By Lenrod Nzulu Baraka

As American and Israeli munitions continue to rain down death on Palestinian women and children, African Americans are gravitating to both sides of the ideological war taking place in America and around the globe.  Black faces in high places have registered both support for and dissent against an immediate cease fire in Gaza. Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Minority leader of the House of representative Hakeem Jefferies, and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre have all thrown the weight of their support behind the continuation of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

Black faces in high places in American politics are caught between a rock and a hard place.  The very powerful Jewish lobby in America has been exquisitely successful in its propaganda efforts designed to equate criticism of the state of Israel with antisemitism. African Americans politicians, especially those working closely with President Biden, are forced to walk a very thin line on all issues related to the state of Israel.

In the camp of Black Democrats who are willing to run the risk of being called anti-Semites are United States Representative Cori Bush who in addition to being an American politician is also a pastor and Black Lives Matter activist. Representative Bush unlike her more cautious African American brethren has gone on record calling the current bombardment of Gaza a war crime and an ethnic cleansing campaign.

Joining Representative Bush in her opposition to the continued brutality against the people of Gaza is Representative Ilhan Omar who like Bush is also being primaried because of her pro-Palestinian stance.  Another Black Representative opposed to the death and destruction plague being visited on Gaza is Representative Ayanna Pressley. Representatives Bush, Omar, and Pressley joined with Representatives Rashida Talib, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and a number of other Representatives in drafting a resolution calling on the Biden Administration to support a ceasefire and realistic humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Acclaimed journalist and award-winning author Ta-Nehisi Coates in an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now provided a moment of clarity in the media sphere by stating that the situation in Gaza was not that complicated.  Coming from a society that until 1964 had in place a system of racialized segregation, Coates said that he immediately understood what was going on in Gaza once his boots were on the ground in the besieged territory.

The absence of political franchise for Palestinians and the restrictions to their movement imposed by the state of Israel were all too familiar to Coates.  According to Coates, American style segregation that existed during the Jim Crow era had been exported to Israel and was being supported by the US government. This fact makes the unwavering support of Blacks in high places for the state of Israel and the ongoing bombardment of Gaza inexplicable.             

Coates stated that Karine Jean-Pierre’s equating of pro-Palestinian marchers with neo-Nazis who marched in Charlotteville chanting anti-Semitic slogans was both reprehensible and offensive to the memory of those on whose shoulders Black Americans stand. Coates also pushed back against those who were attempting to coopt the name of Dr. Martin Luther King to support Jewish and American criminality in Gaza.

The veracity of Coates’ contention that the conflict in the Middle East is not that complicated is borne out by numerous statements originating among people who were once the victims of settler colonies.  In Europe, Ireland is almost unique in its support for the Palestinian cause after suffering the ravages of British colonial occupations for hundreds of years. Clare Daly and Richard Boyd Barrett have been leading the Irish charge in condemning Israel for its ongoing barbarism in Gaza.

In a fiery speech outside the Israeli embassy in South Africa, Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighter Party called for the closure of the Israeli embassy in South Africa and urged retailers to stop selling Israeli goods. South Africans, who like the Irish were victims of a vicious settler colonial system, understand only too well what is going on in Gaza and are vocal supporters of the Palestinian cause.

Blacks in high places who failed to recognized the state of Israel as a settler colony and as an ethnonational state with policies that are as racist as anything practiced under South African apartheid or in America during the Jim Crow era, have clearly forgotten our history. Black people in America and indeed around the globe dishonor and disgrace our ancestors when we forget our history to such an extent that we are willing to provide cover for the same agencies that historically rained fire and fury down on the global Black collective.  

Lenrod Nzulu Baraka is the founder of Afro-Caribbean Spiritual Teaching Center and the author of The Grand Failure: How Christianity Became a Source for Evil in the World.