Organizers of the protests against police officers in Ferguson, Mo., spent 10 days in Palestine recently, where they "sought to forge connections with Palestinian activists," alternate news website Color Lines: News for Action reported.
The protest leaders and members of groups Dream Defenders and Black Lives Matter spent their time in the Palestinian territories activists that hate Israel.
"The goals were primarily to allow for the group members to experience and see firsthand the occupation, ethnic cleansing and brutality Israel has levied against Palestinians, but also to build real relationships with those on the ground leading the fight for liberation," Dream Defenders’ legal and policy director Ahmad Abuznaid told Ebony.
"In the spirit of Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Stokely Carmichael and many others, we thought the connections between the African American leadership of the movement in the US and those on the ground in Palestine needed to be reestablished and fortified."
While on their trip, delegates met with black Palestinians, refugees, Palestinian activists, and those who’d been removed from their homes in East Jerusalem. The Institute for Middle East Understanding assisted in developing the delegation’s itinerary. During a stop in Nazareth, the delegation staged a solidarity demonstration.