so many
who fear the end of racial inequalities in the United States and globally, it
denies the specificity of the struggle of those who are in a daily fight for
their lives and existence as a result of racism.
We reject the JCRC’s attempt to define our “values” or “interests,” or to
suggest that Jews have no interest in a free Palestine. They may reject our
history of revolutionary organizing, struggle with the oppressed, and being
oppressed, but we do not. They do not speak for us and they do not define our
interests, which lie with the liberation struggles of Blacks, Palestinians, and
other oppressed people, not in setting limits to those struggles.
The statement from the JCRC, which has previously attacked Arab community
organizations, is not a surprise. The Combined Jewish Philanthropies, funded by
millionaires or billionaires Sheldon Adelson and Seth Klarman, is one of the
JCRC’s major funders. The Klarman Foundation is invested in oil and weapons
firms which profit from constant war in the Middle East, to which Israel
contributes. For that reason the repression of Palestine is a major “interest”
of the Klarman Foundation and those, like the JCRC, whom it supports.
The cover of the IJAN report “The Business of Backlash”
The Klarman Foundation, in addition to its charitable support for the JCRC,
supports “People-Centered Economic Development,” which seeks to destroy the
state welfare system and replace it with private business. This is a racist
agenda which disproportionately hurts poor Black communities, and is part of a
broader economic war on Black people.
The connection between the struggle in Palestine against the Israeli military
and state and the struggle against anti-Black and other racism in the United
States is not just one of solidarity. Local, state, and national police forces
and surveillance agencies contract with Israeli military personnel, and
security and weapon firms, to provide “anti-terrorist” (aka: anti-movement
repression) and population control training. Zionist organizations like the
Anti-Defamation League – which claim to be Jewish organizations – bring local
police forces to Israel to train with the Israeli military. And Israel and the
United States buy and sell weapons and security technology to further each
countries’ historic and current racist policing and attacks on Black, Brown,
and Palestinian/Arab communities.
(Photo: IJAN)
For that reason, IJAN has partnered with Palestinian and Arab, Black
liberation, immigrant justice, indigenous, and anti-policing and anti-prison
organizations to kick out the policing and paramilitary expo, Urban Shield,
from the San Francisco Bay Area. We have also participated in campaigns against
G4S, a multinational corporation specializing in private prison and security
services. We work to expose and stop these collaborations between the United
States and Israeli governments, corporations, and non-profits facilitating
brutal repression and slow-motion genocide and ethnic cleansing.
As Dream Defenders writes, “living in the US, the heart of global empire, we
bear a particular responsibility for global liberation. It is our taxpayer
dollars that are funding Israeli apartheid and a military industrial complex
that is devastating entire peoples and communities throughout the world.” We
could not agree more, and stand fully by the struggle of Black people for their
lives, and for justice and freedom.
The statement appears on the International Jewish anti-Zionist Network website
here.
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Palestinian anti-racist struggle against Zionism and Black anti-racist struggle
against White supremacy are crucial to building a just world
Activism
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network on August 16, 2016 9 Comments
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valid.
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valid.
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Poster published by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
circa 1988 Publisher. (Image: IJAN, Caption: Palestine Poster Project Archives)
The International Jewish anti-Zionist Network strongly embraces the entire
Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) platform, and we affirm its support for the
Palestinian struggle and efforts to Boycott, Divest, and Sanction Israel.
In the United States and internationally, racism has been central to how power
works and money flows. Both the Palestinian anti-racist struggle against
Zionism and the Black anti-racist struggle against White supremacy are crucial
to peoples’ efforts to build a just world. For that reason, the Black Power
movement both past and present is one of our key reference points in all fights
for justice. Since the 1960s, there has been a tradition of Jewish support for
the Black liberation struggle. Jews were important participants in the Freedom
Rides and their work to desegregate the South. In the late 1960s some of that
political and financial aid disappeared as the Black Power movement became
increasingly vocal in its anti-Zionism. Much of the financial contributions
from Jewish donors for the revolutionaries of the Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee evaporated when SNCC started to speak out strongly in
favor of liberation not just for Blacks but also for Palestinians.
Now, in response to the statement, we see certain elements of US Jewry,
self-appointed “Jewish leaders,” again attacking and rejecting the Black
anti-racist struggle for its support for Palestine.
The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) has responded most strongly to
the statement. It writes of the “co-opting and manipulation of a movement for
addressing concerns about racial disparities in criminal justice.” First, JCRC
misrepresents the movement. The M4BL’s platform speaks of “collective
liberation,” and condemns “patriarchy, exploitative capitalism, militarism, and
white supremacy.”
JCRC accuses the M4BL of manipulation, yet closes its eyes to the self-defined
goals of the Black liberation movement. It erases the long history of Black
internationalism and support for the Palestinian liberation struggle, including
the Black Panthers. It also erases the history of Palestinian support for Third
World liberation, and the long-standing solidarity between the struggles
against South African apartheid and Israeli apartheid. So, who is doing the
manipulating?
On this basis, the JCRC states, it “cannot and will not align ourselves with
organizations that falsely and maliciously assert that Israel is committing
‘genocide.’” It goes on to say, “[while we] dissociate ourselves from the Black
Lives Matter platform and those BLM organizations that embrace it, we recommit
ourselves unequivocally to the pursuit of justice for all Americans.” With
these words, it actually dissociates itself from much of the Black liberation
movement. On its website, the JCRC claims that its “purpose is to define and
advance the values, interests and priorities of the organized Jewish community
of Greater Boston.” It seems that one of those purposes is to define and limit
the scope of the Black movement in the United States. Furthermore, like so many
who fear the end of racial inequalities in the United States and globally, it
denies the specificity of the struggle of those who are in a daily fight for
their lives and existence as a result of racism.
We reject the JCRC’s attempt to define our “values” or “interests,” or to
suggest that Jews have no interest in a free Palestine. They may reject our
history of revolutionary organizing, struggle with the oppressed, and being
oppressed, but we do not. They do not speak for us and they do not define our
interests, which lie with the liberation struggles of Blacks, Palestinians, and
other oppressed people, not in setting limits to those struggles.
The statement from the JCRC, which has previously attacked Arab community
organizations, is not a surprise. The Combined Jewish Philanthropies, funded by
millionaires or billionaires Sheldon Adelson and Seth Klarman, is one of the
JCRC’s major funders. The Klarman Foundation is invested in oil and weapons
firms which profit from constant war in the Middle East, to which Israel
contributes. For that reason the repression of Palestine is a major “interest”
of the Klarman Foundation and those, like the JCRC, whom it supports.
http://www.ijan.org/resources/business-of-backlash/http://www.ijan.org/resources/business-of-backlash/
The cover of the IJAN report “The Business of Backlash”
The Klarman Foundation, in addition to its charitable support for the JCRC,
supports “People-Centered Economic Development,” which seeks to destroy the
state welfare system and replace it with private business. This is a racist
agenda which disproportionately hurts poor Black communities, and is part of a
broader economic war on Black people.
The connection between the struggle in Palestine against the Israeli military
and state and the struggle against anti-Black and other racism in the United
States is not just one of solidarity. Local, state, and national police forces
and surveillance agencies contract with Israeli military personnel, and
security and weapon firms, to provide “anti-terrorist” (aka: anti-movement
repression) and population control training. Zionist organizations like the
Anti-Defamation League – which claim to be Jewish organizations – bring local
police forces to Israel to train with the Israeli military. And Israel and the
United States buy and sell weapons and security technology to further each
countries’ historic and current racist policing and attacks on Black, Brown,
and Palestinian/Arab communities.
(Photo: IJAN)
For that reason, IJAN has partnered with Palestinian and Arab, Black
liberation, immigrant justice, indigenous, and anti-policing and anti-prison
organizations to kick out the policing and paramilitary expo, Urban Shield,
from the San Francisco Bay Area. We have also participated in campaigns against
G4S, a multinational corporation specializing in private prison and security
services. We work to expose and stop these collaborations between the United
States and Israeli governments, corporations, and non-profits facilitating
brutal repression and slow-motion genocide and ethnic cleansing.
As Dream Defenders writes, “living in the US, the heart of global empire, we
bear a particular responsibility for global liberation. It is our taxpayer
dollars that are funding Israeli apartheid and a military industrial complex
that is devastating entire peoples and communities throughout the world.” We
could not agree more, and stand fully by the struggle of Black people for their
lives, and for justice and freedom.
The statement appears on the International Jewish anti-Zionist Network website
