The US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel supports the #Strike4BlackLives taking place in academia on Wednesday, June 10. The call to action was initiated by colleagues in physics and astronomy as well as in the sciences more broadly to refrain from research, meetings, classes and business as usual in support of the movement for Black Lives.
The call to action includes academics in all disciplines. To learn more about the initiative and add your support, please see these sites:
https://www.particlesforjustice.org/
USACBI strongly encourages all supporters of justice in Palestine in academia to join this campaign. As noted by the organizers, “In calling for a strike, we call on people who are not Black to spend a day undertaking discussion and action that furthers this work, while providing Black scientists with a day of rest. Every single institution around the world can and should get involved in this work, and the strike marks an opportunity to recommit to the humanist values which should underpin academic work, including the belief that Black Lives Matter.”
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We also share the call of our colleagues in Scientists for Palestine, in support of the #Strike4BlackLives, below:
“Scientists for Palestine stands in solidarity with our black colleagues, in the US and around the world, in the struggle against the plague of systemic racism. We feel a particular resonance, as the similarities between the struggle faced by African-Americans and Palestinians are staggering. Palestinian scientists know all too well what it is like to have fundamental human rights stripped away from them. We join our colleagues in their commitment to ending the violent effects of systemic racism, wherever they take place.
As Dr. King said: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”. We hope that soon the scientific and academic world will stand up united to end systematic racism against our black colleagues, against Palestinians, and against racism in all of its forms. Until then we will be steadfast in our active solidarity with our black colleagues. That is why we endorse the strike on Wednesday June 10th. To show our active support, we call on our Palestinian colleagues to submit a short video to express their solidarity with as well as joining the strike on June 10th!”
Scientists for Palestine is calling on Palestinian Scientists in particular to submit videos in support of the campaign. For detailed information on how to make a short 30-second video and submit it, please see the page: http://www.scientists4palestine.com/palestinian-scientists-in-solidarity-with-black-colleagues-in-the-us-and-around-the-world/
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Further, USACBI appreciates the call of our colleagues at Faculty for Palestine in Canada in support of Black-led movements against racism and police violence, “Justice is Indivisible.” Below is a short excerpt from the statement. Please visit the Faculty for Palestine site for the full statement: http://www.faculty4palestine.ca/justice-is-indivisible-faculty-for-palestine-in-solidarity-with-black-led-justice-movements-against-racism-and-police-violence/
Faculty for Palestine (F4P Canada) expresses unwavering solidarity with Black liberation movements, and allied mobilizations of other oppressed people, demanding justice in the face of racial terror, criminalization, surveillance, incarceration and murder of Black life in Canada and the US. We urge our members and supporters to participate in the mobilizations (while practicing COVID-19 safety precautions) and/or to provide concrete material and political support….
F4P therefore affirms its full support of: abolition and divestment from prisons, policing, and immigration detention; defunding police in favour of social investment in peoples’ needs; decolonization, redress and reparations for historic and ongoing violence against Black, Indigenous, migrant and racialized people.
Faculty for Palestine opposes the accelerating convergence of US and Israeli racial projects. Concretely, this includes exchange programs between Israeli occupation forces and US police, ICE, border patrol, and FBI agents to train, share technologies, and exchange worst practices including racial profiling, mass surveillance, spying, shoot-to-kill, detention and deportation. Canada is not an exception . In 2005, 32 police chiefs from across Canada travelled to Israel for an Israeli police and state-sponsored mission to deepen and further militarize security ties through joint police trainings and trade shows in high-tech security products….”
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We are also sharing the link to #BlackoutDay2020, July 7, 2020, a call for “economic solidarity in America amongst all black people unequivocally. In order to break free from the chains of financial servility, we will organize days, weeks, months, and years if necessary when not one black person in America will spend a dollar outside of our community…Although this movement is exclusively targeted at empowering and uplifting black people all over the world, we welcome ALL people of color to stand with us in solidarity. Black people alone account for an estimated 1.2 trillion dollars or more of spending in the economy annually. Together we have 3.9 trillion dollars in economic spending power. While we welcome allies who choose to stand with us, we make absolutely no apology for the fact this movement is FOR US & BY US.”
As a campaign that works to build the boycott of Israel as a means of clear pressure on oppressive and racist forces and which supports the self-sufficiency of Palestinian writing, culture, academic institutions and economic projects, we support efforts for economic action to fight anti-Black racism and support the sustainability of Black communities. For more information: https://www.blackoutday.org
