Celebrities in new video 'affirm Black-Palestinian solidarity,' seek 'vigorous political kinship'

Brett T. | 6:03 PM on October 14, 2015

A year ago last fall, Louis Farrakhan called out President Obama for his request that Black Lives Matter activists in Ferguson, Mo., remain peaceful. “What brought you out to tell Black youth to be peaceful? Why the hell don’t you go to the wicked police department?” asked Farrakhan on Twitter.

A year later, the president’s old spiritual leader, Jeremiah Wright, took the microphone at Farrakhan’s #JusticeOrElse rally in D.C. and confounded quite a few with his declaration that “Jesus was a Palestinian.” He was speaking metaphorically, insisting that “the youth in Ferguson and the youth in Palestine have united together to remind us that the dots need to be connected.”

That union isn’t a metaphor: a group called Black-Palestinian Solidarity has launched a website that explains its mission:

We choose to join one another in resistance not because our struggles are the same but because we each struggle against the formidable forces of structural racism and the carceral and lethal technologies deployed to maintain them. This video intends to interrupt that process – to assert our humanity – and to stand together in an affirmation of life and a commitment to resistance.

The group also released a video featuring activists, artists and some familiar faces, including Lauryn Hill, Danny Glover, Alice Walker, Angela Davis, Cornel West, Boots Riley and many others. (Riley is leader of rap group The Coup, which achieved brief notoriety for its album cover featuring Riley holding a prop “detonator” in front of an exploding World Trade Center tower.)

The video also features Rasmea Odeh, who was convicted of two terrorist bombings in Jerusalem, including a fatal one, and immigration fraud. Odeh is the subject of the Huffington Post piece “Why Black Activists Should Stand With Rasmea Odeh,” written by Marc Lamont Hill, who responded to Christopher Hayes’ request.

@chrislhayes there are some really interesting books and doctoral theses on the topic. My colleague @mayalhassen is an expert and can help.

— Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) October 14, 2015

@chrislhayes our recent conference in atlanta focused on intersectionality of black and palestinian struggles

— (((YousefMunayyer))) (@YousefMunayyer) October 14, 2015

@chrislhayes It started here due largely to concrete ties between Israel's security apparatus & US police depts https://t.co/noJN8gIl31

— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) October 14, 2015

@chrislhayes may be instructive to look into sa'ed atshan and darnell moore's work on black-palestinian queer organizing.

— Adia Benton (@Ethnography911) October 14, 2015