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Black Lives Matter sides with Palestinians, condemns Israeli ‘occupation’

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“Black Lives Matter stands in solidarity with Palestinians,” the Black Lives Matter organization tweeted Monday.

By Josh Plank, World Israel News

The major organizations representing the Black Lives Matter movement, together with sympathetic U.S. lawmakers, have declared their unwavering solidarity with the Palestinians as attacks against Israel continued in recent days.

“Black Lives Matter stands in solidarity with Palestinians,” the Black Lives Matter organization tweeted 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). #freepalestine,” the organization said.

On Saturday, the Movement for Black Lives issued a statement condemning Israel’s “violent and ruthless escalation of repression and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”

“The Movement for Black Lives condemns the deadly, racist attacks against the Palestinian people by the Israeli state,” the statement said.

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The organization demanded that the Biden administration impose sanctions against Israel in an effort to stop its “apartheid practices and settler colonial project.”

“Black movement is rooted in a tradition of radical love and resistance. It is that same love that calls us to rise in solidarity with oppressed people everywhere. That includes our Palestinian family. We’re calling on people of conscience everywhere to do the same,” the statement said.

On the floor of the U.S. Congress on Thursday, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) both drew parallels between the conflict in Israel and the Black Lives Matter movement.

“As a black woman in America, I am no stranger to police brutality and state-sanctioned violence,” said Pressley.

“Last summer, when Black Live Matter protesters took to the streets to demand justice, they were met with force. They faced tear gas, rubber bullets, and a militarized police, just as our Palestinian brothers and sisters are facing in Jerusalem today,” she said.

“Palestinians are being told the same thing as black folks in America: there is no acceptable form of resistance,” said Pressley.

Bush spoke of her experience with Bassem Masri, a Palestinian-American with whom Bush engaged in Black Lives Matter activism in 2014.

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“Bassem was one of us. He showed up ready. As a Palestinian, he was ready to resist, to rebel, to rise up with us as our St. Louis community mourned Mike Brown, Jr.’s state-sanctioned murder, and as we demanded an end to the militarized police occupation of our communities,” said Bush.

“Palestinians know what state violence, militarized policing, and occupation of their communities look like,” she said.

“The same equipment that they use to brutalize us is the same equipment that we send to the Israeli military to police and brutalize Palestinians,” said Bush.

Last year, over 600 U.S. Jewish organizations, including the Union for Reform Judaism and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, signed a full-page ad in the New York Times in support of Black Lives Matter.

“The Black Lives Matter movement is the current day Civil Rights Movement in this country, and it is our best chance at equity and justice. By supporting this movement we can build a country that fulfills the promise of freedom, unity, and safety for all of us, no exceptions,” the Jewish groups said.

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