Category Archives: U.S. Labor News

An Appeal by Black Americans Against United States Support for the Zionist Government of Israel

November 1, 1970 – New York Times advertisement by the Committee of Black Americans for Truth about the Middle-East

We, the Black American signatories of this advertisement are in complete solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters, who like us, are struggling for self-determination and an end to racist oppression.

The recent bloodbath in Jordan, resulting in tens of thousands of dead and wounded Palestinians, would not have been possible without the encouragement, armaments and financial aid of the United States Government.

America’s support for King Hussein’s slaughter of Palestinian refugees and freedom-fighters is consistent with its support of reactionary dictatorships throughout the world–from Cambodia and Vietnam to South Africa, Greece and Iran.

We stand with the Palestinian people in their efforts to preserve their revolution, and oppose its attempted destruction by American Imperialism aided by Zionists and Arab reactionaries.

WE STATE that we are not anti-Jewish. We are anti-Zionist and against the Zionist State of Israel, the outpost of American Imperialism in the Middle East. Zionism is a reactionary racist ideology that justifies the expulsion of the Palestinian people from their homes and lands, and attempts to enlist the Jewish masses of Israel and elsewhere in the service of imperialism to hold back the Middle East revolution.

The Zionist Organization of America in an ad in The New York Times of Sept. 17, 1970 stated: “It is appropriate for the United States to begin to treat Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, as a de facto ally for the safeguarding of American interests.”

According to the National Observer of May 18, 1970, the world Zionist movement is big business. “When the blood flows, the money flows,” observes Gottlieb Hammer, chief Zionist fund collector in this country.

WE STATE that the Palestinian Revolution is the vanguard of the Arab Revolution and is part of the anti-colonial revolution which is going on in places such as Vietnam, Mozambique, Angola, Brazil, Laos, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Because of its alliance with imperialism, Zionism opposes that anti-colonial revolution and especially revolutionary change in the Middle East.

WE STATE that Israel, Rhodesia, and South Africa are three privileged white settler-states that came into existence by displacing indigenous peoples from their lands. Israel and South Africa each have about 4,500 political prisoners–most of whom have not been brought to trial.

J. Weitz, director of the Department of Colonization of the Jewish Agency for Israel, stated…”The only possible solution lies in creating a Palestine…without Arabs…and there is no other way to do this than to transfer all the Arabs to neighboring countries, to move all of them out of here.” — Davar (Pub. in Israel), Sept. 29, 1967.

The South African Government supported Israel during the June, 1967, war. Dr. Vorster’s government not only permitted South African volunteers to work in civilian and paramilitary capacities in Israel, but more than $28 million was raised by pro-apartheid South African Zionists and sent to Israel. “After the June 1967 Middle-East war, there was considerable speculation about an Israel-type action against Zambia and Tanzania, countries which share a firm anti-apartheid policy and support the African Liberation Movement…In September 1967, South Africa’s top Army and Air Force officers learned at first hand about Israel’s tactics in the Middle East war from General Mordechai Hod, Commander of the Israeli Air Force. He addressed between 50 and 100 officers at the Air Force College, Voortrekkerhoogte.” — Johannesburg Sunday Express, Sept. 10, 1967.

WE STATE that Israel continues to support United States policies of aggression in Southeast Asia, policies that are responsible for the death and wounding of thousands of black youths.

The N. Y. Times of Nov. 9, 1969 stated that Jacques Torczyner head of The Zionist Organization of America “Appealed to American Jews to support Nixon’s Vietnam policies. Mr. Torczyner, who recently returned last week from Israel said that ‘People there are in accord with President Nixon’s Vietnam policies.’”
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The Nov. 17, 1969 N. Y. Times stated that “Administration sources Nov. 16 release a message from Israeli Premier Golda Meir calling President Nixon’s Nov. 3 Vietnam speech “meaningful.” It contained, she said in a personal message to Mr. Nixon congratulating him on the speech, “much that encourages and strengthens freedom-loving small nations.”

WE STATE that the exploitation experienced by Afro-Americans, Native Americans (Indians), Puerto Ricans, and Chicanos (Mexican-Americans) is similar to the exploitation of Palestinian Arabs and Oriental Jews by the Zionist State of Israel. Meir Ya’ari, General Secretary of the Left-Zionist Mapam (United Workers Party) at the Party’s 4th Congress in 1963 said, “This social exploitation helps hold the Oriental communities, one-half of the population, in their state of economic, social and cultural discrimination. The common denominator of the two problems is that the Arab workers must live in a hut or hovel on the outskirts of the Jewish towns, and the worker of the Sephardic community is packed into a crowded slum.”

WE STATE that despite the ultra-nationalist policies of the State of Israel progressive programs of the Palestinian liberation movements are popularly supported by most of the Arab masses.

In January, 1969, Fateh spokesman, Yassir Arafat stated, “Our political vision for a free Palestine is a democratic, secular, non-racial state where all Palestinians–Christian, Jews, and Muslims–will have equal rights.”

The Democratic Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine presented the following in a resolution introduced to the Palestine National Congress in 1969: “The Palestine National Congress will struggle for a popular democratic Palestinian state where Arabs and Jews enjoy equal rights without discrimination, where all forms of national and class oppression shall be abolished.”

WE STATE that opposition to policies of Zionism also exists within Israel and among world Jewry. The following are excerpts from [a] thesis submitted for discussion to the Israeli Socialist Organization in 1966. “Israel will be de-Zionized, i.e. all present laws and practices discriminating between Jews and non-Jews implementing Jewish supremacy will be abolished….Israel will adopt [a]n anti-imperialist foreign policy, actively supporting the forces struggling for socialism and unification in the ARab world…”

WE STATE that Israel supported the United States in the Korean War; aided France and the Terrorist Secret Army Organization in Algeria against the Algerian Revolution; opposed anti-colonial independence movements in Morocco, Tunisia, Indonesia and elsewhere; trained the counter-revolutionary para-commandos of General Mobutu who was one of the persons responsible for the murder of Patrice Lumumba in the Congo, and presently provides arms and other equipment to the Portuguese troops fighting against the Angolan and Mozambican freedom fighters.

WE DEMAND THAT ALL MILITARY AID OR ASSISTANCE OF ANY KIND TO ISRAEL MUST STOP. IMPERIALISM AND ZIONISM MUST AND WILL GET OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST. WE CALL FOR AFRO-AMERICAN SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE’S STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION AND TO REGAIN ALL OF THEIR STOLEN LAND.

Sponsored by the Committee of Black Americans for Truth about the Middle-East

Hannibal Ahmed
Chairman, Harlem Youth Federation
Harlem, New York

Mahde Mohammed Ahmed
Third World Poets
Jamaica, N. Y.

Dan Aldridge
All-African People’s Union
Detroit, Mich.

S. E. Anderson
Black Co-ordinator
Sarah Lawrence College
Bronxville, N. Y.

George Banks
Pres. of the Berkeley Branch of the National Alliance of Postal and Federal Employees
Berkeley, Calif

Francis Beal
Third World Women’s Alliance
New York City

Vince Benson
Co-National Co-ordinator National Association of Black Students
Washington, D. C.

Grace Boggs
Lecturer, Writer
Detroit, Mich.

James Boggs
Writer
Detroit, Mich.

Paul B. Boutelle*
Chairman, C.O.B.A.T.A.M.E
Harlem, New York

Ronald C. Boutelle
Supervisor, Dept. of Social Services
Harlem, New York

Les Campbell
The East
Brooklyn, N. Y.

Delores Cayou
Secretary, Black Faculty Union
San Francisco State College
San Francisco, Calif.

Cynthia Chambers
Member of American Federation of Teachers and Vice-President of Black Resistance Party
Newark, N. J.

Rev. Albert B. Cleage
Shrine of the Black Madonna
Detroit, Mich.

Ella Collins
Organization of Afro-American Unity
Harlem, New York

Clifton DeBerry
Socialist Workers Party candidate for Governor of New York State

Asher G. Dottin
Afro-Caribbean Mobilization Committee

Richard Dunn
Black Student Union
California State College
Los Angeles, Calif.

Herman Fagg
Socialist Workers Party candidate for Governor of California

Frank G. Greenwood
Station KPFK Communicator
Los Angeles, Calif.

John Hawkins
Student Mobilization Committee
Detroit, Mich.

Charles Hightower
Washington Director American Committee on Africa
Washington, D. C.

Ben Howard
Executive Director, Black Workers Alliance
Los Angeles, Calif.

Phil Hutchings
Former Chairman of SNCC

Keito (L. McKelthan)
Third World Poets
Brooklyn, N. Y.

Florynce R. Kennedy
Attorney, Media Workshop
New York City

James G. Lewis
Student Mobilization Committee
Harlem, New York

Conrad Lynn
Attorney
New York City

Phillip Mason
Black Student Union
California State College
Los Angeles, Calif.

Maurice McKinney
Black Student Union
California State College
Los Angeles, Calif.

Lewis H. Michaux
National Memorial Bookstore
Harlem, New York

Steven Miller
Black Student Union
California State College
Los Angeles, Calif.

Una G. Mulzac
Liberation Bookstore
Harlem, New York

Charles J. Nealy
Black Workers Alliance
Los Angeles, Calif.

Bernard Nicholas
Co-National Co-ordinator of the National Association of Black Students
Washington, D. C.

Earl Ofari
Writer, member of the Afro-American Cultural Association
Los Angeles, Calif.

Willie F. Petty
Third World Solidarity Committees with Vietnam
Chicago, Ill.

Jacqueline Rice
Third World Task Force of the Student Mobilization Committee
Detroit, Mich.

Patricia Robinson*
Writer, Co-chairwoman C.O.B.A.T.A.M.E.
New Rochelle, N. Y.

Charles E. Simmons
U. N. Correspondent
New York City

A. B. Spellman
Co-editor, Rhythm Magazine
Atlanta, Ga.

Askia Muhammad Toure
Editor-at-large
Journal of Black Poetry
New York City

Halima Agila Toure
Editor-at-large
Journal of Black Poetry
New York City

Robert F. Van Lierop*
Attorney–Sccy. Treas. of C.O.B.A.T.A.M.E
New York City

B. R. Washington
Rank and File Caucus
Transit Workers Union
New York City

Kenneth J. Watson
Executive Committee of League of Revolutionary Black Workers
Detroit, Mich.

Ruth Webb
Black Representation Organization of Columbia University
New York City

Barbara A. Wheeler
American Society of Political Science
New York City

Harold Williams
President of the Black Resistance Party
Newark, N. J.

Lydia A. Williams*
Co-Chairwoman of C.O.B.A.T.A.M.E.
Adult Advisor, Youth Unlimited
Brooklyn, N. Y.

Maxine Williams
Third World Women’s Alliance
New York City

Robert F. Williams
Detroit, Mich.

Reginald Wilson
Director of the Center for Black Students, University of Detroit
Detroit, Mich.

Gwendolyn Patton Woods*
Co-Chairwoman of C.O.B.A.T.A.M.E.
Former National Co-ordinator of the National Association of Black Students
Washington, D. C.

Robert Wright
Northern Virginia League for Progress
Bailey’s Crossroads, Va.