Black for Palestine (B4P, also known as Black 4 Palestine) is an anti-Israel network comprised of black activists across the United States. The organization was co-founded in 2015 by now-U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Kristian Davis Bailey.

Black for Palestine has “posted online more than 100 times in support of terrorists,” according to Canary Mission, a watchdog of antisemitism. ¹

B4P has expressed support for assassinated Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader Ghassan Kanafani, calling him a “revolutionary Palestinian novelist and activist.” The organization has also praised leaders of the Black Panther Party, a communist Black militant organization founded in 1966, and the Black Liberation Party, including Assata Shakur who was convicted in 1977 for the first-degree murder of a New Jersey state trooper before escaping and fleeing to Cuba. ^{2 3}

Background

Black for Palestine is a left-of-center anti-Israel network comprised of black activists from across the United States. The organization states that its members include artists, students, full-time activists, and academics across the country. ⁴

B4P states on its website that it is “committed to supporting the Palestinian struggle,” and advocates for “full sovereignty and rights for the Palestinian people.” The organization also endorses the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, an international campaign to delegitimize the State of Israel as the expression of the Jewish people’s right to national self-determination by isolating the country economically through consumer boycotts, business and government withdrawal of investment, and legal sanctions. ⁴

According to its website, Black for Palestine opposes capitalism, Zionism, and “all forms of oppression.” ⁴

Activities

Black Solidarity Statement (2015)

Black for Palestine released a “2015 Black Solidarity Statement with Palestine” shortly after its inception in 2015. The statement began by claiming that Israel had occupied the West Bank for 48 years, adding that it was the 67th year of “Nakba,” the “Arabic word for Israel’s ethnic cleansing.” ⁵

The statement also calls the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) the Israel Occupation Forces, and claims that “Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid” is an “apparatus built and sustained on ethnic cleansing,” and that B4P continues to notice “connections between the situation of Palestinians and Black people.” ⁵

The statement also claims that “centuries of anti-Palestinian and anti-Black violence” have always been “at the core of Israel and the U.S.,” and called for “unified action against anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and Zionism.” The statement also called for the United States government to “end economic and diplomatic aid to Israel,” and stated it endorsed the BDS movement. ⁵

The statement was signed by 1,155 individuals and 49 organizations. ⁶

Black Solidarity with Gaza (2023)

Black for Palestine also released a statement of solidarity in 2023, amid conflict between Israel and Hamas provoked by Hamas’s attacks against Israel of October 7 of that year. The beginning of the statement claimed that it was written out of “grief and in outrage at the catastrophic violence that the state of Israel is enacting on Gaza,” but did not include any information on the violence that has been perpetrated by Hamas against Israel. ⁷

The statement called for an immediate ceasefire, “ending the U.S. obstruction of Palestinian protections against genocide,” and “an end to the siege on Gaza and the occupation of Palestine,” which included ending United States support to Israel, calling it a “murderous responsibility.” ⁷

The statement also claims that the Israeli government, its allies, and Western media have attempted to “isolate, demonize and dehumanize the people of Gaza to provide a false justification for Israel’s unjustifiable mass killing,” possibly referring to the violence perpetrated by Hamas against Israel. ⁷

According to B4P, more than 6,000 individuals and 225 organizations signed the statement. Signatories include former Black Lives Matter leader Patrisse Cullors, “critical race theory” professor Angela Davis, and Marc Lamont Hill, who was fired by CNN in 2018 after using the slogan “Free Palestine from the river to the sea” during a pro-Palestinian speech before the United Nations. ⁸

Affiliated Organizations

Black for Palestine has joined with other anti-Israel organizations to lead or promote demonstrations, including the “National March on Washington,” and the “Shut it Down for Palestine” strike. ¹

The leaders of the strike include the People’s Forum, a Chinese Communist Party-allied charity in New York, and the Palestinian Youth Movement, which supports BDS activities and has posted images on social media that show protesters celebrating leaders from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. ^{1 9}

Controversy

Black for Palestine has “posted online more than 100 times in support of terrorists,” according to Canary Mission, a watchdog that “documents people and groups that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses.” ¹

B4P has expressed support for assassinated Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader Ghassan Kanafani, calling him a “revolutionary Palestinian novelist and activist.” ³

The organization has also praised leaders of the Black Panther Party, a communist Black militant organization founded in 1966, and the Black Liberation Party, including Assata Shakur who was convicted in 1977 for the first-degree murder of a New Jersey state trooper. Shakur fled to Cuba, which led to her becoming the first woman to make the FBI’s most wanted terrorists list. ¹

B4P has also worked alongside the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, an international advocacy group that opposes the detention and prosecution of pro-Palestine activists and militants by the state of Israel. Following the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel, the group reportedly helped organize anti-Israel protests around the world and was listed on a flyer advertising an anti-Israel event at Princeton University organized by the Princeton Palestine Liberation Coalition on December 1. ^{1 10}

Samidoun is an Israeli-designated terror group that, according to reports by the Washington Examiner, has shared staffers with PFLP. The Israeli government identified Samidoun activists Khaled Barakat, Mustapha Awad, and Mohammed Khatib as members of the PFLP. ¹

Both Barakat and Khatib rallied alongside B4P co-founder Kristian Davis Bailey in Brussels, Belgium in July 2016. The rally was in support of “Black/Palestinian Solidarity and Struggles for Liberation.” B4P also posted an interview with Khatib in September 2016. During the interview, Khatib stated “the need to go beyond solidarity for a unified struggle against our common oppressors around the world.” ¹

People

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) is the co-founder of Black for Palestine, and a member of “The Squad,” a group of socialist and other left-wing members of Congress including U.S. Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA).

Tlaib was censured by the House of Representatives in early December 2023 due to her comments surrounding the attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023, which left approximately 1,200 people dead. ¹¹

Kristian Davis Bailey, the other co-founder of Black for Palestine, was arrested in 2015 for blocking a bridge in California alongside Black Lives Matter protesters. Bailey also claimed in a 2016 article that he was detained by Israeli officials due to “racial profiling” after he attempted to enter the West Bank. ^{1 12}

1. Kaminsky, Gabe. “Black for Palestine: Meet Rashida Tlaib’s favorite Israel-hating group with terror ties.” Washington Examiner. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/palestine-rashida-tlaib-israel-terror-ties-hamas.
2. ^[1] Kaminsky, Gabe. “Black for Palestine: Meet Rashida Tlaib’s favorite Israel-hating group with terror ties.” Washington Examiner. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/palestine-rashida-tlaib-israel-terror-ties-hamas.
3. “Black4Palestine Demands Freedom For Bilal Kayed & All Palestinian Political Prisoners.” BLACK FOR PALESTINE. July 8, 2016. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://www.blackforpalestine.com/blog/black-solidarity-statement-for-bilal-kayed-all-palestinian-political-prisoners
4. “Who We Are.” BLACK FOR PALESTINE. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://www.blackforpalestine.com/who-we-are.html.
5.  “2015 Black Statement of Solidarity with Palestine.” BLACK FOR PALESTINE. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://www.blackforpalestine.com/2015-statement.html.
6. “Signatories to the Black Solidarity Statement on Palestine.” BLACK FOR PALESTINE. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://www.blackforpalestine.com/view-the-signatories.html.
7. “Black Solidarity with Gaza – #CeasefireNow.” Black for Palestine. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://www.blackforpalestine.com/2023statement.html.
8. “Signatories to the 2023 Black Solidarity Statement on Palestine.” BLACK FOR PALESTINE. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://www.blackforpalestine.com/2023signatories.html.
9. “Foreign Terrorist Organizations.” U.S. Department of State. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://www.state.gov/foreign-terrorist-organizations/.
10. Goodman, Alana. “Terrorist Group Sponsored Princeton Anti-Israel Rally.” December 1, 2023. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://freebeacon.com/campus/terrorist-group-sponsored-princeton-anti-israel-rally/.
11. Frayer, Lauren. “Israel revises down its death toll from the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks to about 1,200.” November 11, 2023. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://www.npr.org/2023/11/11/1212458974/israel-revises-death-toll-hamas-attacks-oct-7.
12. Bailey, Kristian Davis. “Traveling While Black: I Was Racially Profiled and Locked Up in Israel.” Color Lines. February 25, 2016. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://colorlines.com/article/traveling-while-black-i-was-racially-profiled-and-locked-israel/.