Anti-Israel Activists See Intersectional Allies in Black Christians

Anti-Israel activists are seeking to highlight alleged oppression of Palestinians and draw connections with the experience of African Americans, whom they regard as natural allies.

A recent event moderated by Detroit-based Bishop James A. Williams II, presiding prelate of Kingdom Churches United, featured a panel titled “Injustice Anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere… Including Palestine”. It featured speakers including Palestinian activist Lexis Dena Zeidan, Joshua Feinstein of Jewish Voice for Peace, Arab American News Publisher and Editor Osama Siblani, and Third New Hope Baptist Church Pastor Quantez Pressly. Sponsored by left-of-center advocacy group Michigan United, the event was hosted at Nardin Park United Methodist Church in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

Hamas and the October 7, 2023 attacks upon Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,200 people and seizing of 253 hostages, were unaddressed by panelists. Instead, they saw parallels between Israel and a villainous United States that “has been a source of instability and destruction in the world,” in the words of Siblani.

‘Cycles of Oppression’

That insistence upon America as nearly always wrong was seen in a litany of grievances recited by the Arab American News publisher and fellow panelists.

“Just look at what we [Americans] have done in Iraq: unjust, unprovoked war. Killed hundreds of thousands,” Siblani charged. “What we’ve done in Afghanistan we went to fight with the Taliban and returned 20 years later after destroying the country, handing the country to the Taliban. What we’ve done to Syria, what we’ve done to Libya. What we’ve done to Sudan that nobody is talking about. And what we are doing right now in Gaza.”

“Racial oppression in the U.S. could be mirrored to what we see playing out in Gaza,” Williams suggested, while Feinstein of Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist left-wing activist organization, proposed about the people in the Middle East, “this is our moment to say I understand what is going on mirrors what’s happening here. But this is our moment to change the discourse.”

Palestinian Activist Zeidan fretted “we have money to fund war but not fund the poor,” seeing a continued “cycle of oppression both in America and overseas.”

She insisted “This country was [established] on a genocide, and this is something we denied. In addition, we’re a country that was built on the backs of black folk that are now disenfranchised by that same system that they helped to build up to benefit the people that are continuing these cycles of oppression.”

Zeidan offered examples of “systems of oppression” that exist in the U.S. and abroad.

“The Israeli occupation force that is using the same tactics on Palestinians that the U.S. police are using on our same black people here in America. We’re talking about cutting off aid through UNWRA but we’re not afraid to send aid to Ukraine because one is brown, and one are not seen as brown.”

“These are systems of oppressions that we’re continuing to cycle through here in America and ensuring that we’re pushing those overseas,” Zeidan insisted, asserting that the biggest cycle of oppression is, “We’re allowed to say black lives matter right now but if you said that during the time of slavery you would have been blasted and it’s the same thing, we’re doing right now for people talking about the genocide that’s happening in Gaza and to the Palestinian people.”

The Palestinian activist encouraged people “to stand up against systems of oppression because what these systems want to do is pin us against each other and we’re responsible to act in opposition to the system because that’s what builds the country up.”

‘Start Fighting the System Together’

Pressly noted the line on the rearview mirror of vehicles reading “objects are closer than they appear,” asserting “There’s a symbiotic relationship that exists between the oppression here and the oppression over there.”

The Baptist pastor paralleled “The displacement happening in Palestine, we in the black community know what it means to be pushed out of our neighborhoods… Children being bombed to Tulsa riots… Another symmetry is a feeling like we’re fighting all by ourselves. The violence that black people are experiencing is evident. But we don’t feel like we have as much support and advocacy on those things as we need in our community… the last resonance between the two oppression has a lot to do with inactive leadership.”

Williams posed a follow up question, “Do you think enough people understand the racial undertones of what is happening with the war and does that have an impact on how we handle each other here in America?

Pressly disagreed, “No I would say we do not. There is a lack of understanding and awareness in our communities to those realities.”

Troubled, Pressly assessed “As a black man in this country there’s stuff that we’re dealing with right now and that when I try to prioritize the limited energies and resources that exist it does become difficult to spread that to other communities and issues and causes and I don’t think we’re the only one that have had these challenges.”

Zeidan shared her appeal to the Palestinian community to stand with the Black community.

“You can’t expect people to be with you when you don’t stand with others, and I think it’s part of building ourselves up,” Zeidan suggested. “Part of building ourselves up is to get out of this individualistic mindset and we have to start fighting the system together.”

Zeidan alleged that “For every bombed drop in Gaza, for every child that is killed, there’s somebody in this country that is profiting off of that death” and unconcerned with “children currently dying because of famine, death, starvation.”

Siblani characterized of the U.S. government, “We cannot say this is the administration because it’s supposed to be for the people, by the people, from the people. Is it? Does it represent the people? The people are not on the same page and it’s not from the people because it’s from the lobbyist, it’s from the people that are paying the heaviest and the biggest price.”

Pressly similarly questioned the legitimacy of American democracy.

“There is not a mechanism where [the] majority of people are able to move their leaders,” the Baptist pastor charged, insisting it is a false narrative and “propaganda” that votes count. “All of these so-called democracies have influences beyond that where the people’s will, and wishes are not being responded to.”

Pressly concluded, speculating that major problems including world hunger and racism in America could be solved with a commitment of resources, but that this was not happening despite what he assessed was a public will to do so.

“We have to wrestle with this notion of democracy,” The Detroit pastor claimed. “The way that it has been presented to us in a narrative is not how it is truly operated.”

Video of the entire panel discussion may be viewed below on the Facebook page of Michigan United: