Palestine Solidarity Campaign sends its full and unwavering solidarity to the anti-racist uprisings sweeping the United States. We share their anger and frustration at the system of white supremacy, which means black people are murdered with impunity by institutionally racist police forces. We see that the system of racism that disenfranchises African-Americans, rooted in the founding of the United States through the genocide of the indigenous population and the pillaging of wealth through slavery, continues to this day. However, we know structural racism isn’t just an American problem. In the UK, the Institute of Race relations report “Dying for justice“ (2015) identified over 500 people from BAME, refugee and migrant communities who died in a 13 years period in suspicious circumstances in which the police, prison authorities or immigration detention officers were implicated. No one was convicted for these deaths.
This system of racism at home is fundamentally intertwined with the United States role as an enactor and supporter of racism abroad, notably in Israel. From providing military aid, weapons and technology to the Israeli state, which are used to oppress the Palestinian population, to providing political cover for Netanyahu’s land grab through Trump’s ‘deal of the century’, the United States has provided unwavering support for Israel’s system of institutionalised racial discrimination against all sections of the Palestinian population. This system, which amounts to the crime of apartheid under international law, is one of the most egregious forms of racial discrimination.
We know the only way to defeat racism is through uniting our struggles as part of a global movement for collective justice. To do this we must act in solidarity, recognising that none of us are free until all of us can live with dignity and justice. These cannot just be empty words.
We must work to transform the institutions through which racist violence is perpetrated and challenge the wider institutions that sustain structures of racism, including via targeted divestment campaigns against companies that supply Israel with the means to oppress the Palestinian people. We must step up our anti-racist work. Whether on campus or on the street. PSC will work to do this with our partners.