Solidarity With The People of Palestine, Statement From The Frontlines of BLM

Solidarity With The People of Palestine

May 28, 2021

Our BLM 10+ chapters condemn the ongoing violence against Palestinians in East Jerusalem and Gaza by the state of Israel. We stand in solidarity with Palestinians fighting settler-colonial occupation and genocide. Palestinians have a right to resist colonial domination. Further, Palestinians have the right to live free from fear of expulsion and violence, and in full self-determination, including the end of colonial occupation and the realization of the Palestinian state.

We condemn the scenes coming out of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, where Israeli soldiers are using force against Palestinian worshippers, and Gaza where Palestinians are subjected to incessant air strikes that have thus far claimed the lives of hundreds people a third of them children. BLM chapters also condemn the current situation in the Sheikh Jarrah enclave in Jerusalem where Israeli settlers are forcibly evicting Palestinian residents from their ancestral homes, as they have done since the Nakba of 1948, in order to replace them with Israeli settlers. These scenes of state violence harken to our struggle as Black people fighting against a repressive and murderous state apparatus.

Our deep roots of solidarity are part of a rich tradition of mutual support and exchange between Palestine and US-based liberation movements, from the Black Panthers Party to the most recent communication between activists in Gaza and Ferguson, MO. Our struggles are connected in many ways, not least because the same Israeli forces violently expelling the original inhabitants of Sheikh Jarrah train repressive police forces around the world, including the US.

We stand together with our Palestinian comrades and invite all who stand on the side of freedom and self-determination to join us in condemning these senseless acts of violence and in working to end the state of Israel’s campaign of terror against the Palestinian people. We demand that the US lawmakers cease the sale of arms to the Israeli government and divert the 3.9 billion dollars in US aid earmarked for Israel to the victims of violence. The people united will never be defeated!

With Love and Solidarity from,