United Methodists are responding to Kairos Palestine: A Moment of Truth ,a statement of faith and urgent call to action from Christians in Palestine. UMKR seeks, through nonviolent means and in partnership with Palestinian Christians, freedom, justice and equality for all Palestinians and Israelis.
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We Must Support and
Defend Black Life
Rachel Corrie Foundation
At the Rachel Corrie Foundation, we
believe that injustice must be challenged
and that human rights and resistance to
oppression must be included in the way
we define ourselves as a community.
We unequivocally stand in solidarity
with Black communities in their fight for
justice. Specifically, we support demands
emanating from these communities,
such as respect for the rights of protestors,
divestment from police forces and
investment in Black communities, immediate
material relief, and direct community
control over the laws, institutions, and
policies that are meant to serve them.
This commitment to Black liberation is deeply connected to our commitment to Palestinian liberation. The white supremacy and systemic racism that pervades all aspects of American society is exactly that which reinforces Israel’s oppressive policies. Specifically, the violent and anti-Black policing system in our country is materially connected to Israeli police forces through mutual training and co-development of technology. Since 2002, thousands of American police officers and officials, including members of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), have traveled to Israel for these purposes. We see the results of this cooperation in the brutal murders carried out by law enforcement from Minneapolis to Jerusalem.
With an unprecendented sense of urgency, we ask our friends and supporters around the world to take on the work necessary to support Black communities. Playing an active role in the protection of Black lif is our duty.
See this statement at their website
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Justice for George Floyd, Solidarity with Black people
American Muslims for Palestine (AMP)
EXCERPTS:
“….Muslim-Americans, one-third of whom are Black Americans, are painfully familiar with the scourge of racist and discriminatory practices that impact lives, human rights, and dignity on a daily basis. Today, we virtually link arms with our Black sisters and brothers demanding justice and an end to white supremacy, which underpins both police violence and vigilantism.
A genuine commitment to solidarity with marginalized groups and their struggles for justice and liberation must be rooted in universal principles of justice and human rights. We must speak out passionately against the human rights abuses directed at Black America.”
…..
“The resurgence of Black-Palestinian transnational solidarity began in the summer of 2014, when Palestinians in Gaza experienced their worst massacre to date by Israel and Black Americans continued experiencing numerous acts of police brutality.The motto “From Ferguson to Palestine” resonated with many activists who understood the significance of resisting racialized state violence and oppression.”
See AMP’s full statement here
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Justice for George Floyd
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)
27 May 2020
On Monday George Floyd, like Eric Garner five years before him, was suffocated by a policeman, who put his knee on George’s neck for five minutes and killed him.
Police are killing Black people. And months into a global pandemic, it’s abundantly clear that our healthcare system is killing Black and Brown people. George Floyd repeatedly said to the police, “I can’t breathe.” His life mattered.
Jewish tradition teaches us that the loss of a single life is the loss of a whole world. At JVP we are in shared mourning with everyone who is impacted by this senseless death – with our Black community members, with our movement allies and partners, with every parent who woke up to this news with fear and terror. We join together to fight for a future where Black people can be free from violence, to live long abundant lives.
Rest in Power, George Floyd. May your memory be a blessing.
See this statement on their website
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Open Letter by BIJOCSM to Defund the Police
JVP-BIJOCSM Network
EXCERPTS:
“We are Black Jews, Indigenous Jews, non-Black Jews of Color, Sephardim and Mizrahim Jews, (BIJOCSM), and we write to you at a juncture when the centuries-long oppression of Black people in this country, and around the world, can no longer be denied or dismissed.
We write to you at a juncture when simply echoing the calls rising through the clouds of tear gas around the country is not enough: The current uprising led by Black people demands concrete commitments that are significant and long-lasting.
As BIJOSCM, we call on all American Jews to divest from police, and urge that all Jewish institutions, community centers, synagogues and Jewish spaces of prayer end their partnerships with the police. We invite you to work with us to collectively imagine ways to keep each other safe, ways that pose no danger to Black Jews in our shuls or to Black people in our communities and neighborhoods.”
…..
“As BIJOCSM, we are painfully aware of the rise of antisemitism and white supremacy. We understand the fear of being attacked simply for being who we are – and we still believe in our capacity to show up for each other. We believe that we can work together to ensure that no Jew feels unwelcome or unsafe in any Jewish communal space and especially in Jewish spaces of prayer.
Divesting from police and ending all partnerships with police forces is the bare minimum we can do. It is just one step in a much larger fight against anti-Blackness, racism, antisemitism and white supremacy.”
See their full statement here
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Together in Solidarity
Eyewitness Palestine
We know that our community, ourselves, our supporters are participating in mass protest in cities across the US. The uprisings here, demanding justice for George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, and outrage at the state and its enforcers, are echoing across the world. This article talks about how the echoes are coming back home.
We are committed to justice, to bringing in a new reality, and to following the leadership of those most impacted. We look to Black communities and initiatives for leadership in these times.
See you in the streets. See you at the drop-off points for snacks, medicine, and water. See you crowdsourcing and gathering funds to support mass movements. See you behind the computer screen. See you organizing and contributing to bailout funds. See you checking on your loved ones and friends.
For those of you who are not sure how to take a role, there are so many ways to get down with this popular movement and support demands for Black Liberation. The important thing is that you do.
We wanted to share some resources that you may find helpful:
• Allegories on race and racism, by Dr. Camara Jones for TEDx Emory
• Webinar on the history of policing, "Connecting the Dots" with Andrea Ritchie
• Understanding implicit bias, by the Kirwan Institute
• “The Death of George Floyd, In Context,” by Jelani Cobb of The New Yorker
• “Of Course There Are Protests. The State Is Failing Black People,” by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor for the New York Times
• Guides with tools for anti-racism, racial equity, and showing up for racial justice
• Solutions for policy change, by Campaign Zero
Racial justice has always been a core value for our organization and Eyewitness Palestine has actively pushed for racial justice for well over a decade by forming and leading our first of many People of Color focused delegations in 2008.
We're continuing to push for these conversations and actions by hosting Beyond Connecting the Dots: A Virtual Summit on Building a United Racial Justice Movement, from the US to Palestine on July 18.
#JusticeforGeorgeFloyd #InternationalSolidarity #BlackLivesMatter
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Israel and the Murder of George Floyd
Mennonite Palestine Israel Network (MennoPIN)
For many, many years Israel has been exporting the brutal tactics they use against Palestinian citizens. In cities all over the United States, personnel from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have come to teach police in this country the very repressive
measures they use in their occupation of Palestine.
The U.S. group Deadly Exchange describes the exchange of practices this way: “One of the most dangerous places where the regimes of Trump and Netanyahu converge is in exchange programs that bring together police, ICE, border patrol, and FBI from the US with soldiers, police, border agents… from Israel. In these programs, ‘worst practices’ are shared to promote and extend discriminatory and repressive policing in both countries. These include extrajudicial executions, shoot-to-kill policies, police murders, racial profiling, massive spying and surveillance, deportation and detention, and attacks on human rights defenders.”
As the photos above show, constraint with a knee to the head/neck is one of the practices IDF uses against Palestinians.
In 2012 over 100 Minneapolis police officers attended a conference, led by IDF and cosponsored by the FBI, in which they received training in restraint techniques and other violent, repressive measures. It is unclear whether the four officers involved in the murder of George Floyd were involved in that conference, but it seems likely they had some knowledge of the knee-to-the-neck technique.
Some U.S. cities, including Minneapolis, have stopped the deadly exchange relationship with Israel, but the very same techniques of military occupation Israel uses against Palestinians have been and are being used against U.S. citizens, and
especially people of color, like George Floyd.
The enormous, nation-wide opposition to militarized police forces coming from all sectors of U.S. society has potential for change never seen before. The decision by the Minneapolis City Council to dismantle their police force is a deeply encouraging sign. How they will do that remains to be seen.
Donald Trump would like military forces to “dominate” and “crush” those advocating for justice in this country. But a clear rejection of his hoped-for policy must also include a rejection of Israel’s use of military domination against the people of
Palestine.
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Focusing on Black Liberation
Palestine Legal
EXCERPTS:
“This is a critical moment for all of us. As at many points in U.S. history, it's a moment of reckoning with this country's deep roots in white supremacy—in the genocide of Indigenous people, in a system of racial hierarchy that brought millions of African slaves here, that lynched countless thousands of Black souls, that enforced racial segregation for decades, and that now maintains the hierarchy through brutal policing of Black communities, mass incarceration, disinvestment in Black neighborhoods, and stark inequalities in education, housing, and healthcare.”
…..
“Today, it's our responsibility to make or renew our commitments to investing in the movement for Black liberation and other justice movements. It's not enough to point to connections in our struggles. It's not enough to point to Israel's training of our police forces. We have the ability and the responsibility to confront and challenge all of the ways that we are complicit in, benefit from, and help to maintain a system built on white supremacy.”
…..
“Together, we can imagine a new future that values every human being, and ensures that they can not only survive, but that they can flourish and be their full selves. From the U.S. to Palestine.”
See their full message here
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Black Lives Matter is not just a hashtag
UNRWA: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees
in the Near East
First, to our black community: we see you, we hear you, we love you, and we're with you.
UNRWA USA stands with our black beneficiaries, colleagues, supporters, partners, friends, and loved ones and echoes the call for justice and an
end to systemic, institutionalized racism so that all people can live free.
As individuals and as an organization, UNRWA USA commits to antiracist
principles and action so that Black Lives Matter is not just a
hashtag. We're starting by reading and discussing Dr. Kendi's "How To Be
An Antiracist" as a staff.
To our non-black supporters: we join you in listening, learning,
unlearning, engaging, and acting -- just as we have done all these years
for Palestine refugees. We cannot and will not remain passive.
Our staff has found the following resources useful…..
See this statement and UNRWA’s excellent resource list here
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of George Floyd Solidarity & Intersectionality
Palestine Advocacy Groups' Statements
Solidarity following the death
SEE ALSO:
UMKR's Statement: click here
Statements from Palestinians:
click here
Statements from United Methodist leaders & bodies: click here
Antiracism - ACTION: click here
Antiracism - RESOURCESfor learning & action: click here
Black-Palestinian solidarity,
historic and current: click here