Black and Palestinian Solidarities in Context

This guide contains books and materials for researching the history and context surrounding Black people's solidarity with Palestinian people’s freedom struggles under conditions of displacement, colonialism and violence. Published on November 3, 2023, this guide comes in the midst of current Black organizing in solidarity with Palestinian people experiencing genocide in Gaza under an Israeli state. In the presence of mainstream media bias and censorship of information about the murders of Palestinian people, this guide is also a resource for locating and engaging independent news media outlets. Note that this set of works is a starting point and by no means exhaustive.

These materials were assembled in the spirit of radical Black feminist praxis and thus they acknowledge the ethos of demanding justice and freedom amidst complex histories and political conditions. During an October 2023 panel on “Black Feminist Writers and Palestine,” with the Black Women Radicals organization, Angela Davis captured this very spirit with the reminder that: 

“Radical Black feminist approaches demand a willingness to embrace complexity. We can walk and chew gum at the same time and do other things as well. So we embrace what often are represented as contradictions. We’re aware of the danger of simplistic analysis and the assumption that there are always only two sides to choose from and there is only one that can be chosen… All the women are not white and all the Black people are not men.  And to criticize the Israeli government is not anti-semitism. And also it is possible to oppose the attacks by Hamas and say a resounding collective no to the massive Israeli military incursion that is now taking place in Gaza.”

-Angela Y. Davis