I’ve spoken my piece on Palestinian liberation. Now, I’m just a regular guy who created a site called the Evolving Man Project. I don’t have millions of followers on social media, nor am I a notable celebrity. My words may mean a lot to my friends and family, who seek solidarity with oppressed people. Maybe to those who visit this website.
Still, I stand on the shoulders of giants who’ve come before me. These men and women are iconic freedom fighters from the Civil Rights Era to the era of Black Lives Matter; black and African peoples have expressed solidarity for Palestinian liberation. Black and African people, like the people of Palestine, have been subjected to years of oppression, subjugation, and segregation.
But, much like the brave people of Palestine, black Africans and Americans have fought against oppression and colonialism for well over 400 years. Today, I will share several historical and political black figures who expressed solidarity with the people of Palestine.
The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL): Progressive forces now gathered around this noble movement for the dignity of black lives and beyond are, in fact, late in joining the rest of the civilized world, denouncing the systemic violence at the core of the Israeli settler colony.
Nelson Mandela: “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
Muhammad Ali: “I declare support for the Palestinian liberation struggle.”
Angela Davis: “I don’t think we can underestimate the fact that the solidarity with those who are struggling against the occupation in Israel helps us to expand and deepen our analysis in the United States…”
Malcolm X: “Did the Zionists have the legal or moral right to invade Arab Palestine, uproot its Arab citizens from their homes, and seize all Arab property for themselves just based on the “religious” claim that their forefathers lived there thousands of years ago? Only a thousand years ago, the Moors lived in Spain. Would this give the Moors of today the legal and moral right to invade the Iberian Peninsula, drive out its Spanish citizens, and then set up a new Moroccan nation … where Spain used to be, as the European zionists have done to our Arab brothers and sisters in Palestine?…”
Huey P. Newton: “We support the Palestinian’s just struggle for liberation one hundred percent. We will go on doing this, and we would like for all of the progressive people of the world to join in our ranks in order to make a world in which all people can live.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: I support Palestinian political prisoners just as I support current political prisoners in the Basque Country, in Catalunya, in India, and in other parts of the world. I have indeed expressed opposition to policies and practices of the state of Israel, as I express similar opposition to U.S. support for the Israeli occupation of Palestine and to other discriminatory U.S. policies.
As Malcolm X said in his legendary ‘Ballot or the Bullet‘ speech, “It’s freedom for everybody or freedom from nobody” The struggle for black liberation has always been for the liberation of all oppressed peoples! I’ll end this post with the chant heard worldwide over the last two months since the start of the Israeli Military’s siege of Gaza in October 2023, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Free Palestine.
Evolving Folks Project 