Black-Palestinian Solidarity Has Deep Roots
A mass mobilization to end Israel’s war on Gaza took place Saturday, Nov. 4, in Washington, D.C., and in other cities around the United States and worldwide. So far, Israeli forces have killed more than 10,000 people in Gaza.
As opponents of the war grow in number, more than 5,000 Black activists, artists, scholars, and students and more than 150 organizations have signed the Black Solidarity with Gaza #CeasefireNow statement. Signatories include such luminaries as Angela Davis, Indya Moore, Marc Lamont Hill, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Robin D.G. Kelley, and more.
Khury Petersen-Smith, who helped organize the Black for Palestine statement, and who is the Michael Ratner Middle East Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, spoke with YES! Racial Justice Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES! Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about the roots of Black solidarity with Palestinians.
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Sonali Kolhatkar
is currently the racial justice editor at YES! Media and a writing fellow with Independent Media Institute. She was previously a weekly columnist for Truthdig.com. She is also the host and creator of Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. Sonali won First Place at the Los Angeles Press Club Annual Awards for Best Election Commentary in 2016. She also won numerous awards including Best TV Anchor from the LA Press Club and has also been nominated as Best Radio Anchor 4 years in a row. She is the author of Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence, and the co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women's Mission. Her forthcoming book is Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice (City Lights, 2023). She has a Master’s in Astronomy from the University of Hawai’i, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. She reflects on her professional path in her 2014 TEDx talk, “My Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host.” She can be reached at sonalikolhatkar.com
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