The Mask is Off: The Hideous Connections Between Zionism, Colonialism, Capitalism and Genocide

Black Alliance For Peace

15 May 2024

The enemies of humanity are revealing themselves. It is up to the movement to rise to the occasion and deepen the analysis of the forces at play.

Originally published in the Black Alliance for Peace.

In April, students across the US empire rose up with campus-based encampments designed to bring attention to the genocide against Palestine and demand that their universities divest from economies engaged in active genocidal campaigns. It came as little surprise to anyone who has ever read a history book that US universities chose to stand by the Zionist genocide machine and instead attack their own students.

Despite a well-documented live-streamed genocide, as late as December 2023 publicly calling for a cease-fire was too politically risky for many grassroots organizations. Mass demonstrations and agitation changed that calculation, and today a growing list of organizations have joined the call.

To be clear, BAP’s position has not changed one iota since our founding in 2017: end the colonial domination of Palestine by Zionists and liberate a free and independent Palestine. We don’t only want a cease-fire, we want a liberated Palestine.

But other organizations have evolved more on the issue of Palestine in the past few months than in their entire lifetime. What happened?

BAP has consistently asserted that as people rise up against the deepening crisis of capitalism, the veneer of Western civilization and enlightenment will fall, revealing the naked aggression and violence inherent in capitalism, imperialism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. The horror of the colonial Zionist campaign of genocide is that reveal.

This reveal of colonial violence is forcing people to rethink the propaganda they have internalized. But the revelation of facts is not the same as drawing correct conclusions.

For the entire duration of human existence, the sun has risen from the East and fallen in the West. Yet, only in the last 3,000 or so years, and only in the last 500 years for most Europeans, did large numbers of people recognize that the Earth rotated as it orbited the sun. The facts were the same, but the conclusions differed.

As the masses of African people examine with new eyes the relationship between Zionists and Palestine, what will we conclude? Will we fall for the ploy to scapegoat Benjamin Netanyahu for all of Israel’s crimes and then fall back to complacency after he is removed from office? Or will we make the connection between Israel and colonialism, colonialism and capitalism, and capitalism and genocide?

BAP was built for this moment. Since 2017, we have been preaching the very ideas that most people you know will not conclude for another 6 months or a year. And YOU will help them reach those conclusions. But reaching that conclusion is not forgone. The enemy is also fighting the war of ideas and is intent on spreading mass confusion.

BAP has been deeply engaged in the campus protests, providing strategic and tactical guidance. But most importantly, we are providing analysis. We are building a vision of the future that will end imperialism and usher in a world of peace. BAP was built for this moment, and we need you now, more than ever.

Events

BAP sees Gaza as another aspect of the war being waged on colonized people by the U.S. and we reject notions that juxtapose the struggle for a liberated Congo against the struggle for a free Palestine. BAP Africa Team and U.S. Out of Africa Network are calling for an African Liberation Month as a build-up toward African Liberation Day commemorations across the world on May 25th.

Wednesday, May 22: Commemorate, celebrate, and support African Liberation Day (ALD) with, Black Alliance for Peace-DC and member organization Pan-African Community Action (PACA) at African Liberation Day DC Teach-in about how the struggles of Africans on the continent are connected to that of Africans (Black people) in the U.S. | Time: 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM | Location: Sankofa Video Books & Cafe 2714 Georgia Ave, NW Washington, DC

Friday, May 24: BAP member organization, the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) will hold the International ALD Webinar, “Same Struggle: Smash Settler-Colonialism in Zionist Israel, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania!” | Time: 12:00 PM EST, 9 AM PST, 4 PM UTC, 7 PM Nairobi | REGISTER HERE

Saturday, May 25: A-APRP’s official African Liberation Day, a historical institution that has been commemorated in Baltimore, Maryland for over 40 years. The theme for ALD 2024 is "SAME STRUGGLE: Smash Settler-Colonialism in Occupied Palestine, Africa, The Americas, and Oceania!" | Time: 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM | Location: Lafayette Square Park 600 North Carey Street, Baltimore, MD.

Saturday, May 25: BAP Atlanta is holding Atlanta African Liberation Day with performances, speakers, and discussions that highlight African struggles on the continent, throughout the diaspora, and right here in Atlanta | Time: 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM | Location: CT Martin Recreation & Aquatic Center, Auditorium 1, 3201 M.L.K. Jr Dr SW, Atlanta, GA | REGISTER HERE

Saturday, May 25: Join Black Lives Matter Boston to celebrate African Liberation Day. It will include a screening of the documentary "The Sun Rises in the East" and a community gathering with food distribution and engaging conversations with fellow community members | Time: 12:30 PM – 3:30 PM | Location: Urban Edge 1544 Columbus Ave, Roxbury, MA | REGISTER HERE!

No Compromise, No Retreat!

Struggle to win,
Ajamu, Austin, Erica, Jacqueline, Jaribu, Jemima, Margaret, Matt, Netfa, Nnamdi, Paul, Rafiki, and Yasmin
Coordinating Committee

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. Consider giving today.

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