New Afrikan Delegation Denied Entry Into Occupied Palestine
We received this from the National Jericho Movement. For more info please see link to the right.
Jericho Press Release on the Arbitrary Detention of Delegates to Convention in Jericho, Palestine
On 11-23-09, two members of the National Jericho Movement, Dhoruba Bin Wahad (a former member of the Black Panther Party and former political prisoner) and William Naji Fenwick, were denied entry into the settler-state of Israel at the Allenby/King Hussein Bridge.
They were invited by the Palestinian Authority in Jericho to attend “The International Conference on Prisoners and Detainees in Israeli Prisons,” in what we recognize as Occupied Palestine. Dhoruba also had the task of documenting and recording the conference for other media they represent.
It should be noted that EVERY conference attendee who arrived for the conference through Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv was allowed access into the Territory. It should also be noted that the (US) Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Delegation to Palestine had just arrived in Palestine the day before without any complications to participate. They were invited by the Federation of Independent Unions of Palestine and met with the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) (the PGFTU is the largest trade union in Palestine).
Dhoruba and Naji were the only African men on a regularly crowded bus headed toward the border when they were singled out and pulled off. They were held for 11 hours, interrogated and strip searched. Racial profiling is indeed international. In light of this, we must not forget that an Imam of African descent, Luqman Ameen Abdullah, was just murdered by the FBI in Detroit on October 28; that people’s attorney 70 year old Lynne Stewart was just forced to begin her prison term on November 17 for defending Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman … as well as other political activists who have been imprisoned for decades. Jalil Muntaqim of the Black Liberation Army, one of the longest held political prisoners (38 years), was just denied parole, as well as Native American leader Leonard Peltier. Mumia Abu-Jamal, Marilyn Buck, the MOVE 9, Tom Manning, David Gilbert and many others are still near or over 3 decades of political imprisonment. Our struggles are one.
International Law supports freedom of movement and travel. But the reality is that the spotlight is increasingly on the evil of settler-states.
WHAT IS THERE TO HIDE? OR MAYBE THE QUESTION, AS PERTAINS TO THE SETTLER-STATE OF ISRAEL IS: What are you trying to SILENCE?
Is there something about the voice of Dhoruba bin-Wahad that the racist settler-state of the Middle East does not want to possibly resonate within the righteous resistance of Occupied Palestine? Sovereignty? Justice?
We thank Dhoruba Bin Wahad and Naji Fenwick for their gallant effort to represent our voices.
Therefore, we ask all you who hear, who see this, come forward with us to denounce this injustice and stand shoulder to shoulder with our warrior voices, here and abroad.
- We stand for the right of Dhoruba Bin Wahad & Naji Fenwick to enter People’s Palestine at the invitation of the Palestinian Authority to attend/participate/document the conference on Palestinian Political Prisoners and Detainees in Israel .
- We demand that all governments and states respect the international law that supports the right to travel, and that the US of A in all its democratic majesty intervenes on its second-class citizens’ behalf. Do not detain us anywhere in the world.
- We demand that African American/Black elected officials and national leaders address the issue of Israeli Occupation of Palestine in general, and more specifically the International Racial Profiling of African Americans by the Israeli government.
- We support the goals the Palestinian conference to free all its political prisoners, and reach its ultimate goal of a non-bamboozled sovereign, free Palestine .
- We support all solidarity efforts of oppressed peoples to work, build and fight together to end a 500 year old white supremacy that continues to grip the throats of peoples’ cries for freedom and salvation
- And lastly, we have our own battles for multiforms of sovereignty here in the brain of the US monster and its democratic fascism. Our acts of solidarity extend from the core of our battles to free our own political prisoners and TO BE FREE … BY … ANY … MEANS … NECESSARY.
FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS! ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
FREE PALESTINE! WE ARE TRULY ALL PALESTINIANS!
National Jericho Movement, USA
Co-chairs: Ashanti Alston & Kazi Toure
401-248-5011
