111 Fairmount Ave
Oakland, CA 94611
USA
When heavily militarized police in Ferguson, Missouri, confronted African American protesters angry at the police murder of Mike Brown in 2014, Palestinians watching events unfold from Gaza began sending tweets about how to cope with the teargas filling the streets.
Such an act of solidarity was more than a mere expression of support from people who, though half a world away, know firsthand about state repression. Police in cities across the U.S. – including police in Ferguson and Baltimore – have turned to Israel for training in how to deploy tactics honed in suppressing the Palestinian struggle for justice. The U.S. directly supports Israel’s dispossession of the Palestinians – to the tune of some $3 billion per year.
Many of the issues facing the Black community in the U.S. – police violence, job discrimination, poverty, and environmental racism – are the same problems that Palestinians face.
A new generation of activists is forging ties of solidarity between the struggles of Palestinians and African Americans – struggles for equal rights, for dignity, for freedom. This tour hopes to make a modest contribution to this project – by unearthing the inspiring history of Black/Palestinian solidarity and by making these lessons relevant for present-day efforts seeking to transform the future.
Featuring
Boots Riley is the lead vocalist for The Coup, a hip hop group from Oakland. He is a lifelong revolutionary, and he played an important role in Occupy Oakland and other Bay Area political struggles. Boots recently released a book about the lyrics and backstories of his music: Tell Homeland Security – We Are The Bomb.
Khury Petersen-Smith co-authored, with Stanford alum Kristian Davis Bailey, the influential 2015 Black Solidarity Statement with Palestine, covered by Ebony and other outlets. Khury is a member of the International Socialist Organization and is active in Palestine solidarity and anti-racist organizing. He has written about the politics of Black liberation for Jacobin Magazine and the International Socialist Review.
Wael Elasady is a Palestinian-Syrian activist living in Portland. He is a co-founder of Students United For Palestinian Equal Rights at Portland State University and a member of the International Socialist Organization. He was co-host of One Land, Many Voices a community radio show bringing the question of Palestine to the Portland area.
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Oakland
Saturday April 9th – 5:30 PM, Oakland Peace Center, Shelton Hall, 111 Fairmont Ave. Sliding scale: $5 – $20 / no one turned away for lack of funds * Wael will be speaking o Sat. April 9th
Stanford University
Tuesday April 12th at 7 PM, Black Community Services Center
UC Berkeley
Wednesday April 13th at 7:30 PM, Valley Life Sciences Building room 2040
Presented by Haymarket Books http://
Cosponsors International Socialist Organization http://