In October of 2015, more than 60 African American and Palestinian intellectuals and activists launched the “Black Palestinian Solidarity” statement of solidarity with each’s respective struggle, declaring in a video “when I see them, I see us”. The Black Palestinian Solidarity movement was born in the context of the July-August 2014 Israeli war on Gaza and the murder of Eric Garner in New York City on July the 16th 2014 and of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, on August the 9th 2014, two of the killings largely credited for launching the Black Lives Matter movement. The simultaneity of both events sparked a number of statements of solidarity from both Palestinians and Black Americans to one another.
There is no question that any oppression of one group of people, should be enough to conjure change and self-education to make sure no one, anywhere is oppressed. Oppression at its root ultimately should lead to solidarity among fellow people. This is true for Black and Palestinian Solidarity, which has been expressed through both street art and other art through the platform of Instagram. An article written by the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights has a portion entitled “For The Visual Learner” which showcases a few pieces of art, and flyers indicating solidarity among Black Lives Matter and Palestinian people.
A piece that grabs your attention is a spray paint piece that says, “From Ferguson to Palestine, Resistance is not a crime. End Racism Now.” The article that accompanies this piece covers the work of Bassem Masri, a Palestinian American activist, who spoke about his time in Ferguson where Mike Brown was killed wrongfully by police. He compared the scene of Ferguson to what he had witnessed in Palestine, describing both as having war-torn conditions. What struck him in the midst of all this chaos was a Black protestor holding the Palestinian flag. This brings to the forefront why these different movements intersect, and the necessity of doing so.
When #Blacklivesmatter made a resurgence on social media, many artists, especially Middle Eastern-based, took to their craft to express solidarity with this movement as well as understand how it is intertwined with other oppressions. For example in the US, you can never bring up Black oppression without synonymously bringing up Indigenous oppression either. However as long anti-Blackness exists, systems that cater to White supremacy will continue to reign, so the people must band together to fight the same colonial mindset that created this problem.
Palestinian Artist Lina Abojaradeh highlights this intersection in her work. When George Floyd was murdered by police last summer, she created a piece that intertwined all those struggles together. A Black man dying at the hands of police, A Palestinian beaten for the right to pray, and an Indigenous woman existing, all at the hands of supremacy, being beaten down or eventually killed. What Indigenous people face in the United States, that is being told their identity isn’t “American”, is exactly what is happening to Palestinians. It’s important to note that Palestine has never been officially recognized and therefore doesn’t exist on a map, erasing people of their identity. Similarly, police brutality is a symptom of a colonial mindset one that exists worldwide.
The intersectionality and solidarity between Palestinians and Black Lives Matter, has proven to be bridged through the power of art like Lina’s. A collective called Freedom-Bound encourages the practice of “Art as Resistance”. A piece that was showcased and commissioned for this collective was that of Atlanta-based artist and printmaker, Jamaal Barber. He created a print piece paying homage to prominent Black Panther Party Leaders such as Huey Newton and created a message on the piece that said, “We support the Palestinian’s just struggle for liberation one hundred percent.” In a video linked next to his piece, he goes onto explain how Freedom Bound encouraged him to gain a global perspective on things. He rightly mentions people tend to hear about Israel-Palestine and the effects of the Iraq war, but don’t truly know what’s going on in that region.
Freedom Bound also encourages that banding together through the power of art can create a step towards liberation and imagining a better future for one another. Their website also hosts a treasure trove of resources known as a “Gallery of Solidarity”, which is designed to dissect the intersectionality of multiple oppressions, and understand how we can use those tools to self educate. The goal is to continue self-education as a means to step into and “generate collective power”. You can’t talk about Black Lives Matter without also bringing up Palestine and the solidarity that exists between both movements, and the steps they take to create a better future.
