As the death toll from Israel’s seven-week bombardment of Gaza exceeds 14,000, over a third of whom are children, an estimated tens of thousands marched through London on Sunday 26th in a “demonstration against antisemitism.” (1) It came a day after hundreds of thousands came out to reiterate the call for a permanent ceasefire in the region, rather than the current four-day temporary halt to hostilities since the October 7th Hamas attack that claimed 1200 Israeli lives and the taking of 200 hostages. (2)
Whereas former Home-Secretary Suella Braverman condemned the pro-Palestinian demonstrations as “hate marches”, much to the approval of right-wing media (3), no one has yet decried Sunday’s procession as a “genocide gathering”, even though more than 800 scholars of international law, conflict studies, and Holocaust and Genocide Studies declared in a statement on 15 October: “We are compelled to sound the alarm about the possibility of the crime of genocide being perpetrated by Israeli forces against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.” (4)
One of the signatories, Raz Segal, associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University further argues that Israel is engaged in the “weaponization of Holocaust memory” to make its case, similar to the way some say anti-semitism has been weaponised in recent years in the UK. (5) However, such criticisms are generally classified as “antisemitic” by the political establishment, whether voiced by academics or celebrities. (6)
With the exception of France, who’s reputation has taken a battering in recent years, the Euro/USA axis governments and mainstream media is in lock-step with the Israeli administration to continue it’s onslaught once the temporary pause has ended. (7) Meanwhile, the media continues to demand of every interviewee: “do you condemn Hamas?” This is while numerous Israeli official’s declarations of genocide often go unquestioned. (8)
Yet for many commentators, the west’s support for Israel is unsurprising as they share a settler-colonial (white) ethno-nationalist orientation, as the 1917 Balfour Declaration demonstrates. (9) Indeed, the leading human rights organisations consider it an Apartheid state. In fact, Dr Hendrik Verwoerd, the “architect of Apartheid” in South Africa, opined back in 1961. “Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state.” (10) The two ethno-states would later forge a deep, if largely illicit, economic and military relationship. (11)
As indicated above, in the past there tended to be widespread acceptance of Israel’s version of events but the advent of new media sources has brought with it alternatives to Israel/western narratives so they are less readily accepted. Some of these are quite startling. For example, USA based news site The Grayzone has uncovered evidence, supported by Israeli newspaper Haaretz (which may now be sanctioned by the government for its efforts) that in the midst of the October 7th attack Israeli Apache helicopters killed numerous Israeli citizens and soldiers and that 200 of those it counted as Israeli casualties were, in fact, Hamas militants killed by its forces. (12)
Among Afrikan people globally, Israel’s colonial history and antipathy towards Afrikans within its borders (e.g. forced sterilization; being branded “infiltrators”) and the fact that many of its staunchest (right-wing) supporters are virulently anti-Afrikan makes it a hard sell to support for some. (13) In contrast, there is a long standing tendency, particularly among the left to support Palestine, for example the Black Panther Party for Self Defence. (14)
In contrast there are those that highlight the contradiction of agitating about Palestinian land dispossession while being mute about longer standing Arab incursions in the Motherland, including the attempted erasure of Afrikan culture. As Baba Chinweizu asserting, a “plague-on-both-your-houses” approach suggests (15):
“Some Black African intellectuals are not ashamed to be passionately pro-Palestinians, for being victims of land grabs by the Israelis, and yet passionately anti-Darfur, the victims of a land grab by the Arabs.” (16)
Similarly, in a viral video, Dr Umar Johnson declared:
“I wish y’all well in Palestine I wish you a speedy Victory against oppression but that is not my fight cuz you have never fought for me.” (17)
The governments of Afrika remain divided on the current conflict with the likes of South Africa and Algeria supporting Palestine while Kenya, Zambia, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are among those that have aligned with Israel’s position.
So clearly the continental leaders have yet to arrive at collective position for their mutual benefit. That role, perhaps, is left to the revolutionary Pan-Afrikanists.
(1) Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan (26/11/23) Truth and journalists are the first casualties of the war on Gaza. https://www.times-standard.com/2023/11/26/amy-goodman-and-denis-moynihan-truth-and-journalists-are-the-first-casualties-of-the-war-on-gaza/; Anisa Kadri & Nathan Williams (26/11/23) Thousands march against antisemitism in London. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67537351
(2) Geneva Abdul (25/11/23) Huge pro-Palestinian London march calls for permanent ceasefire. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/25/huge-pro-palestinian-london-march-calls-for-permanent-ceasefire; Esther Poyer (15/02/21) The Truth Behind Young Black Men and Suicide in the UK. https://www.chatworkshackney.co.uk/the-truth-behind-young-black-men-and-suicide-in-the-uk/; Maia Niguel Hoskin, PhD (17/05/22) 5 Reasons Suicide Is on the Rise in the Black Community, According to a Psychiatrist. https://www.everydayhealth.com/emotional-health/reasons-suicide-is-on-the-rise-in-the-black-community-according-to-a-psychiatrist/
(3) Gregor Young (30/10/23) Suella Braverman condemns pro-Palestine ‘hate marches’. https://www.thenational.scot/news/23889373.suella-braverman-condemns-pro-palestine-hate-marches/; Stephen Pollard (08/11/23) Of course these are hate marches, Sir Mark. https://www.thejc.com/lets-talk/of-course-these-are-hate-marches-sir-mark-ylerkscg; Tom Slater (08/11/23) Yes, they are ‘hate marches’. https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/11/08/yes-they-are-hate-marches/
(4) Raz Segal (24/10/23) Israel must stop weaponising the Holocaust. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/24/israel-gaza-palestinians-holocaust
(5) Ibid.; Nora Barrows-Friedman (21/06/23) Podcast Ep 79: Weaponising Anti-Semitism. https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/podcast-ep-79-weaponising-anti-semitism
(6) Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya (21/11/23) Susan Sarandon, Melissa Barrera, and the Troubling Pattern of Punishment for Advocating for Palestine. https://www.autostraddle.com/susan-sarandon-getting-dropped-by-her-talent-agency-for-pro-palestine-statements-is-alarming/
(7) Vivian Song (12/11/23) France holds huge march against anti-Semitism after Macron’s call for a ceasefire in Gaza. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/11/12/france-huge-march-against-anti-semitism-macron-ceasefire/; Henry Ridgwell (23/01//19) Italy Accuses France of ‘Impoverishing Africa’. https://www.voanews.com/a/italy-france-africa/4755012.html
(8) Mason Herson-Hord (17/11/23) The Second Nakba and the Road to Genocide. https://strangematters.coop/israel-gaza-war-genocide/ Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president, stated at a press conference : “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible; Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant declared in a televised speech that “We are imposing a complete siege on Gaza. There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel, everything will be closed. We are fighting against human animals and we are acting accordingly.”; Ruling Likud party member Amit Halevi declared “There should be two goals for this victory: 1. There is no more Muslim land in the Land of Israel… After we make it the land of Israel, Gaza should be left as a monument…”
(9) Dr Gideon Polya (25/04/23) 2023 Paradox: 75th Anniversary Of 1948 UDHR Launch & Start Of South African & Israeli Apartheid .https://countercurrents.org/2023/04/2023-paradox-75th-anniversary-of-1948-udhr-launch-start-of-south-african-israeli-apartheid/ The founder of Zionism, Theodor Herzl said in 1895: “We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it employment in our country.”
(10) Ibid.
(11) Glenn Frankel (24/05/10) Israel’s Most Illicit Affair. https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/05/24/israels-most-illicit-affair/
(12) Max Blumenthal (18/11/22) VIDEO: What really happened on October 7? https://thegrayzone.com/2023/11/18/video-what-happened-october-7/; Wyatt Reed (21/11/23) Haaretz confirms Grayzone reporting it dismissed as ‘conspiracy’ showing Israel killed own festivalgoers. https://thegrayzone.com/2023/11/21/haaretz-grayzone-conspiracy-israeli-festivalgoers/; Jeremy Sharon (23/11/23) Communications minister proposes sanctions against Haaretz for ‘false propaganda’. https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/communications-minister-proposes-sanctions-against-haaretz-for-false-propaganda/
(13) Alistair Dawber (27/01/13) Israel gave birth control to Ethiopian Jews without their consent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-gave-birth-control-to-ethiopian-jews-without-their-consent-8468800.html ;David Sheen (29/03/18) Black lives do not matter in Israel. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2018/3/29/black-lives-do-not-matter-in-israel; TRNN (26/10/23) Why do Far-Right White Nationalists Support Zionism? https://therealnews.com/shever1024extremeright
David Sheen
(14) Greg Thomas (19/05/21) The Black Panther Party On Palestine. https://www.hamptonthink.org/read/the-black-panther-party-on-palestine
(15) Chinweizu (1987) Zionists, Arabists and Pan-Africanists in Decolonising the African Mind. Pero Press. p. 141; UNESCO (1974) The Peopling of ancient Egypt and the deciphering of Meroitic script; proceedings. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000032875; Sagal Mohammed (13/05/23) Let’s Just Call The Outrage Around Queen Cleopatra What It Is: Racism. https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/queen-cleopatra-backlash
(16) Chinweizu (2007) Reparations for Darfur 4: A resolution. Committee Against Arab Colonialism in Black Africa
(17) Dr Umar Johnson (18/10/23) You’ve Come to the Wrong Place. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=umar+johnson+palestine
So tonight we ask the question:
Israel/Palestine: What’s it got to do with us?
1) Is Israel a nation under siege from terrorists or is it a genocidal settler colonial apartheid state?
2) Are Israel’s narratives less accepted now than previously?
3) Can we reconcile Arab anto-black racism and support for Palestine?
4) Should we adopt a “plague-on-both-your-houses” approach?
5) Why are Afrikan governments divided on this issue?
Our Special Guests:
Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and an Afrikan-Centred Education Consultant. Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of over 40 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An African-Centred Approach To Excellence.
Eld. Cecil Guztmore: is an internationally renowned veteran scholar and activist who has been active in the Pan-Afrikan community for over fifty years. He migrated to the UK in 1961 later spending a decade back in Jamaica. Has been student, factory worker, clerical worker, community worker, local government and freelance training and management consultant and university lecturer in London and at UWI, Mona, Jamaica. His activism combines Black and left class positions.
Eld. Cecil’s writings on history, philosophy of science and political science and cultural studies have appeared in The Black Liberator, Marxism Today, Race and Class and Interventions; as well as various book chapters, newspaper columns and reviews in The Guardian (UK) The Jamaica Gleaner, The Morning Star and other newspapers. His research interests including the visual history of Africa and her Diasporas has led to the production of a number of photo-history exhibitions dealing with Caribbean Women and Marcus Mosiah Garvey amongst others. Eld. Cecil has also worked on some of the films of Menelik Shabazz.
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