Harlem to Hebron: the long history of Black solidarity with Palestinians

By Nesrine Malik, The Guardian

A mutual alliance between oppressed people has been revived with Israel’s full-scale invasion of Gaza

“Our freedom will be incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinian people.” When Nelson Mandela spoke those words in 1997, it resonated deeply across much of the Black diaspora, which has long felt a strong kinship with the struggles of the Palestinian people. In this week’s Long Wave, as yet more journalists are killed in Gaza, and some western countries make belated moves to recognise a Palestinian state, I examine the history of that Black solidarity, and how it has endured.

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A Palestinian state was first declared by Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, in 1988. Of the 84 countries that immediately recognised the new state, half were African or Caribbean countries. But statements of solidarity preceded recognition as the Palestinian issue was seen as emblematic of the struggles of so many postcolonial Black countries, and indeed that of Black emancipation movements in general.

The Black Panther Stokely Carmichael referred to Palestine as “the tip of Africa”. In a speech to the UN general assembly in 1994, Thomas Sankara, the president of Burkina Faso, said: “I think of the valiant Palestinian people, the families which have been splintered and split up and are wandering throughout the world seeking asylum. The Palestinians remind us all of the need and moral obligation to respect the rights of a people.”

Learn how anti-racist movements strengthen solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote about his experience on the West Bank.

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