ST. PETERSBURG, FL – On Thursday, July 17, 2014, the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations held a demonstration at the Florida Holocaust Museum in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida to protest the Israeli state’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people.
The Holocaust Museum was chosen as the site of the demonstration to highlight the contradiction between the imperialist state of Israel, which seeks to monopolize the term “holocaust” as something that happened only to Jewish people, and their acts of aggression and genocide toward the Palestinian people.
The demonstration’s purpose was to show that the working class African people and their leadership are in full solidarity with the Palestinian people and we recognize that the illegitimate white nationalist, colonial settler state of Israel is a terrorist organization that is committing a holocaust on the Gaza Strip.
Israel is backed by the governments of the United States and Great Britain; with the U.S. spending 3.1 billion dollars per year to fund Israel’s military that carries out a policy of genocide against the Palestinian people.
The Black is Black Coalition for Social Justice, Peace, and Reparations is expressing its profound outrage and condemnation of this new round of naked Israeli genocidal attacks on oppressed, colonized and stateless people of Palestine in Gaza.
While groups of Israeli settlers are joyously watching from the high ground, with binoculars and recording with their smart phones, the horrific spectacles of genocide their army is inflicting on Palestinian people is occurring as the world watches in quiet disbelief.
As the Black is Back Coalition broke the silence against the Israeli aggression, it provided political leadership to those who have been afraid to speak out against the atrocities committed against Palestine.
With chants like “Free Free Palestine; Long Live Palestine” and “Israel Israel you can’t hide; we charge you with genocide” the Black is Back Coalition made it clear that they were uncompromising in their position.
The Tampa Bay Times reported that the chants could be heard from inside the “darkened museum, where staff huddled near entrance gates and watched the group outside.”
During the protest, a female museum security officer heckled the demonstrators, clapping in unity with Israel’s actions, as Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the Black is Back Coalition denounced the Israeli settler state as occupiers and murderers and called for victory to the Palestinian people.
Chairman Omali reminded the demonstrators and onlookers that the entire Gaza Strip that is being bombarded by U.S. paid for Israeli bombs is only 5 miles wide and 25 miles long where 2 million people live in what is called an “Open Air Prison.”
"We have a certain obligation to do this. It is appalling and horrible that people in this country can watch this genocide and not make a statement,” said Chairman Omali.
“There is something wrong with murder and we need to speak out, even when it's happening from people who declare themselves the perennial victims of oppression. The real terrorists are armed with the most sophisticated weaponry in the world. The real victims are the Palestinians who have been living under colonialism and fear.”
Uhuru Solidarity Movement leader, Jesse Nevel spoke about the Israeli State’s murder of Palestinian children. Nevel, a self-identified Jew, criticized the complicity of many Jews with the Israeli state and called for Jewish people to stand in solidarity with the struggle for Palestinian liberation:
"As a Jewish person, nothing sickens me more than the fact that, under the banner of a Jewish Star of David and in the name of advancing the interests of Jewish people everywhere, the U.S.-backed State of Israel is carrying out a holocaust against the Palestinians in broad daylight."
The Black is Back Coalition formed as an anti-war group in 2009 to challenge the warmongering Obama regime, which at the time had silenced the entire so-called anti-war movement.
The Coalition has been staunch supporters of the Palestinian cause since its inception.
The Black is Back Coalition is also scheduled to hold its annual conference on August 16 and 17, 2014 in Philadelphia.
The International Black is Back Conference will address imperialist wars in Africa, the Middle East, and all around the world where imperialism is attempting to rescue itself at the expense of the subject peoples of the world. Victory to Palestine.
For more information and to register for the Black is Back International Conference, go to www.blackisbackcoalition.org.
