Cydney Wallace, a Black Jewish community activist, never felt compelled to travel to Israel, though 鈥淣ext year in Jerusalem鈥� was a constant refrain at her Chicago synagogue.
The 39-year-old said she had plenty to focus on at home, where she frequently gives talks on addressing anti-Black sentiment in the American Jewish community and dismantling white supremacy in the U.S.
鈥淚 know what I鈥檓 fighting for here,鈥� she said.
That all changed when she visited Israel and the West Bank at the invitation of a Palestinian American community organizer from Chicago鈥檚 south side, along with two dozen other Black Americans and Muslim, Jewish and Christian faith leaders.
The trip, which began Sept. 26, enhanced Wallace鈥檚 understanding of the struggles of Palestinians living in the West Bank under Israeli military occupation. But, horrifyingly, it was cut short by by Hamas militants. In Israel鈥檚 ensuing bombardment of the Gaza Strip, seen around the world .
Wallace, and a growing number of Black Americans, see the Palestinian struggle in the West Bank and Gaza reflected in their own fight for racial equality and civil rights. The recent rise of protest movements against police brutality in the U.S., where structural racism plagues nearly every facet of life, has connected Black and Palestinian activists under a common cause.
But that kinship sometimes strains the more than century-long alliance between Black and Jewish activists. From Black American groups that denounced to Black protesters demonstrating for the Palestinians鈥� right to self-determination, some Jewish Americans are concerned that support could escalate the threat of antisemitism and weaken Jewish-Black ties fortified during the Civil Rights Movement.
鈥淲e are concerned, as a community, about what we feel is a lack of understanding of what Israel is about and how deeply Oct. 7 has affected us,鈥� said Bob Kaplan, executive director of The Center for Shared Society at the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.
鈥淎ntisemitism has to be seen as a reprehensible form of hate 鈥� as any form of hate is,鈥� he said. 鈥淎ntisemitism is as real to the American Jewish community, and causes as much trauma and fear and upset to the American Jewish community, as racism causes to the Black community, or anti-Asian feeling causes to the Asian community, or anti-Muslim feeling causes in the Muslim community.鈥�
But, he added, many Jews in the U.S. understand that Black Americans can have an affinity for the Palestinian cause that doesn鈥檛 conflict with their regard for Israel.
According to a poll earlier this month from , Black adults were more likely than white and Hispanic adults to say the U.S. is too supportive of Israel 鈥� 44% compared to 30% and 28%, respectively. However, Black Americans weren鈥檛 any more likely than others to say the U.S. is not supportive enough of the Palestinians.
Generational divides also emerged, with younger Americans more likely to say the U.S. is too supportive of Israel, according to the poll. Even within the Jewish American community, some younger and other progressive Jews tend to be more critical of some of Israel鈥檚 policies.
Black American support for the Palestinian cause dates back to the Civil Rights Movement, through prominent left-wing voices, including Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael and Angela Davis, among others. More recent rounds of violence, including the 2021 Israel-Hamas war and now Israel鈥檚 unprecedented bombing campaign against Gaza shown live on social media have deepened ties between the two movements.
鈥淭his is just the latest generation to pick up the mantle, the latest Black folks to organize, build and talk about freedom and justice,鈥� said Ahmad Abuznaid, the director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights.
During a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas as part of the recent deal to free dozens of hostages seized by Hamas militants, Israel released hundreds of . Many were like stone-throwing and had not been charged.
Some Black Americans who watched the Palestinian prisoner release and learned about Israel鈥檚 policy, where detainees are held without trial, drew comparisons to the U.S. prison system. While more than two-thirds of jail detainees in the U.S. have not been convicted of a crime, at more than four times the rate of white people, often for low-level offenses, according to studies of the American judicial system.
鈥淎mericans like to talk about being innocent until proven guilty. But Black folks are predominantly and disproportionately detained in the United States regardless of whether anything has been proven. And that鈥檚 very similar to Israel鈥檚 administrative detention,鈥� said Julian Rose, an organizer with a Black-run bail fund in Atlanta.
Rami Nashashibi, executive director of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network, invited Wallace and the others to take part in the trip called 鈥淏lack Jerusalem鈥� 鈥� an exploration of the sacred city through an African and Black American lens.
They met members of Jerusalem鈥檚 small Afro-Palestinian community 鈥� Palestinians of Black African heritage, many of whom can trace their lineage in the Old City back centuries.
鈥淥ur Black brothers and sisters in the U.S. suffered from slavery and now they suffer from racism,鈥� said Mousa Qous, executive director of the African Community Society Jerusalem, whose father emigrated to Jerusalem from Chad in 1941 and whose mother is Palestinian.
鈥淲e suffer from the Israeli occupation and racist policies. The Americans and the Israelis are conducting the same policies against us and the Black Americans. So we should support each other,鈥� Qous said.
Nashashibi agreed, saying: 鈥淢y Palestinian identity was very much shaped and influenced by Black American history.鈥�
鈥淚 always hoped that a trip like this would open up new pathways that would connect the dots not just in a political and ideological way,鈥� he said, 鈥渂ut between the liberation and struggles for humanity that are very familiar to us in the U.S.鈥�
During the trip, Wallace was dismayed by her own ignorance of the reality of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.
At an Israeli checkpoint outside the Western Wall, the Jewish holy site, Wallace said her group was asked who was Jewish, Muslim or Christian. Wallace and the others showed IDs issued for the trip, but when an Israeli officer saw her Star of David necklace, she was waved through, while Palestinians and Muslims in the group were subjected to intense scrutiny and bag checks.
鈥淏eing there made me wonder if this is what it was like to live in the Jim Crow-era鈥� in America, Wallace said.
Kameelah Oseguera, who grew up in an African American Muslim community in Brooklyn, New York, also said the trip opened her eyes.
At the entrance to the Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem in the West Bank, Oseguera noticed a massive key 鈥� a Palestinian symbol of the homes lost in the 1948 creation of Israel, referred to as the Nakba, or 鈥渃atastrophe.鈥� Many kept keys to the homes they fled or were forced out of 鈥� a symbol signifying the Palestinian right to return, which Israel has denied.
Oseguera said the key recalled her visit to the 鈥渄oor of no return鈥� memorial in Senegal dedicated to the enslaved Africans forced onto slave ships and brought to the Americas. As a descendant of enslaved Africans, it brought thoughts of 鈥渨hat the dream of my return would have meant for my ancestors.鈥�
Returning to home, she said, is a 鈥渓onging that is transmitted through generations.鈥�
Israel鈥檚 Law of Return grants all Jews the right to settle permanently in Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship 鈥� a concept that drew support from many Black American civil rights leaders, including A. Phillip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Dorothy Height, Shirley Chisholm and Martin Luther King, Sr., the father of the slain civil rights leader.
Over the last decade, however, Black Americans and the Palestinians have also found growing solidarity.
In 2020, the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer resonated in the West Bank, where Palestinians drew comparisons to their own experiences of brutality under occupation, and a massive mural of Floyd appeared on Israel鈥檚 hulking separation barrier.
In 2014, protests in Ferguson, Missouri, erupted after the police killing of Michael Brown, a Black teenager, which gave rise to the nascent Black Lives Matter movement. While police officers in Ferguson fired tear gas at protesters, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank tweeted advice about how to manage the effects of the irritants.
In 2016, when BLM activists formed the coalition known as the Movement for Black Lives, they included in a platform called the 鈥淰ision for Black Lives.鈥� , which had largely been supportive of the BLM movement, denounced the Black activists鈥� characterization of Israel as a purportedly 鈥渁partheid state鈥� that engages in 鈥渄iscrimination against the Palestinian people.鈥�
鈥淭here tends to be this doubt or astonishment that Black people care about other oppressed people around the world,鈥� said Phil Agnew, co-director of the national advocacy group, Black Men Build, who has taken four trips to the West Bank since 2014.
It would be a mistake, Agnew said, to ignore significant numbers of Black and Jewish Americans who are united in their support for the Palestinians.
None of the members of the 鈥淏lack Jerusalem鈥� trip anticipated it would come to a tragic end with the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in which some 1,200 people were killed in Israel and about 240 taken hostage. Since then, in Israel鈥檚 blistering air and ground campaign in Gaza, now in its third month. Violence in the West Bank has also surged.
Back home in Chicago, Wallace has navigated speaking about her support for Palestinians while maintaining her Jewish identity and standing against antisemitism. She says she doesn鈥檛 see those things as mutually exclusive.
鈥淚鈥檓 trying not to do anything that alienates anyone,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut I can鈥檛 just not do the right thing because I鈥檓 scared.鈥�
___
AP writer Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem contributed.
___
Noreen Nasir And Aaron Morrison, The Associated Press
