Don’t Deny Peaceful Protests in West Bank

Former Grassroots International Board member and current Board member of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Bill Fletcher Jr. recently blogged on CNN.com about the “frequent tendency to misrepresent the lessons of [the U.S. black freedom] movement and apply them to other social movements overseas in a way that misses the mark. This has been happening increasingly with the historical lessons that are being misapplied to the Palestinian freedom movement.”

Fletcher argues that “smearing or repressing all protests in the name of moving against those who use violence is disingenuous, a point well understood when viewing other freedom struggles, whether the Indian independence movement or the black freedom struggle in the United States. In fact, this repression becomes a means not of suppressing violence, but of suppressing all resistance to injustice. This is experienced today by the Palestinian movement.”

Instead, he says, “In this period — from King’s birthday through the celebrations and discussions that take place during Black History Month — it is useful to recall similar treatment King and other freedom fighters endured, and reflect on the true lessons from his life and struggles that are relevant to the Palestinian struggle and its hopes for a lasting peace.”

See the original full article here. 

Bill Fletcher Jr. is executive editor of BlackCommentator.com and a senior scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies.