Anyone who is watching recent events in the media should be aware that there is something happening in the Levant at this time. While the media often describes what’s going on as a war between Israel and Hamas, closer investigation reveals that what is actually happening is an ongoing genocide of Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli state. A lot of people feel that if something doesn’t immediately seem as if it affects Black people in the United States (a.k.a New Afrikans), we shouldn’t be concerned about it. It’s important to remember, however, that the struggles of peoples around the world against the oppression that they face are all fundamentally connected. What’s going on in Palestine does mean something to Black / New Afrikan people in Atlanta, and we all must understand why.
First, it is important to establish that Israel is a White supremacist and settler-colonial state. Israel came into being as a result of the Zionist movement, which was a movement that was based on the idea of creating an ethno-state for Jewish people through some form of colonization. This movement was recognized and backed by one of the largest colonizing powers in the world at the time – the United Kingdom -- through means of the Balfour Declaration, which proclaimed that the land of Palestine should be turned into a Jewish state.
In 1948, a horrible event known as the Nakba occurred. During this event, White Israeli settlers from Europe seized control of the land of Palestinians, took their homes, and caused the displacement of countless Palestinians. Terrorism was also used by the Israelis in order to force the Palestinians off of their land. Settler-colonialism and land theft are an ongoing process in Palestine. Since the Nakba, Palestinians have been progressively pushed into distinct areas like the Gaza Strip or the West Bank, to refugee camps, or even out of their homeland entirely. Palestinians are forced to live under the total domination of the Israelis; their movement, their employment, where they live, and other aspects of life are controlled and determined by Israelis.
New Afrikans / Black people living in the U.S. are actually living in a country with a similar origin to the state of Israel. The United States is a polity that was founded by White European settlers who stole land from the indigenous people of North America and stole Black people from Africa in order to labor for them. The United States was built on the idea of White supremacy, with our people, indigenous people, and others finding ourselves excluded from the franchise, excluded from control of land, and facing harassment and terror by the state and the police.
Black / New Afrikan people have also experienced land theft and displacement through White terrorism. One example of this is the events leading up to the Great Migration in which countless Black / New Afrikan people left the Black Belt South and headed north, in part because White supremacist terrorist entities like the Ku Klux Klan were violently preventing our people from having any control over land through means of terror. In fact, there are a lot of parallels between the situation that we are in and the situation that Palestinians are in.
Beyond the parallels, however, there are some significant connections between the occupation of Palestine and the oppression that Black / New Afrikan people are facing right here, right now. One example of that kind of connection is the relationship that Atlanta police have to Israel through the GILEE program. The police in Atlanta go to Israel to train with the Israeli Occupation Forces and exchange tactics with them. This has concrete consequences. For example, Atlanta is the most surveilled city in the United States, and that fact definitely contributes to increased rates of incarceration of our people, since Atlanta is a city with a very significant Black / New Afrikan population.
Atlanta’s surveillance system is actually modeled off of the surveillance system in Israel. This is but one example of how some of the same methods that are used by Israel in order to dominate Palestinians are being used against Black / New Afrikan people here in Atlanta. The Israeli Occupation Forces regularly gun down and tear gas innocent Palestinians. Similarly, the Atlanta Police Department kills innocent Black people — like Rayshard Brooks, Jimmy Atchinson, and Johnny Hollman — in addition to tear gassing folks like they did to protesters in 2020 and during the ongoing Stop Cop City struggle. This is not a coincidence. Both entities serve an analogous role of repressing oppressed people and defending White supremacy and exploitation, so they learn from each other.
It is important to combat the international unity of oppressors with our own international solidarity. Historically, Black liberation organizations and their Palestinian counterparts have worked together to combat oppression. The Black Panther Party supported the Palestinian liberation struggle and members of the Party even visited Palestine to work with and learn from Palestinian liberation organizations. Freedom fighters against colonialism in Africa often trained with Palestinian fighters to get the knowledge necessary to free their nations. One of the Palestinian resistance factions, the Palestine Liberation Organization, even participated in the sixth Pan-African Congress. More recently, Palestinians gave Black / New Afrikan people advice about dealing with tear gas during mass protests against police brutality.
We need to keep up this trend by continuing to stand with Palestinians in struggle today as they continue to stand with us. You don’t have to be an activist or organizer to do this. Anyone can come out to rallies in support of Palestine, share about the ongoing repression of Palestinians on social media, or boycott companies that are supporting the genocide of Palestinians like Starbucks. Every little bit counts! Just know that what’s happening in Palestine has everything to do with us, and what’s happening to us has everything to do with Palestine. Let’s stand together and resist oppression of both our peoples, and all peoples!