John,

As part of Black History Month celebrations, I wanted to recognize and honor the long history of solidarity between Black people and Palestinians.

The Movement for Black Lives and Black-led groups like Dream Defenders have been organizing for Palestinian liberation, continuing a lineage of Black American civil rights activists standing up against racism and imperialism around the world.

Over 1,000 Black pastors have come out strongly for a ceasefire, demanding President Biden act now. Many name a shared struggle against oppression.

Black Lives Matter protesters and Palestinians have connected on how to deal with repressive state violence, which makes sense: Israeli forces and U.S. police regularly train together.

Continuing a tradition of Black South African solidarity with Palestinians, South Africa led the lawsuit against Israel at the International Court of Justice, which ordered Israel’s government to stop the genocide.

South African leaders who helped bring down that country’s apartheid system have long compared their experiences with Palestinians’ struggle under Israel’s apartheid regime. Stripped of basic rights and subjected to a different legal system from Israelis, many Palestinians are locked up in jails for months or years without ever being charged.

Palestinians have asked for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions to sway Israel’s government to change—tactics that were essential in ending South Africa’s apartheid.

Black civil rights leaders also used boycotts to expand our freedoms in the United States, an important tool to end Jim Crow segregation.

Creating bail funds to bail out protesters was another important tactic used during the civil rights movement. Bail funds are still used as important mutual aid for people who can’t afford bail, and who are otherwise forced to languish behind bars for long periods of time before trial.

Just this week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to criminalize our free speech right to engage in political boycotts. And state legislatures around the country are also attacking bail funds. Georgia’s legislature just passed a bill to expand their state’s racist cash bail system and to criminalize bail funds.

Please sign on to demand an end to racist policing, from the U.S. to Palestine. No more holding people without charges—whether indefinitely caging Palestinians through administrative detention in Israeli jails, or locking up people who can’t afford bail in the U.S.

#StopCopCity protesters have drawn attention to the regular collaboration between U.S. military and police with Israeli forces, training with each other to suppress protests and maintain the unjust status quo.

Israel’s military also supported South Africa’s military during its anti-Black apartheid regime. Their armed forces trained together, and they worked closely on weapons development, including nuclear weapons.

When celebrating the end of South Africa’s racist apartheid, Nelson Mandela said: “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” Our struggles and our liberation are connected. We get free together.

Add your name if you agree: We must end racist policing everywhere!

Together, we will dismantle racist, oppressive systems. We will keep growing movements for liberation and equality for all.

In solidarity,

Rashida

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Rashida Tlaib
Date: Thu, Feb 15, 2024
Subject: Sign on: No racist policing from the U.S. to Palestine
To: [email protected]

John,

This Black History Month, I’m grateful for the long history of solidarity between Black and Palestinian activists.

Black-led movements for justice have long stood with people facing racist imperialism and oppression around the world.

Civil rights leaders who supported Palestinian liberation include Angela Davis and other Black Panther Party members, Malcolm X, and Muhammad Ali.

During Black Lives Matter uprisings, Palestinians shared tactics for evading state violence, and Black-led groups spoke out for Palestinians’ equal rights. Now, the Movement for Black Lives is leading organizing for Palestinian liberation.

A coalition of over 1,000 Black pastors, representing hundreds of thousands of congregants, is demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the occupation of the West Bank. Many of the pastors described identifying with Palestinians as oppressed people.

In order to maintain the unjust status quo of racism in Israel and the United States, Israeli forces and U.S. police regularly train with one another—including collaborating on how to use state violence to suppress protest movements for Black and Palestinian rights.

Sign on to demand an end to racist policing, from the U.S. to Palestine. No more holding people without trials or charges—whether through administrative detention in Israeli jails, or by locking up people indefinitely in the U.S. if they can’t afford bail.

South African leaders who helped bring down that country’s apartheid have long compared their experiences with Palestinians’ struggle under Israel’s apartheid regime.

Subjected to a different legal system from Israelis, many Palestinians are locked up in jails for months or years without ever being charged.

As with South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement, Palestinians have called for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions to sway Israel’s government to change. Boycotting was also an important tactic used by Black civil rights leaders to end Jim Crow segregation, such as the year-long Montgomery bus boycott which led to the desegregation of public buses in the U.S.

But U.S. lawmakers have tried to block these modes of political expression to silence people advocating for change. This week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to criminalize our free speech right to political boycotts.

State legislatures around the country are also attacking bail funds, which community groups use to bail out protesters and others who can’t afford bail.

Georgia’s legislature just passed a law that would expand the unjust program of cash bail, which keeps people behind bars for months and years before trial, separating families and destroying lives.

This cruel bill would also criminalize community bail funds—in the same state that has demonized and killed #StopCopCity activists.

Add your name if you agree: We must end racist policing everywhere! No more holding people without charges—whether indefinitely caging Palestinians through administrative detention in Israeli jails, or locking up people who can’t afford bail in the U.S.

I won’t back down in the fight for equality and dignity for all people. Our struggles and our oppression are linked. Together, we’ll keep striving for collective liberation.

Thank you so much for being by my side.

In solidarity,

Rashida