Black Lives Matter comes out in solidarity with Palestinians
Black Lives Matter has thrown its full support behind the꧟ Palestinians in the ongoing bloody conflict between their Hamas backers and Israel.
“Black Lives Matter stands in solidarity with Palestinians,” the protest group page Monday.
“We are a movement committed to ending settler colonialism in all forms and will continue to advocate for Palestinian liberation ( always have. And always will be ),” the group added along with the hashtag #freepalestine.
The message was quickly picked up by the controversial BDS movement, which has for years called fo𓆉r an economic embargo of Israel.
“Thank you for your solidarity,” the pro-Palestine group .
“From Ferguson to Palestine, our struggles against racism, white supremacy and for a just world are united!” it wrote.
Palestine has long been the major overseas focal point for BLM, a protest group that was formed by “trained Marxists” in 2013 in response to police-custody deaths of black Americans.
A delegation of BLM leaders traveled there in 2015 — its first official overseas trip — in the first of “several” such trips, BLM co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors has said.
“This is an apartheid state,” Khan-Cullors at the time of the first trip.
“We can’t deny that and if we do deny it we are a part of the Zionist violence,” she said.
That same year, Kahan-Cullors that black Americans felt a “kindred-ness” with Palestinians because of their “eerily similar” experiences.
“We are in deep solidarity with them, and frankly believe that Palestine is the new South Africa,” she declared at the time.
She later admitted that the full-blown support “did receive backlash” and “many funders pulled funding from us.”
“Many of us dug our heels into the ground and said, ‘No. That’s even more reason why we should be showing up,'”
The main BLM group started by Khan-Cullors was not the only one this week declaring which side it was on in the ongoing conflict that has included thousands of rockets being fired on Israel from Hamas militants.
Local chapters also made public statements, including Black Lives Matter in Pater🧸son, NJ, which said it “condemns the ongoing vi🍌olence against Palestinians in East Jerusalem by the state of Israel and stands in solidarity with those fighting occupation.”
“We as an organization believe in the freedom to worship and a life free from fear of expulsion and violence,” the group said early in the conflict, according to a .
“Our deep roots of solidarity are part of a rich tradition of mutual support and exchange between Palestine and US-based liberation movements, from the Black Panthers to the most recent communication between activists in Gaza and Ferguson, MO.
“Our struggles are connected in many ways,” the group said, adding, “We stand together with our Muslim brothers and sisters.”
