On December 15, 2014, a supporter of Israel posted a comment on UhuruNews.com accusing the African People’s Solidarity Committee of “pandering to antisemitism” because we interviewed Mr. Sean Clinton, an Irish activist who is organizing a boycott of Israeli blood diamonds, on our radio show, “Reparations in Action” on UhuruRadio.com.
The commenter asserted that Clinton’s focus on the diamond industry in Israel, rather than “conflict diamonds” that fund brutal regimes elsewhere in the world, was evidence of anti-Semitism.
On Sunday January 11th, at the National Conference of the African People’s Solidarity Committee in St. Petersburg, Florida, a community forum dealing with the question of “The Roots of Racism and Zionism” will be held at the Uhuru House, 1245 18th Ave S. Registration is open for this major conference.
Below is the statement I posted in response to the commentator’s charges of anti-Semitism:
“I cannot speak for Sean Clinton but, as a member of the APSC and as a Jewish person, i feel the following points must be made:
“You disingenuously conflate two points. It is true, as you suggest, that the entire global diamond trade is parasitic. However, by whipping out the tired cliche of “anti-Semitism” with regard to Clinton’s interview on Israeli blood diamonds, you are making a defense of the Zionist entity and attempting to shield it from legitimate criticism.
“I challenge you to dispute these facts:
“The state of Israel is a white nationalist, colonial settler state, resting uneasily on land stolen at gunpoint from the Palestinian people by Jewish interlopers, terrorists, looters, and thugs in the horrific years (referred to as the “nakba” by the Palestinians) leading up to the establishment of the Israeli regime in 1948. Study your history.
“Just a few months ago, the Israeli government, armed to the teeth with U.S.-supplied weaponry, engaged in a savage massacre in the tiny, starved, open-air prison known as the Gaza Strip, pulverizing its already-enfeebled infrastructure and murdering over 2200 Palestinians, including hundreds of children and babies.
“The State of Israel, while motivated at times by its own narrow selfish agenda, is essentially a strategic military outpost of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East, or the “white cop on the block,” as Chairman Omali Yeshitela has dubbed it.
“It is for these reasons that the Palestinian people and oppressed peoples the world over stand in righteous opposition to the self-described Jewish State.
“I say this to every Jew on this planet: we have a responsibility to take a stand in total solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for absolute liberation from colonialism. I don’t give a damn if they call us anti-Semites, self-hating Jews or the rest of their reactionary slurs. We’re anti-colonialism. We’re anti-oppression. We’re anti-genocide, anti-murder, anti-rape. So we’re anti-Zionist. Deal with it.
“The fact is, that many Jews are collaborators and complicit with the Israeli genocide on the Palestinians.
“Jews who stand with African, Palestinian and oppressed peoples’ liberation have a responsibility to go into our communities and win as many of our brothers and sisters as we can to stand in solidarity with Palestinian, African and anti-colonial liberation.
“What Mr. Clinton detailed in his informative interview was that Israel’s military killing machinery is funded not only by the U.S. government, but in part by revenues generated from the U.S.-European controlled global diamond trade, a violent process of expropriation that begins with the theft of diamonds from Africa.
“It is no secret that bourgeois Jews are heavily involved in the diamond trade and thus complicit in erecting one of the pillars upon which the Israeli state resides.
“Furthermore it is also no secret that the vast majority of Jewish people–in Israel, the U.S. and elsewhere–are vehement supporters of the Israeli state.
“This is why I wish to lock eyes with every Jew who is reading these words right now and say these words to you:
“If you agree with what I’m saying, if you want to stand in solidarity with the Palestinians, with Africans, with oppressed peoples everywhere who are fighting like hell for their freedom, their land, their resources, their lives…. then you need to speak up. You need to join the Uhuru Solidarity Movement. You need to build this movement with us.
“I urge you.
“Please contact info@uhurusolidarity.org or call 727 888 3797 to find out how you can join the Uhuru Solidarity Movement or the APSC, or check out our website uhurusolidarity.org.
“Come to the national conference of the African People’s Solidarity Committee, January 11-12 2015, uhurusolidarity.org/conference
“Jews: stand in solidarity with Palestinian liberation – from the river to the sea! The Israeli colonial settler state must go! Solidarity with African liberation! All Diamonds are blood diamonds! Reparations now! Uhuru!”