Video, transcript, and key quotes from the talk by Sam Anderson at the ICSZ “Battling the ‘IHRA Definition'” conference in October 2023.
This onslaught in Gaza has direct repercussions within Black America if you stand in solidarity with the Palestinians.
Abstract: This presentation traces the efforts of African American activists to support the Palestinian People from the 1920s and 30s through the present. Sam Anderson, of the National Black Liberation Movement Unity Initiative, places this effort within the historical context of Black America’s Muslim legacy from the very beginning of chattel slavery in the Americas. Anderson also presents his personal experiences doing Palestinian solidarity work and how the Capitalist State rendered him an “academic pariah.”
Some of the strongest support for the Palestinian Liberation Movement came from Black leaders and organizations during the upsurge of the 1960s and 70s. Malcolm X was a staunch opponent of Zionism.
But one thing is certain: you cannot intimidate and oppress people who have had 400 years of daily racist terrorism thrown at them on both an institutional and personal basis.
Read the transcript.