African Americans for Justice in the Middle East & North Africa: ‘Silence in the face of oppression is unacceptable’

Israeli soldiers at a West Bank checkpoint. (Photo: Rina Castelnuovo/New York Times)

The following statement was signed by over 50 African American activists and scholars. Signatories below.

“African Americans for Justice in the Middle East & North Africa” is an initiative that has been created in order to build solidarity, in a true Pan-African and Black Internationalist tradition, with the peoples and progressive social movements in North Africa and the Middle East that have been engaged in struggles for democracy, justice and national liberation. We come together from different organizations, institutions and movements, and some as simply individuals of conscience, who have concluded that silence in the face of injustice and oppression is unacceptable. We believe that African Americans in the United States of America have a special role in speaking out against enemies of peace, justice and democracy, both foreign and domestic.

The entire expanse of the African American experience in the USA has been one that has involved our fight for freedom and justice on the national and international planes. In addition to opposing slavery and the slave trade, African Americans in the 19th century expressed solidarity with the Irish struggle for freedom from Britain and Haiti’s continuous struggles for sovereignty. In the 20th century African Americans were not only central to the creation of a global Pan-Africanist movement, but also situated ourselves in struggles around Irish liberation, opposition to the US occupation of Haiti, opposition to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, supporting (and serving in) the anti-fascist struggle in the Spanish civil war, supporting the independence struggle of the Indian subcontinent and those of African former colonies in the aftermath of World War II, solidarity with the Cuban people, opposition to US involvement in Indochina, the struggle against South African apartheid and the list could go on to delineate numerous other struggles and efforts.

Despite white supremacist attempts—liberal and explicitly right-wing—to restrict the African American voice to matters of domestic race and African American issues, African Americans have regularly broken free of the mold. Though this has often come at some cost, such as when Dr. Martin Luther King spoke out against US aggression in Vietnam in 1967, it has largely been inconceivable for African Americans to remain silent in the face of global injustice.

With this as background, African Americans for Justice in the Middle East and North Africa has emerged as another voice for global peace and freedom that is united by the following:

• We support all genuine, progressive struggles for national liberation, national sovereignty, justice and democracy in the Middle East and North Africa.
• The Arab democratic uprising—often referenced as the “Arab Spring”—has been a global altering process that has unleashed forces in struggle against neo-liberalism, neo-colonialism, and despotism, It has served as an inspiration for resistance movements in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as in Europe (against neo-liberal/austerity economics), and here in the USA with the Madison, Wisconsin demonstrations in early 2011 and more recently the Occupy Wall Street/Occupy Together movement.
• Central to the struggles in the Middle East and North Africa has been the struggle of the Palestinian people, a struggle for national liberation, the right of return, equality and justice. AAJMENA is deeply committed to this struggle and wish to more fully integrate this into the lives and struggles of the African American people.
• We recognize that the USA has historically played an unhelpful and, indeed, backward role in the Middle East and North Africa. This has included supporting despots, the crushing of nationalist, progressive and left-wing movements and governments, providing near unconditional support for Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people, covert operations that infringe on national sovereignty, and direct military provocations and invasions. The USA must be called upon to repair the damage that it has done in this region by first doing no harm, and must instead recognize and respect the aspirations of the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa for sovereignty, justice and democracy.
• We see the struggles in the Middle East and North Africa as struggles that have much in common with those conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa and in the African Diaspora. As such we are duty bound to address them and integrate them into the larger fight for global justice and peace.

We are, therefore, committing ourselves to:

• Promoting education and discussion within Black America regarding the issues and struggles facing the people of the Middle East and North Africa.
• Building solidarity with genuine, popular democratic struggles in the Middle East and North Africa for justice, democracy and national liberation and national sovereignty.
• Organizing a vocal constituency of African Americans to take up this banner.
• Promoting a clear demand for justice for the Palestinian people as central to peace and stability in the Middle East. In doing so we join together with non-African Americans, people of different faiths, including but not limited to Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, animists and others, who are committed to justice for the Palestinian people. We believe that there is a special significance to working with progressive Jews in the USA and Israel who share our abhorrence to the system of oppression experienced by the Palestinian people.
• Advancing the demand for a democratic foreign policy on the part of the USA that is based on mutual respect, non-intervention in the affairs of other nation-states, recognition of national self-determination and repairing the damage that it has created through its imperial foreign actions
• Building links with progressive social movements in the Middle East and North Africa.

Signatories

Dr. Makungu Akinyela
Kali Akuno
Dr. Jared Ball
Ajamu Baraka
Carl Bloice
Herb Boyd
Rev. Dr. Carolyn Boyd
Dr. Gloria W. Brown
Rev. Heber Brown
Christopher Cathcart
Felicia Eaves
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Patricia Ann Ford
Dr. Angela Gilliam
Rev. Graylan Hagler
Dr. Jennifer Hamer
Dr. Jesse Hargrove
Dr. James H. Harris
Lela Harris
Mark Harrison
Dr. James Jennings
Theon Johnson III
Dr. Joseph Jones
Dr. Joseph Jordan
Dr. Robin Kelley
Mel King
Rev. D.A. Lams
Dr. Clarence Lang
Rev. Philip Lawson
Gerald Lenoir
Dr. Clarence Lusane
Rev. Brandon McAfee
Rev. John McCullough
Leila McDowell
Dr. Anthony Monteiro
Rev. Bernard Mwepu
Dr. Premilla Nadasen
Rev. J. Herbert Nelson
Rev. Mulenga Nkole
Rev. Mark Norman
Dr. Suleiman Nyang
Garry Owens
Rev. Jonathan Pemberton
Rev. Christopher Pierson
Dr. Charles “Cappy” Pinderhughes
Dr. Barbara Ransby
Jamala Rogers
Rev. Dr. Boykin Sanders
Rev. Quincy Shannon
Dr. Robyn Spencer
Dr. William (Bill) Strickland
Dr. Cornel West
Dr. Johnny Williams
Hashim Yeomans-Benford
Rev. Ronnie Yow