Black-Palestinian Solidarity 1968 / 2018

As part of Qalandiya International IV Collateral Events:

Black-Palestinian Solidarity
1968 / 2018

with Robyn Spencer (City University of New York),
Hamzah Baig (Yale University),
Nadia Abu El-Haj (Barnard College / Columbia University),
moderated by Nora Akawi and Lila Abu-Lughod (Columbia University)

The late 1960s saw the emergence of a militant Black-Palestinian solidarity, epitomized by the meeting between members of the Black Panthers and members of the Palestinian Liberation Movement at the Pan-African Cultural Festival in Algiers in 1969. Fueled by anti-imperialism, they saw their struggles as revolutionary, militant, and internationalist. Fifty years on, new forms of solidarity and new politics on the ground have emerged. How should we understand these solidarities across different historical moments, sites, and racial formations?

Panel presentations and discussion:

'Spirit in Opposition': Malcolm X, the Black Panthers and the Question of Palestine
Hamzah Baig, History, Yale University

Black Power for Palestine: Solidarity Politics Then and Now
Robyn Spencer, History, City University of New York

Iterations of the Racial State
Nadia Abu El-Haj, Anthropology, Barnard College and Columbia University

Moderated by: 
Anaheed Al-Hardan, American University in Beirut

The panel discussion with be followed by a screening of Visions of Liberation and Solidarity 1968/2018, an original video of archival material on key moments of solidarity between Black American and Palestinian political movements from 1968 to the present.

Researched by Meitha Al Mazrooei, Che Gosset, A. Firestone, and Adrien Zakar, and edited by Yusef Audeh. Commissioned by the Center for Palestine Studies at Columbia University and Studio-X Amman at Columbia University GSAPP and the Columbia Global Center in Amman, with advisors Nora Akawi and Lila Abu-Lughod.

The event is co-sponsored by the Center for Palestine Studies, Studio-X Amman at Columbia University GSAPP and the Columbia Global Center in Amman, the Institute for Research on African American Studies, and the Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities.