Childhood Notes on Palestine

 Childhood Notes on Palestine

Marvin Ellis Jackmon

Marvin X at the Odell Johnson Theatre, Laney College, Oakland, (his former classroom when he taught English and theatre at Laney, 1981). 

photo Alicia Mayo

It was not enough to be born

May 29, 1944

Just before atom bomb Japan

Then when I was 4

Mom and Dad took us to the drive-in theater

After cowboys killed Indians

Newsreel came on

Dad went to get popcorn

I watched news

Saw all those people fleeing Palestine

Across bridge into Jordan

I didn't understand then.

Don't understand now

Pain of Palestine

I don't understand why Hitler

Killed Jews

don't understand hatred so deep

I wish somebody could help me understand the joy of oppressing another human being

grinding them into dust lampshades 

but before Hitler King Leopold's Congo

Imagine the Ottomans and Armenians 

Hutus and Tutsis 

Boku Haram Taliban

Irish Catholics Protestants

Irag Sunni Shia inhumanity

Remember that song

"How Long has this been going on?"

I don't understand why Jews

Won't share the land

After Hitler how can Jews

Deny humanity of Palestinians anyone

How can you mistreat God's people

Yet you are chosen of God

You crush the oppressed

Yet you were crushed

Your suffering taught you nothing

You are chosen yet blind

In the Holy land

what price ancient myths rituals

When unholiness is your practice

You think carnal weapons will suffice

Are you superior to God

Do you worship God

Are do you suppose God

Worships you?

Dad came with popcorn

We ate

1948

Watched cowboys kill Indians.

Didn't know we was "Indians" too.

--Marvin X

5/12/21

Marvin X at Gaza protest, Seattle WA, 2014

• From: Abdul Alkalimat <mcworter@illinois.edu>

  To: "abdulslist@lists.illinois.edu" <abdulslist@lists.illinois.edu>

  Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2021, 05:06:37 AM PDT

  Subject: African Americans and the Palestinian Struggle

  
  

  1.  Historical Background
  2.  Analysis
  3.  Organizations
  4.  Individuals
  5.  Palestinian support for African Americans
  

  Historical Background

  Black Power and Palestine
  https://www.amazon.com/Black-Power-Palestine-Transnational-Comparative/dp/1503605450?asin=1503607380&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1

  UN: The question of Palestine
  https://www.un.org/unispal/history/

  MERIP: Palestine, Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict
  https://merip.org/palestine-israel-primer/
  

  Analysis

  Journal of Palestine Studies: Special Issue on Black Americans
  https://online.ucpress.edu/jps/issue/10/2
  

  The Interconnectedness of Black and Palestinian Struggles
  https://www.aaihs.org/the-interconnectedness-of-black-and-palestinian-struggles/
  

  African Americans, Palestine, and Solidarity
  https://www.aaihs.org/african-americans-palestine-and-solidarity/
  

  Organizations

  SNCC
  https://snccdigital.org/inside-sncc/policy-statements/palestine/

  SCLC
  https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1979/08/21/111053581.html?pageNumber=2
  

  Black Panther Party
  https://hiphopandpolitics.com/2014/08/02/history-101-black-panthers-palestinians-fight-end-racist-zionism/
  

  Black Activists, Scholars and Artists
  http://www.blackforpalestine.com/read-the-statement.html

  Black Alliance for Peace
  https://blackallianceforpeace.com/events/palestinianstruggleweek2021

  Black Lives Matter
  https://impakter.com/blm-bds-relationship-resistance/
  

  Movement for Black Lives
  https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/08/why-did-black-american-activists-start-caring-about-palestine/496088/

  Peoples Organization for Progress
  https://ibw21.org/commentary/the-peoples-organization-for-progress-pop-statement-on-african-american-freedom-fighters-and-the-palestinian-struggle/
  

  Individuals

  W.E.B. DuBois
  https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/pageturn/mums312-b209-i090/#page/1/mode/1up
  

  Malcolm X
  https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Malcolm-X-on-Zionism--1964-.html?soid=1109359583686&aid=taq-JEAV244
  

  Jesse Jackson
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W085pnbq-iA
  

  Angela Davis
  http://www.thejournalist.org.za/spotlight/angela-davis-palestinian-rights-and-anti-semitism/
  

  Nelson Mandela
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJcGTjAFGjk
  

  Cornel West
  https://www.c-span.org/video/?437547-1/cornel-west-alan-dershowitz-mideast-debate
  

  Kali Akuno
  https://usacbi.org/2011/08/kali-akuno-the-black-liberation-movement-and-boycott-divestment-and-sanctions-lessons-and-applications-for-the-palestinian-liberation-movement/
  

  Palestinian Support for African Americans

  Palestinians Offer Support
  https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/palestinians-offer-solidarity-with-black-america-s-struggle-for-justice-36884

  Unbreakable Link
  https://www.arabnews.com/node/1690701

  Palestinian Liberation Leader Supports Black Panthers
  https://www.workers.org/2018/11/39670/

  Black Activists and Palestinians
  https://medium.com/hindsights/black-palestinian-solidarity-contemporary-struggles-historical-roots-d975a9567aeb

  Arabs Rally for Black Liberation
  https://aaan.org/arabs-in-chicagoland-rally-for-black-liberation/
  

  ---