Over the past month, as Kamala Harris’ campaign for the US presidency has gained momentum, hopes that she will take a tough stance on the genocide in Gaza have diminished.
Her candidacy has sparked disillusionment among supporters of the Palestinian cause and, with it, growing tensions between anti-genocide activists and Harris supporters.
That tension was reflected in a bitter exchange earlier this month between TikTok creators Maya Abdullah and Tori Grier, which fueled a social media debate about racism and competing community interests. Grier’s supporters argue that the black community should vote for Harris to avoid a rise in violence and discrimination under another Trump administration. Abdullah’s supporters, on the other hand, argue that Palestinian Americans should not be forced to vote for someone who enabled the genocide of their loved ones in Palestine and that allies from other ethnic and religious groups should stand in solidarity with them.
It is unclear how much this debate will change electoral attitudes, but if it deepens, it could affect anti-colonial solidarity between blacks and Palestinians at a critical moment in history. It would be a loss for both communities.
History of Black-Palestinian Solidarity
Engagement between Black and Palestinian communities in the United States and beyond has a long history. It is rooted in the recognition that for Black and brown people, oppression manifests itself in similar ways: through white supremacy, structural racism, Islamophobia, and imperialism that enslave, dispossess, and kill.
It is no coincidence that the Black liberation movement in the United States counts among its ranks influential leaders such as Malcolm X, Kwame Ture, Huey P Newton, Angela Davis and others who denounced the colonization and occupation of Palestine. In the 1960s, in the midst of the civil rights struggle, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Black Panther Party repeatedly stressed the need for anti-colonial alliances to confront white supremacy, Zionism, capitalism and imperialism.
African anti-colonial struggles have also been repeatedly compared to the Palestinian struggle. Even today, the Palestinian cause remains at the heart of the concerns of the South African and Algerian nations, which themselves led their struggle against the colonial regime.
In 1969, seven years after its liberation from French colonial rule, Algeria hosted the first Pan-African Cultural Festival, positioning itself as a leading country in the revolutionary struggle. Hundreds of delegates from 31 independent African countries, including representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), attended the event. The festival played a crucial role in uniting the struggles of Africa and Palestine into a broader global movement against imperialism.
More recently, over the past decade, the pro-Palestinian movement has supported and directly engaged with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, which has spoken out against violence against Black people, particularly after the killing of George Floyd. For a growing number of African Americans, the parallels between their own oppression and that of Palestinians living under apartheid and Israeli occupation have become clear.
Following the outbreak of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, key Black community organizations called for a ceasefire. They include the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the leading civil rights organization in the United States, the African Methodist Episcopal Church Council of Bishops, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Center. In June, the NAACP issued a bold statement urging the Biden administration to halt arms shipments to Israel.
Black students and organizations, as well as Palestinian and Jewish anti-Zionist groups, among others, came together in the student anti-genocide movement, demonstrating their shared commitment to combating all forms of racism. They rejected Zionism as a European white supremacist project, like other manifest destiny ideologies that underpin Western colonial enterprises, including in the United States.
A similar alliance has animated the Uncommitted Movement, which has called on Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in the presidential primaries to pressure President Joe Biden to accede to their demands for a ceasefire in Gaza and an arms embargo on Israel.
Divide and conquer
Over the years, the power of Black-Palestinian solidarity has been increasingly recognized as a threat by Israel and American Zionists. They see intersectional and anti-colonial solidarity as a threat because it challenges and dismantles divisive Zionist propaganda.
In the past, liberal Zionist media and major Zionist lobbies have launched smear campaigns against Black Lives Matter, accusing the movement of anti-Semitism. After October 7, the media also made a concerted effort to convince the black community that Palestinian liberation was “not their fight.”
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has regularly targeted black politicians who have challenged Zionist interests, often through coordinated smear campaigns. U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar is a notable example, who has been the subject of relentless attacks aimed at impeaching her and tarnishing her reputation.
This year, AIPAC successfully unseated Representatives Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush, who have been staunch defenders of Gaza and Palestine, by pouring massive amounts of money into their opponents’ campaigns during the Democratic primaries.
In this context, a break between the black and Palestinian communities would play into the hands of Israel and its Zionist supporters.
When debating whether to support Harris, it is important to note who she represents. Although she is a woman of color, her political views reflect those of the liberal bourgeois class—what Martin Luther King Jr. called “white moderates”—who undermine progressive and anti-colonial agendas under the guise of pragmatism.
Once in office, she may pay lip service to anti-racism, but she will do little to challenge racist structures and institutions. She will likely continue to bolster the military-industrial complex, promote economic policies that enrich the rich and impoverish the poor, and support “tough on crime” practices that disproportionately harm people of color and poor communities.
Some argue that Harris is the “lesser evil” in the American duopoly, given her emphasis on diverse representation and her promises of social reform. Yet she could emerge as a “more effective evil”—a term coined by the late journalist Glen Ford to describe President Barack Obama’s ability to push through right-wing policies while placating progressive resistance.
The reluctance to bring a Palestinian voice to the Democratic National Convention, as well as Harris’ bilateralist rhetoric in her acceptance speech, reflect Ford’s framework.
Solidarity against genocide
It is important to remember that the forces fueling genocidal violence in Gaza are the same forces fueling global oppression. The colonial projects of the United States and Israel share the same white supremacist ideologies and capitalist-imperialist interests, the same oppressive tactics, the same aggressive strategies, and the same propaganda techniques.
These powerful networks of colonial and imperial interests, empowered by the military-industrial complex and surveillance technology, shape US policies, including those that enable and dominate Israel-Palestine, from the militarization of the police to the violent repression of immigration and marginalized communities.
This is why the genocide in Palestine has profound implications for people of color and other marginalized groups. Palestine serves as a testing ground for military technologies and the normalization of extreme violence that can be deployed against oppressed peoples in the Global South and BIPOC in the Global North, who are disproportionately impacted by the policies of white supremacy and corporate capitalism.
A united Black-Palestinian front is essential to resist these forces and their genocidal aims. Without this solidarity, both communities remain weaker and more isolated in their fight against their common enemy.
Unity, solidarity and recognition of a common struggle against oppression strengthens and energizes principled grassroots movements like BLM and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).
Dismantling racist capitalist oppression requires an unwavering commitment to revolutionary principles and the rejection of alliances with counterrevolutionary forces. True liberation in the United States and Palestine can only be achieved through a broad anti-racist and anti-colonial movement.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.