Zionists are working hard to decouple the struggle for racial justice in the United States from Palestinian liberation, but the movements are intertwined through shared experiences of state violence and a legacy of joint struggle.
Adalah Justice Project’s Sandra Tamari speaks with movement attorney Jeffrey Haas who recounts his work exposing the police and FBI murder of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, and his commitment to supporting Palestinian liberation.
December 17 marked ten years since Mohammed Bouazizi, a street vendor in Tunis, set himself on fire in an act of defiance and desperation that triggered what would become known as the Arab Spring. Over the course of the last decade we have witnessed revolutions sweep the Middle East and North Africa, but we have also witnessed the sheer might and terror of counter-revolution as well. What are the lessons from the Arab Spring?
Ending US military funding must be a crucial pillar among the broad array of progressive movements demanding change. The intersecting struggles against climate change and militarism is an important point of collaboration for the Palestine movement in the push against a Biden administration.
Sandra Tamari joined a delegation of Palestinian human rights defenders to attend the opening of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, an ambitious project to give witness to formerly enslaved Black people terrorized by lynching in the South. “Truth-telling about the past is a requirement to finding a path to justice,” Tamari writes. “The Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice is interlocked with other freedom movements in this country and around the globe. We celebrate the National Memorial for Peace and Justice because it brings the the truth-telling within it brings the U.S. one step closer towards finally, truly abolishing slavery and lynching. And we celebrate it because it brings Palestinians closer to our own freedom.”
A meme created by the activist group HandsUp United is causing an uproar in St. Louis activist circles. An image circulated on social media bears the photo of Rabbi Susan Talve, the leader of St. Louis’ Central Reform Congregation and a well known figure in the Ferguson protest movement, and refers to her as a “Real Terrorist” for her support of Israeli apartheid and its oppression of Palestinians. Sandra Tamari writes, “Talve is at the center of social justice movements in St. Louis. For that, she should be commended. But her hypocrisy of fighting against racial injustice in St. Louis while supporting it in Israel is what HandsUp United was calling out. Zionism has no place in liberation spaces led by people of color. I am so grateful to my family at HandsUp United for understanding that none of us are free until all of us are free.”