Kamala Harris and fortifying Black-Palestinian solidarity
Over the past month, as Kamala Harris’s campaign for the US presidency has gained momentum, hopes she would take a strong stance on the genocide in Gaza have dwindled.
Her candidacy has brought disillusionment among supporters of the Palestinian cause, and with it, growing tensions between anti-genocide activists and Harris supporters.The tension was reflected in a bitter exchange earlier this month between TikTok creators Maya Abdullah and Tori Grier, which fuelled a debate on social media about racism and disparate community interests. Grier’s supporters argue the Black community should vote for Harris to avoid increased violence and discrimination under another Trump administration. On the other hand, Abdullah’s supporters contend Palestinian Americans should not be pressured to vote for someone who has enabled the genocide of their relatives in Palestine and that allies from other ethnic and religious groups should stand in solidarity with them.
It is unclear to what extent this debate is changing voting attitudes, but if it deepens, it could affect Black-Palestinian anticolonial solidarity at a critical moment in history. This would be a loss for both communities.
History of Black-Palestinian solidarity
The engagement between the Black and Palestinian communities in the United States and beyond has a long history. Its roots lie in the recognition that for Black and brown people, oppression manifests itself in similar ways: as white supremacy, structural racism, Islamophobia and imperialism which subjugate, dispossess and kill.
It is no coincidence that in the US, the Black liberation movement features influential leaders like Malcolm X, Kwame Ture, Huey P Newton, Angela Davis and others who have spoken up about the colonisation and occupation of Palestine. In the 1960s, amid the civil rights struggle, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Black Panther Party repeatedly emphasised the need for anticolonial alliances to confront white supremacy, Zionism, capitalism and imperialism.The African anticolonial struggles also repeatedly made parallels with the Palestinian struggle. To this day, the Palestinian cause remains close to the heart of the South African and Algerian nations, who led their own struggles against colonial rule.
In 1969, seven years after it liberated itself from French colonial rule, Algeria hosted the inaugural Pan-African Cultural Festival, positioning itself as a leader of revolutionary struggle. Hundreds of delegates attended the event from 31 independent African nations, including representatives from the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO). The festival was crucial in uniting the struggles of Africa and Palestine into a broader global movement against imperialism.More recently, over the past decade, the pro-Palestinian movement has supported and directly engaged with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, as it has risen against anti-Black violence, particularly following the murder of George Floyd. For a growing number of Black Americans, the parallels between their own oppression and that of Palestinians living under Israeli apartheid and occupation have become apparent.
After Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza, key organisations of the Black community called for a ceasefire.
Among them are the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the leading civil rights organisation in the US, the Council of Bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and The Martin Luther King Jr Center. In June, the NAACP issued a bold statement, urging the Biden administration to halt weapons shipments to Israel.
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