Today University California Irvine Professor Kevan Aguilar joins the show to discuss Gaza solidarity encampments on his campus and others across the country. We discuss the violence leveled against these students and faculty members by police, deputized frat boys, and the universities themselves. Alexander describes his visit to the University of Washington encampment and we look at the historical solidarity between Palestinians and the black radical community in America. follow and support UCI encampment on instagram: @ ucidivest @ sjp.uci @ rankandfile @ fjp Restrained- Intifada Sign up at http://patreon.com/miniondeathcult for $5/month and get 2 bonus episodes a week Subscribe to our youtube channel at http://youtube.com/miniondeathcult
I think one of the reasons that this current anti-Zionist movement, this pro-Palestine movement, is related to Black Lives Matter because, I mean, obviously people learned from Black Lives Matter.
And I just want to talk to you about that specifically in a second after this.
But people learned about Israel's involvements with American police departments.
Right.
And that, I think, opened up a huge can of worms for people who would otherwise, of course, object to Israel's participation in these programs globally, but just, you know, didn't know about it because none of it is interrogated in the public discourse.
It's just taken as a matter of course that, you know, we're hand in glove.
I mean, Whatever, we're united with Israel, joined at the hip, and have our hands in each other's fucking cookie jars, essentially.
And you know, I was telling her about just weapons of war trained on Palestinians are being used by American police departments, you know?
Well there's been like this history for a long time and especially I mean I remember growing up there's been this like romanticizing of the IDF of Israel of Israel's military of like they're there they were like proud to say like oh well you know our police officers were trained by IDF them and it was almost kind of seemed like They're the good military.
They're the humane military.
And then, oh yeah, Krav Maga.
That's a cool thing to learn.
It's a humane martial art because you won't get hurt.
They won't hurt you at all.
But for some reason, that was a necessary brutality in Krav Maga.
I remember growing up hearing that.
It was a cool thing.
People liked it.
People respected it.
And now we're seeing how it's come to haunt us.
It's come to affect us.
So many of us now have been put in wild chokeholds.
Like you said, it's coming to light, and I think it's been very helpful in this, for sure.
Yeah, and on this note of...
Black and Palestinian Solidarity, exactly as you said, like with BLM, that really exposed a lot of the ways that the police have been militarized in the United States using the same tactics that the Israeli military has used against Palestinians.
And also, there's been a lot of research coming out and books coming out specifically on The history of Black solidarity with Palestine and vice versa.
And also, you know, there's a great book that just came out, ironically, through the University of California Press about the Black Panthers in Israel.
So, Mizrahi Jews, these are Jews that are of Arab descent, Middle Eastern descent.
Continuously have been treated the worst amongst Israeli citizens and they in the 70s started to take on just like in other in other parts of the world including India this that they wanted to build a black power movement because they were associated that because they're from a lot of them were from the African continent they felt more of an affinity towards what the Panthers were doing than what
You know, local politicians or the left even in Israel was doing at that time.
And so there's a lot of great research coming out and, you know, I gotta shout out my good friend and colleague here at UCI, Russell Miller, who's writing a lot about the history of Black Muslims, their relationship to Israel.
And he made a great point the other day He says, you know, throughout the 1960s and 1970s decolonization struggles, there's two countries that never received or became states.
That's Palestine and the New Africa Republic.
That's such an important point to make because so many members of the Black Liberation Army and the Black Panther Party were trained by the Palestinian Liberation Organization, you know, the PFLP.
So there's these long-standing ties between, you know, black folks here in the States and Palestinians.
And during a rally last week, I was asked to talk and as a representative from Faculty for Justice in Palestine, and that was the day that Mumia Abul-Jamal had released a press statement from prison talking about the importance of Black-Palestinian solidarity, reminding folks that there are a lot of Black-Palestinians,
And so this needs to be a part of the Black liberation struggle, and it has been historically.
We just need to, you know, at moments that ebbs and flows of those memories, but that's right now is a great time to reignite those relationships and that history and that struggle.
It's funny because it's not, it hasn't even been like a secret.
It's been something that's actually been very on the forefront, but it's been very on the forefront within black communities and black and Palestinian communities.
And it's even like made its way into pop culture.
Like if you ever see somebody wearing a Wu-Tang shirt being a Zionist, you sock them in the face because, I mean, like Method Man said PLO style, like, and he meant that.
And that's, and that's because of the rich history of, of the, of, you know, the feeling in identifying with and understanding what it's like to be oppressed and having to fight back with it through any means necessary.
And so yeah, it's, it's, it's, I'm happy that again, there's another moment where it's like, it's unfortunate it's taken this, but I'm glad that these things are Uh, coming to the surface and becoming more obvious and be, you know, um, the correlation between Zionism and white supremacy is like, is very, it's there.
It's there.
there, it's undeniable.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
And I believe that they're going to win their demands.
You know, completely changed the prospects of kind of radical reforms within the university.
And I think it's precisely because of what you brought up.
They are extremely organized and very dedicated to these views and these values.
And eventually they're not going to, I mean, generally they're not going to stop until Palestine is free.
