Oct
16
2024
By Priti Nemani, BMP Staff
In October 2023, as the genocide in Gaza began and Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim community members began experiencing backlash and scapegoating here in the United States, Muslims for Just Futures and Building Movement Project (BMP) started to convene weekly calls for organizations and to develop materials and resources, relying on our past experiences to bolster present rapid response efforts. The observations and recommendations from those calls led to the 100 Days report, and now, one year since the genocide began, we take another moment to look back on the solidarity with Palestine not just over these last twelve months but the decades preceding as well.
Decades of Cross-Movement Solidarity with Palestine
The June-July 1967 issue of the Student Non-Violence Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Newsletter published an informational article by civil rights activist Ethel Minor setting forth key facts about Palestine and Israel “since we Afro-Americans are an integral part of The Third World… it is indeed necessary for us to know and understand what our brothers are doing in their homelands.” SNCC would later issue a formal statement in solidarity with the movement for Palestinian liberation. From the Civil Rights Movement to the Black Power Movement, Black organizers made plain their connection to the Palestinian people through their shared experiences and a commitment to co-conspiring together for collective liberation. The threads of solidarity sewn long ago remain intact and are still holding strong today.
In a similar vein, in 1973, Palestinians offered to be frontline responders in support of the struggle for Indigenous sovereignty when the PLO offered to support the American Indian Movement in its fight to reclaim Wounded Knee, South Dakota; and, during the 1974 Treaty Council meetings at Standing Rock, Palestinians provided the American Indian Movement with security support.
The connections forged between the movements for Black Lives and Indigenous sovereignty with the struggle for Palestinian liberation in the 1960s and after continue to reverberate through the movement for Palestine today, from residents living in Palestine tweeting advice to frontline responders on protesting through tear gas during the 2014 uprisings in Ferguson, Missouri, to 2016 when Palestinian youth joined water protectors at Standing Rock in solidarity with the No Dakota Access Pipeline Movement.
In the year since October 7, many communities have worked diligently to follow the examples of ancestors who co-conspired with Palestinians for collective liberation. Here, we uplift glimpses from a few of those moments in the last year that offer wise, often creative, lessons for how communities can stand up for and in solidarity with one another.
Solidarity in 2023-2024: Ceasefire Resolutions
Over the last 12 months, over 170 cities, counties, states and First Nations have passed resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, as tracked and mapped through an ongoing collaboration between BMP and MJF. Here, we share two examples of how different communities calling for a ceasefire in Gaza recognize connections and commonalities between their own communities and the Palestinian people.
In December 2023, the Oceti Sakowin Treaty Council for the Great Sioux Nation passed a ceasefire resolution that asserted the Nation’s “full solidarity with the Palestinian people and full liberation of their homeland” and further reminding the world that the Nation’s history, particularly in the aftermath of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, paralleled that of the Palestinian struggle, though “under a different timeline of settler colonization.”
The Latine/x and immigrant communities in Cudahy, California, similarly recognized the connections between their own lived experiences and those of the Palestinian people “in terms of the exploitation, [and] the colonialism that was happening in their home country,” according to Mayor Daisy Lomeli, who spearheaded passage of the Cudahy ceasefire resolution in November 2023. Inspired by the Cudahy coalition-building and ceasefire resolution, the Orange County grassroots group Latino & Muslim Unity (LMU) pushed the City of Santa Ana to take action, where a ceasefire resolution passed in March 2024.
Solidarity Encampments
To stand in solidarity with fellow Palestinian students, college students from all backgrounds organized encampments during the spring of 2024, where they deepened their connection to the Palestinian struggle and interconnected global movements against oppression. By participating in the encampments, many students risked their enrollment status, access to financial aid, and endured doxing and harassment.
Statements in Solidarity with Palestine
To empower groups and communities to speak out their shared values in a solidarity statement, BMP created several resources for movement partners, including a guide called Constructing Solidarity Narratives in Challenging Times and a Solidarity Is This podcast episode that offer direction and ideas for solidarity narratives during times of challenge. Here, we lift up just a few of the powerful statements issued in support of Palestine that express solidarity in meaningful ways.
Queer Crescent, an organization that centers LGBTQI+ Muslims, organized a statement from over 300 LGBTQ organizations and individuals that specifically rejects the strategy of “pinkwashing” that “erases the existence of queer Palestinians” and articulates a vision of co-liberation, declaring that “queer and trans liberation can never come at the expense of the Palestinian people.” Black for Palestine organized a statement in 2015 signed by over 240 organizations as well as 6,000 Black activists, artists, scholars, and students, that connects common roots of injustice and affirms the “long tradition of Black people standing with other peoples around the world in our shared struggle against oppression, racism, and colonialism.” Similarly, a statement issued by Hindus for Human Rights earlier this month cites the critical parallels between Hindu Supremacy and Zionism in the fight for collective liberation from ethnosupremacy. Jewish Voice for Peace organized numerous statements within the community of Jewish anti-zionists that center the Palestinian people and their struggle, such as an Open Call from Jewish academics, researchers, and higher education professionals, a statement from JVP descendants of survivors on Holocaust Remembrance Day, and a statement from the JVP Rabbinical Council of U.S.-based rabbis.
Direct Actions and Solidarity
In addition to organizing solidarity statements, pushing for ceasefire resolutions, and setting up campus encampments, community groups have organized numerous direct actions this past year to support Palestine. Of note, JVP celebrated the last night of Hanukkah 2023 by coordinating demonstrations in 8 cities around the U.S. Like JVP, Hindus for Human Rights (H4RH) has used faith to fuel its support for Palestine. Not only did H4RH delegates join a multifaith coalition to the West Bank, but the organization routinely participates in interfaith dialogues, demonstrations, and programming to integrate liberatory theology into actions for justice. Black, Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and Arab (BAMEMSA) groups have raised awareness about anti-Semitism in collaboration with Jewish partners across the country, including in Oakland, where a menorah was vandalized in December 2023. Christians for a Free Palestine took the internet by storm when they scheduled a peaceful protest against Christian Zionism to disrupt the lunch hour at the congressional cafeteria on Capitol Hill. Interfaith Action for Palestine brought together dozens of faith-based organizations to disrupt a Christian nationalist function in Maryland and Washington, D.C. Organizations engaged in interfaith dialogue and action are showing how to lead as co-conspirators engaged in a fight for a shared vision of collective liberation, often through risk-laden, disruptive direct actions.
Over the past year, communities and individuals harnessed their power and wisdom to design a shared vision of the future, from Cudahy, California, to the Great Sioux Nation, to Palestine. At BMP, we continue to support our partner organizations in the BAMEMSA space, and to strengthen our solidarity practices towards a more just world.
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