Speaker 1: You are listening to Waiting on Reparations, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio, Yo Yo Yo. You don't know us
Speaker 1: thinking we won't touch like his's hammer time, wait on
Speaker 1: reparations and literation of Palestine, talents flying. If you criticize,
Speaker 1: you can chast a size while they turned the city
Speaker 1: blocks into disaster sides. Take a pick rasterized flight on
Speaker 1: panic line. Put it on the screen, let them see
Speaker 1: and read the caption line. It ain't all right. The
Speaker 1: far right ship and millions of people living in the
Speaker 1: partis grip. Black people know the struggle. Imperialists degreed, Go
Speaker 1: ahead and grab a blood. We're gonna tell you what
Speaker 1: you need. Linn with Franka Dope Knife. I don't want
Speaker 1: the stems to seed. I'm saying, dope ship, hoping you
Speaker 1: remember me living in for me, my name's Dope Night.
Speaker 1: We are waiting on reparations and freedom for palestime. Yeah, well, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: So this is one of those episodes where something's going
Speaker 1: on in the news or in the world around us that, yeah,
Speaker 1: it just kind of makes me feel like we have
Speaker 1: to touch on the subject and we can't just go
Speaker 1: on with the regular scheduled programming, you know, like makes
Speaker 1: us feel like at least we should talk about something
Speaker 1: that's kind of related to the subject, you know. So
Speaker 1: with that, we're going to be discussing a little bit
Speaker 1: about the situation going on in the Middle East with
Speaker 1: Israel and Palestine. This past Saturday was Knock the day,
Speaker 1: the annual commemoration of the destruction of Palistin villages and
Speaker 1: the expulsion escape of more than seven hundred thousand in
Speaker 1: Palestinian eras, about half of pre war Palestines Arab population
Speaker 1: UM from their homes during the Palestine War. I know
Speaker 1: that you were before that we you know, started the show,
Speaker 1: mac you're talking about marches going down down in Savannah.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they were marching earlier today down by City Hall. UM.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've been seeing a lot of that in
Speaker 1: the news, just like people all over the world arching
Speaker 1: in solidary of Palestine. UM. All over the country. UM.
Speaker 1: On Saturday, people marched in the streets to show their
Speaker 1: solidarity with the folks UM who have been living under
Speaker 1: occupation and are currently you know, getting bomber shipped in Palestine.
Speaker 1: But here in Atlanta, we had, you know, thousands of
Speaker 1: people marching the streets for Palestinian Liberation, and interestingly, the
Speaker 1: Knockba March in Atlanta ended up joining this Justice for
Speaker 1: Jabell Robinson rally. Jabril Robinson in two thousand and sixty
Speaker 1: and was shot twice in the back and once in
Speaker 1: the head by Atlanta police after leaving an altercation in
Speaker 1: its girlfriend's house. People are still calling for justice and
Speaker 1: his name to this day. And so when the marches converge,
Speaker 1: Jabberl's family started chanting from Palestine and then the palest
Speaker 1: Stinian Solidarity marchers began saying say his name, And this
Speaker 1: beautiful moment where these two movements came together to to
Speaker 1: like reflect on the linkages between our struggles and how
Speaker 1: our liberation is all sort of bound up together. And
Speaker 1: the black liberation in Palestinian liberation movements actually have a
Speaker 1: long history of going to connect a struggle um and
Speaker 1: today we are going to explore some of those connections
Speaker 1: between the fights for black and Palestinian lives, stretching back
Speaker 1: to the black liberation movements of the nineteen sixties and
Speaker 1: seventy is all the way up to you what's been
Speaker 1: going on today? So what is going on today over there?
Speaker 1: I mean pretty much in a nutshell. The Israeli military
Speaker 1: and Hamas are lobbying missiles at each other, with people
Speaker 1: caught in the crossfire. Um It's further the New York
Speaker 1: Times a week of fighting has left more than two
Speaker 1: hundred people dead in the Israeli occupied territories, the vast
Speaker 1: majority of them Palestinians killed by Israeli air strikes and
Speaker 1: the Gaza Strip. The violence is intensified over the past
Speaker 1: eight days as diplomatic efforts of stalled and Israel has
Speaker 1: scaled up its bombing campaign against SAMAS. The war is
Speaker 1: being fought on multiple fronts. According to the Israeli Air Force, AMAS,
Speaker 1: the militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, has fired
Speaker 1: more than three thousand rockets towards Israeli cities and towns,
Speaker 1: killing at least ten people. Israeli forces and settlers have
Speaker 1: killed twenty Palestinians during the unrest in the West Bank,
Speaker 1: a Palestinian human rights group said, and the wave of
Speaker 1: mob attacks hit at least one mixed Arab Jewish city
Speaker 1: in Israel. I agree with some people to the extent
Speaker 1: when they say that the Israeli Palestinian conflict is very complicated,
Speaker 1: but there are some things that aren't that complicated. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when you like you know how and then and there
Speaker 1: are immediate parallels as someone that's been involved in like
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter too, you know, very different in scale,
Speaker 1: but similar in UM in what's the word for it,
Speaker 1: in asymmetricality of force UM that we see here and
Speaker 1: we're seeing over there right now. So, yes, motherfucker's a
Speaker 1: shooting rockets at each other. But you've got one side
Speaker 1: that has you know, billions of dollars in military technology
Speaker 1: and weapons, the backing of the US government UM, A Navy,
Speaker 1: air force, a military UM attacking people who are largely
Speaker 1: throwing rocks and yeah, shooting rockets sometimes, but like dispossessed
Speaker 1: from their lands, only have electricity several hours a day,
Speaker 1: many of whom don't have clean drinking water, and so
Speaker 1: you just have to think about who has got the
Speaker 1: power to do more harm and how are they using
Speaker 1: it UM, Which is kind of how I've come to
Speaker 1: like understand like, even if the history is very fraught,
Speaker 1: there's some things that are not fraught. That's very clear
Speaker 1: asymmetricality in this struggle. Similar to when we are out
Speaker 1: of these protests in the United States, someone might throw
Speaker 1: a water bottle. Next thing we have no, No, you
Speaker 1: have rubber bullets, shoot like taking your eye out, uh,
Speaker 1: to your gas building, your lungs, and the you know,
Speaker 1: the the state is able to drag you off to
Speaker 1: jail and charge you, um, and then didn't you perhaps
Speaker 1: for decades for participation in an expression of freedom of speech.
Speaker 1: And so this asymmetricality between like the powers of a
Speaker 1: state that's militarized to the teeth, armed to the teeth,
Speaker 1: funded to the teeth, and the people you know, in
Speaker 1: the streets just trying to like maintain and survive UM
Speaker 1: is part of the lens through which I've come to
Speaker 1: understand what's happening UM in Israel and Palestine right now. Well,
Speaker 1: the the thing that I'm noticing this go around is
Speaker 1: just that at least, you know, uh, opinion over the
Speaker 1: situation there has definitely been traditionally more nuanced and objective
Speaker 1: in other countries than the US, like just historically, like
Speaker 1: you know, like for for the for the most part,
Speaker 1: other countries, you know that the general population is kind
Speaker 1: of you know, have an understanding that it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: this this situation is is you know, Palestine is getting
Speaker 1: a real raw deal in this situation, Like most people
Speaker 1: can recognize that, but in the here in the US,
Speaker 1: because of obvious propaganda, I think we've all been you know,
Speaker 1: like for a long time, people were conditioned to just
Speaker 1: kind of you know, tow the lines like nope, uh,
Speaker 1: it's terrorists, you know, Israel it has to defend themselves.
Speaker 1: Israel has to defend themselves. And it's like this go around,
Speaker 1: there seems to be a lot more like public if
Speaker 1: not necessarily support, But just like the situation isn't being
Speaker 1: painted as black and white as it has in the past,
Speaker 1: just from a like media perspective. I mean it granted,
Speaker 1: there's tons and tons of awful coverage of this whole
Speaker 1: situation if you watch the corporate news, but you know,
Speaker 1: I could get into some headlines and some like digging
Speaker 1: into the grammatical constructions of agency and victimhood or lack
Speaker 1: thereof in a lot of these New York Times articles
Speaker 1: and just like all of the place sort of erasing
Speaker 1: the humanity of one side of the people in the struggle.
Speaker 1: Um no, you were mentioning John Oliver had like a
Speaker 1: scathing session and there was a couple other clips that
Speaker 1: went viral. Um I think it was all from MSNBC,
Speaker 1: but media San had one. Yeah he had one. He
Speaker 1: had one as well. And it's just you know, even
Speaker 1: back in when they were going at it, you wouldn't
Speaker 1: have seen like a segment like that on either on
Speaker 1: the that channel. And yeah, you wouldn't hear Palestinian voices
Speaker 1: in these conversations. Social media particularly, I think under the pandemic,
Speaker 1: the way people have become really really in like Wisconsin
Speaker 1: spheres like Twitter, um, it allows for voices to be
Speaker 1: elevated that previously would get quashed as well. I think
Speaker 1: through the the radicalization of the general public, the shift
Speaker 1: of the Overton window left with regards to the military
Speaker 1: and policing, and this desire are for under represented voices,
Speaker 1: under represented perspectives. People are like I like, they just
Speaker 1: want to know like this, like they've just we've never
Speaker 1: been given the chance to understand the Palestine inside of
Speaker 1: this situation. People just are thirsty to hear what, like
Speaker 1: what they have to say. I think all of this
Speaker 1: post I think the post pandemic era in terms of
Speaker 1: people's awareness of like global situations and things like that,
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna will be in for a pleasant
Speaker 1: surprise at least on that end, because I think it's important.
Speaker 1: I think this happening now between Israel and Palestine, the
Speaker 1: way that it's being viewed is very different because it's
Speaker 1: it's being viewed in a world that's just been shaped
Speaker 1: by a year of COVID and everything that's followed with it,
Speaker 1: and in America the election that we just had, the trauma,
Speaker 1: the post trauma that we're going through, you know. So
Speaker 1: I think I think all that makes everybody have like,
Speaker 1: you know, more of a unique perrective and then also
Speaker 1: you know, it's got a new generation that's a lot
Speaker 1: more progressive in and confute things in the light that
Speaker 1: you know, I think it should be so right, did
Speaker 1: a challenge, challenge the dominant narrative, like you just rather
Speaker 1: than passively receiving knowledge just like m like that, like
Speaker 1: authentically like there are two sides in this, in this
Speaker 1: and I want to hear from both of them. From
Speaker 1: hearing from one, and when you hear from the other,
Speaker 1: when you see the children, you know, walking around in
Speaker 1: the rubble, or you hit the story of the fifteen
Speaker 1: year old kid who threw his self off of the
Speaker 1: eight story building because his entire family have been obliterated
Speaker 1: by rockets like you do with that information what you will? So, yeah,
Speaker 1: you mentioned to the fourteen, one of the more recent
Speaker 1: uh flare reps of conflict that I think captured the
Speaker 1: collective consciousness um in the United States. Since we're gonna
Speaker 1: get into that to that's of fourteen, we're gonna go
Speaker 1: back even further than that, talk about Malcolm X, talk
Speaker 1: about quam Terrey, talk about uh Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee,
Speaker 1: and various other black liberation groups that have weighed in
Speaker 1: on the struggle previously. After the Jump, Black power activists
Speaker 1: have long identified with the Palestinian struggle against Israel, seeing
Speaker 1: in the former of kindred people of color fighting for
Speaker 1: freedom against imperialist domination. Now Historically, a bevy of thinkers
Speaker 1: have seen the United States and Israel as white supremacist,
Speaker 1: settler colonial projects that shared core tenants, oppressive tactics, aggressive strategies,
Speaker 1: propaganda techniques, and apparatus is. As a result, key historical
Speaker 1: figures such as Malcolm X, James Baldwin, A Mere Baraka,
Speaker 1: and various other black organizations, including Student Non Violent Coordination
Speaker 1: Committee and the Black Panthers of All express support for Palestine.
Speaker 1: For example, the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee, which was
Speaker 1: a civil rights group form to give younger black people
Speaker 1: more of a voice during the civil rights movement, declared
Speaker 1: solidarity with Palestine during the Arabs really War in nineteen seventies.
Speaker 1: In nine seven, a couple of years later, the League
Speaker 1: of Revolutionary Black Workers formed in Detroit. Nine nine. It's
Speaker 1: one of the first workers organizations to take up the
Speaker 1: cause of Palestinian liberation. Black and Arab autoworkers joined together
Speaker 1: to participate in l RBW led wildcat strikes, and the
Speaker 1: group's solidarity with Palestine became a point of struggle between
Speaker 1: them and the city's ruling class. The l RBW transform
Speaker 1: the Wayne State University student newspaper into a radical citywide paper,
Speaker 1: but after publishing pro Palestine articles, the administration used false
Speaker 1: charges of anti Semitism to launch an all out attack
Speaker 1: on the LBW on campus. So they've been doing that stuff,
Speaker 1: you know, for fifty years. That's the aspect of it
Speaker 1: that really annoys me, because it's like my whole ship
Speaker 1: is I'm just like I don't funk with right wing stuffy,
Speaker 1: Like I don't care if the right wing, if the
Speaker 1: right wing stuff isn't is white, I don't funk with it.
Speaker 1: If the right wing stuff is black, I don't funk
Speaker 1: with it. If it's Muslim right wing stuff, I don't
Speaker 1: work with it. And if it's Jewish right wing stuff,
Speaker 1: I don't funk with it. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, period.
Speaker 1: And obviously the world is rife with anti Semitism that
Speaker 1: we have to get rid of. That you can easily
Speaker 1: point to for an example, but simply not the basis
Speaker 1: of this criticism. My whole ship is. I just don't
Speaker 1: understand how, oh well, the bad guy was hiding amongst
Speaker 1: all the kids, so we had to kill everybody. I
Speaker 1: don't understand how that is the explanation, Like, how is
Speaker 1: that a thing? Um? Not just there is an anti
Speaker 1: Semitism within um with with like you know, famous figures
Speaker 1: within uh, like Black liberation struggles historically. You know that
Speaker 1: Malcolm X tow the lines sometimes and perhaps crossed it. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know, I think a movement that rejects both
Speaker 1: of us saying that you can leverage logical critiques, you know,
Speaker 1: based on the facts, while also you know, not smearing
Speaker 1: a people as necessarily you know, uh, monolithic or you
Speaker 1: know all all all these folks, you know, I think
Speaker 1: this way or something like that. Like its it requires nuance.
Speaker 1: But it's critical because we can't fall forward the same
Speaker 1: right wing shit that you know, that uh, that we
Speaker 1: claim to reject. We can't fall for that ship. We
Speaker 1: can't we can't get tack into that. No funk that
Speaker 1: I mean if if some if somebody from like I
Speaker 1: don't know, if somebody from like Norway who was like, man,
Speaker 1: funk Trump, it just seems like for my reactually be like,
Speaker 1: why are you talking about me? Why would you why
Speaker 1: would you exactly exactly? Oh, you hate America, you hate
Speaker 1: my family? No, man, I hate this guy that's doing
Speaker 1: racist like oppressive ship to people. This guy's enacting policy.
Speaker 1: But anyway, so um so. The Black Panther Party was
Speaker 1: also supporters of the Palestinian struggle. In his article on
Speaker 1: the Middle East, Black Panther Party leader Huey Newton states,
Speaker 1: we support the Palestinians just struggle for liberation. We will
Speaker 1: go on doing this and we would like for all
Speaker 1: progressive people around the world to join our ranks in
Speaker 1: order to make a world in which all people can live.
Speaker 1: Is The BPP evolved into an internationalist organization focusing not
Speaker 1: only on struggle for black liberation the United States, but
Speaker 1: seeing the linkages between other resistance movements against subjugation of
Speaker 1: peoples of color and the way that the way that
Speaker 1: they use similar tactics of militarization and police occupation in
Speaker 1: other countries. The Black Panther Party recognized that in order
Speaker 1: to end the oppression of people United States say to
Speaker 1: work to end imperialism all over the world, because the
Speaker 1: United States not only perpetrating a form of genocide against
Speaker 1: black people here, but you know the way that we've
Speaker 1: been exploiting Africa, the way that we fund uh the struggles,
Speaker 1: and the way we fund oppression through um you know,
Speaker 1: military coups in South America, like all over the world.
Speaker 1: We got our fingers and some ship. It's all imperialism.
Speaker 1: And so for them, Palestine with the forefront of that
Speaker 1: worldwide confrontation. Malcolm X was a known staunch opponent of Zionism.
Speaker 1: He contended against it in an article that was published
Speaker 1: by the Egyptian Gazette called Zionist Logic Goes Back in
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty four, and the document Malcolm X notes the
Speaker 1: parallels between subjugation of Palestinians and Africans. He pointed out
Speaker 1: the strategic value of Israel to world imperialism. He stated,
Speaker 1: the ever scheming European imperialist wisely placed Israel where she
Speaker 1: could geographically divide the Arab world infiltrate and so seeds
Speaker 1: of dissension amongst African leaders who also divide the Africans
Speaker 1: against Asians. Damn, that would have been a good opportunity
Speaker 1: to my Denzel Washington voice. So what do you what
Speaker 1: do you think about that? He saw how like the
Speaker 1: powers that be, like the elites, they wanted us to
Speaker 1: like to and and we see this happening now like
Speaker 1: oh well, um, I didn't see you come out to
Speaker 1: the you know, stop Asian hate rally. So why should
Speaker 1: I put a Black Lives Matter to found in my
Speaker 1: front yard and vice versa? Or oh, we gotta like
Speaker 1: look out for our people in our country first, so
Speaker 1: that we can you know, and funk whatever is happening
Speaker 1: in me and mar or you know, or Vietnam. But
Speaker 1: it's all part of the same system and same struggle,
Speaker 1: same struggle. Yeah, And so we sow dissension among African leaders,
Speaker 1: so they're fighting amongst themselves or you know, so hatred
Speaker 1: for the four Asians among the Africans, or you know
Speaker 1: among uh for Africans among the Asians. That way they
Speaker 1: can't come together to fucking fight off the people who
Speaker 1: are really fucking up everyone. Ship and he saw that, yeah,
Speaker 1: and the n Actually he was one of the first
Speaker 1: African American leaders to meet with the newly formed Palestine
Speaker 1: Liberation Organization. So fast forwarding a little bit too present.
Speaker 1: More recently, um, when Israel unleashed war on Lebanon thousand six,
Speaker 1: h Tony Morrison, along with seventeen other prominent intellectuals, issued
Speaker 1: very principled statement condemning Israeli aggression and refusing to equivocate
Speaker 1: in the face of the demonization of the Palestinian National
Speaker 1: Liberation Forces. Is stated, the subsequent arguments, accupuizations, and vows
Speaker 1: all served as a distraction in order to divert world
Speaker 1: attention from the long term military, economic, and geographic practice
Speaker 1: whose political aim is nothing less than liquidation or of
Speaker 1: the Palestine Palestinian nation. So like not no both size
Speaker 1: is um coming from Tony Morrison on a ship. The
Speaker 1: solidarity continues today on many fronts, including support for International Boycott,
Speaker 1: Divestment and Sanctions movement. Prominent black intellectuals including Angela Davis,
Speaker 1: Cornell West, Alice Walker, they've all endorsed the call for BDS,
Speaker 1: which you know that even itself has been, you know,
Speaker 1: a hot button topic. They've actually been passing anti BDS
Speaker 1: laws where um companies or or people who are involved
Speaker 1: in b D in anti or in b DS protests
Speaker 1: or boycotts, they can't get government contracts to do things.
Speaker 1: So for example, if you've been involved in it and
Speaker 1: you have like a cleaning business, then like they've got
Speaker 1: your cleaning business on like a list that you can
Speaker 1: never get like a government contract. I'm just pulling out
Speaker 1: cleaning business out of the hat. But yeah, like yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's another point of contention too. So let's let's
Speaker 1: jump head to two thousand and fourteen. Black Lives Matter
Speaker 1: start popping off in Ferguson, Missouri. There was a famous
Speaker 1: well not when he got famous through this Palestine and
Speaker 1: activist by the name of Bassim Masuri who was very
Speaker 1: engaged in the protests in St. Louis after Mike Brown
Speaker 1: was murdered, live stream lots of events around Ferguson during
Speaker 1: the uprising and was arrested and interrogated in the protests.
Speaker 1: And actually he was one of many Ferguson activists who
Speaker 1: has died since two thousand fourteen, which we talked a
Speaker 1: little bit about in our very our second episode wire
Speaker 1: Tap reps but Um at the time of the Ferguson protests,
Speaker 1: Masury wrote, when Mike Brown was murdered in Ferguson, my
Speaker 1: people in Gothap were being slaughtered by Israel and Operation
Speaker 1: Protective Edge. The timing of the two events woke up
Speaker 1: a lot of people. When Mike was killed, much of
Speaker 1: the media started demonizing him in the protesters, often the
Speaker 1: same sources that blame Palestinians for their own deaths and Gaza.
Speaker 1: He went on to say, when the police use military
Speaker 1: tanks and checkpoints to imprison the residence of Ferguson, I
Speaker 1: was reminded of life in the West Bank, where I
Speaker 1: saw the Israeli military used the same tactics of repression.
Speaker 1: Our common goal it's to live in peace and to
Speaker 1: not fear our children's lives when they are walking down
Speaker 1: the street. That same summer, at the beginning of the
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter, Israel launched yet another military assault in Gaza,
Speaker 1: killing more than two d two thousand and two hundred Palestinians,
Speaker 1: including five hundred children, and people like Angela Davis have
Speaker 1: highlighted the links between Israel's widespread use of detention imprisonment
Speaker 1: against Palestinian the way it evokes the same kind of
Speaker 1: mass incarceration black people United States experience. Um companies like
Speaker 1: GFRS profit off the racist mass incarceration of both African
Speaker 1: Americans the United States and Palestinians and Palestine. H G
Speaker 1: Forest describes itself as the world leading provider and security
Speaker 1: solutions and provide security services for over forty embassies around
Speaker 1: the world. They've supplied security equipment and services and maintenance
Speaker 1: for use to Israeli prisons, checkpoints and settlements of the
Speaker 1: West Bank, including the highly controversial Israeli West Bank Barrier.
Speaker 1: In October two thousand ten, three G four est guards
Speaker 1: restrained and held down forty six year old and Golden
Speaker 1: Deporti Jimmy Mumbenga on departing British Airways Flight seventy seven.
Speaker 1: This is a Heathrow Airport. Security guards kept them restraining
Speaker 1: the seat as he began shouting and seeking to resist
Speaker 1: this deportation. Later, the guards were accused of forcing Mbenga's
Speaker 1: head down as he sat handcuffed from behind for thirty
Speaker 1: six minutes. The restraint technique is UH. The restraint technique
Speaker 1: used is known as carpet karaoke and it's known to
Speaker 1: create risk of asphyxia. Mumbenga was pronounced dead later that
Speaker 1: evening in Hillington Hospital. So In October two thousand thirteen,
Speaker 1: the BBC report allegations of prisoners being tortured at Mangwang
Speaker 1: Prison in South Africa. The BBC sided research from which
Speaker 1: Justice Project at was University in Johannesburg, which claimed that
Speaker 1: dozens of the nearly three thousand inmates of the G
Speaker 1: four prison I've been portrayed using electro shock and forced injections.
Speaker 1: And then this is a fucking crazy twist um. In
Speaker 1: June two th sixteen, Chief Ors employee or Omar mateen Um,
Speaker 1: via the u S subsidiary G Forrest of Care Solutions,
Speaker 1: was identified the perpetrator of the two thousand sixteen or
Speaker 1: Lando nightclub shooting, the second deadliest mass shooting in US history, which, okay,
Speaker 1: the others. The other instances highlight the way that like
Speaker 1: this one company with global reach is perpetrating similar kinds
Speaker 1: of violence on people of color in countries all over
Speaker 1: the world, whether it's in Palestine, whether it's in the
Speaker 1: United Kingdom, whether it's in South Africa, whether it's um
Speaker 1: in there's another incident that happened, I think it was
Speaker 1: in Jacksonville, Florida. Um And then the way that these
Speaker 1: people are trained in violence that ends up eking out
Speaker 1: into the way they deal with people in the their
Speaker 1: day to day life. So this guy who worked for
Speaker 1: g Fors goes on to fucking splatter fifty LGBTQ people
Speaker 1: in a nightclub because on his day job, he's a
Speaker 1: part of the system that's killing people. All of that
Speaker 1: humanize people all over the world. So all around the world,
Speaker 1: this company is making money off incarcerations and sometimes torturing
Speaker 1: and killing people of color, and it is part of
Speaker 1: the Black Liberation of Palestine solidarity movement involves understanding these
Speaker 1: global systems of capital and power, how they're used against
Speaker 1: people of color in different countries, and how liberation for
Speaker 1: us all involves taking these systems down. Yeah, if you
Speaker 1: take down, you take down for us. That's Palestinian liberation.
Speaker 1: Its liberation for the people in South Africa. That's liberation
Speaker 1: for the young folks in Jackson and Ville, Florida that
Speaker 1: are that are in child detention facilities like that's that's
Speaker 1: that's kind of the link that people in the Black
Speaker 1: Lives Matter movement and the you know, in the Palestina
Speaker 1: Palestinian liberation movements are coming to see these days. Well,
Speaker 1: one thing I think it is really beautiful is that
Speaker 1: the way that under this bombardment, under the suppression, under
Speaker 1: the living in this open air prison, the people of
Speaker 1: Palestine have shown up for the Black Lives Matter movement,
Speaker 1: perhaps and in a way that I don't think was
Speaker 1: reciprocated until recently. So with the acquittal of George Zimmerman
Speaker 1: in the case of Trade Bon Martin's murder, because it
Speaker 1: sparked outrage and demonstrations all over the United States and
Speaker 1: all over the world, Palestinians took to the streets and
Speaker 1: circulated pictures of themselves holding signs that are at Palestinians
Speaker 1: stand with those who mourned trade on Martin's death. We
Speaker 1: know what it feels like to lose level ones and
Speaker 1: watch the murderers of aid justice. So they were out
Speaker 1: there in the streets for US way before, honestly, way before.
Speaker 1: I think like there was a mass movement in the
Speaker 1: United States here reciprocating that support. Circling back to the
Speaker 1: story of Jabrielle Robinson and the Atlanta Police. Here in
Speaker 1: Georgia there exists a unique relationship between the military and
Speaker 1: police oppression experienced by the Palestinians and the police violence
Speaker 1: in which black Georgians are subjective. We returned to considering
Speaker 1: the Gilley Program, the law enforcement exchange between police officers
Speaker 1: in Georgia and law enforcement officials in Israel to like
Speaker 1: learn tactics from n HL there. So it started in
Speaker 1: preparations to secure UH the Olympic Games in Atlanta, go
Speaker 1: to State University and the law enforcement community established the
Speaker 1: Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange GILLY. The program UM was
Speaker 1: given three objectives. To enhance inter agency cooperation between the
Speaker 1: State of Georgia law enforcement agencies and the police for
Speaker 1: the Force of Israel of the State of Israel. To
Speaker 1: offer an educational professional programmed to senior is Really law
Speaker 1: enforcement officials in Georgia. To offer an educational professional program
Speaker 1: for senior Israeli law enforcement officials primarily in the areas
Speaker 1: of counter terrorism and drug interdiction. So effectively, these motherfucker's
Speaker 1: just learning fund up shop from each other. Going over
Speaker 1: to Zerio, learn how to prut a lot of people,
Speaker 1: fun people up bringing back to Georgia. Shoot Jibral Johnson
Speaker 1: twice in the back as he is walking away. When
Speaker 1: I lived in Africa, UM Cameroon specifically, there was definitely
Speaker 1: like a contingent of some Israeli military that we're trading
Speaker 1: the Cameroonian military. They exported their tactics and and when hardware,
Speaker 1: you know, all of the world. So GILLY, with the
Speaker 1: Israeli law enforcement as their primary exchange partners, teachers police
Speaker 1: officials the tactics of military militarized police forces that treat
Speaker 1: communities as enemies. For example, GILLY has thought that officers
Speaker 1: should inspire fear by racking their firearms when they hosted them,
Speaker 1: flash their vehicles blue lights when patrolling neighborhoods, and limit
Speaker 1: free speech by targeting incitement to quote unquote. So in
Speaker 1: addition to the abuses we've seen by global companies like GFRS,
Speaker 1: there's programs like GILLY that like literally give opportunity for
Speaker 1: these motherfucker's to like learn the worst of each other
Speaker 1: ship and bring it back to wherever they live. But
Speaker 1: in the spirit of Palestinians solidarity, this week we're gonna
Speaker 1: be checking out some tracks by some Palestinian hip hop artists.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, what we what you guy for us this week? Mac? Alright?
Speaker 1: So first up, we got the group Damn or e
Speaker 1: a M. They are founded in by brothers Tamer and
Speaker 1: Chanel Nafar and their friend Ma Dudjeri. I think that
Speaker 1: that's not how you pronounce it, I assure you. Um.
Speaker 1: Their songs are largely about racism and poverty. It's protests
Speaker 1: driven stuff um, centering around the fight against depression, Israeli occupation, drugs,
Speaker 1: and the fight for women's rights. So let's check out there.
Speaker 1: What was their first breakthrough single almost fifteen years ago.
Speaker 1: It's a song called min Ira mean Irabi or who is?
Speaker 1: Who's the terrorists? Me it happy? I'm not happy happy
Speaker 1: one blady me it happy and happy bl So they
Speaker 1: talk about how like, oh, you're the witness, you're the
Speaker 1: lawyer and the judge, like you control every arm of
Speaker 1: the of the judicial system. So of course you're like,
Speaker 1: you know what what justice can't exist for me if
Speaker 1: like the folks that have already decided on the terrorists,
Speaker 1: the one controlling every aspect of my judgment in sentencing.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, there, it's it's it's it's an exclamation
Speaker 1: of the underlying sources of aggression, of housing aggression, like well,
Speaker 1: of course I ended up quote unquote terrorists, like you
Speaker 1: buried my parents under rubble. Uh, you know, like what,
Speaker 1: I don't know what else do you think I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to do? I like that hooked the reframe who's the
Speaker 1: terrorists and my terrorists? Who's the terrist? That's actually pretty yeah,
Speaker 1: it is. It is fine. It definitely like the instrumental
Speaker 1: it's got that um like it's either like a single
Speaker 1: you know, single individual key sort of piano riff sample,
Speaker 1: which is like really reminiscent of like that early Immortal
Speaker 1: technique or of Jedi mind tricks sort of style where
Speaker 1: it's like it's like that early two thousand's political rap beat.
Speaker 1: Like pretty much, you know, it's pretty understand it and
Speaker 1: it just lets the lyrics do all the talking. Yeah beautiful,
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly. Now that was flying um And now we're
Speaker 1: gonna switch it up because you know, Damn is probably
Speaker 1: uh the premier Palestinian rap groups. So they've been around
Speaker 1: for a while now. So you know, we're going back
Speaker 1: to the early two thousands, so we're gonna flash forward
Speaker 1: in time and check out something that's a bit new
Speaker 1: from them. Um this song I could not this O.
Speaker 1: This doesnt have the translation in it. This is their
Speaker 1: song the Milder at looking and it sounds like some
Speaker 1: missy ellie. It like I just noticed a parallel, so
Speaker 1: we said, should I pay off my debts or fight
Speaker 1: the system? Reminds me of that line from the Vince
Speaker 1: Staples song. Um, it's caught between my conscious and the
Speaker 1: skin that's on my body. Man, I need to fight
Speaker 1: the power, but I need that new Ferrari like like
Speaker 1: same ship, the same ship. We also want the same thing,
Speaker 1: all right, I just stopped it. Okay. Yeah. So it's
Speaker 1: like it's sort of like a I don't even want
Speaker 1: to say it's like a clubby Joint, but it's definitely
Speaker 1: like a lot more accessible, like if the first Joint
Speaker 1: was kind of like their underground early two thousand's sort
Speaker 1: of beggar. This is a very very modern but still
Speaker 1: in keeping with what they do, but it's very like
Speaker 1: made for for mainstream consumption. Yeah, this if this ship
Speaker 1: is what's this If you're gonna go throw rocks at
Speaker 1: the I d F. This is this is the ship
Speaker 1: you put on to get hyped up exactly. Um, It's
Speaker 1: it's like, uh, you know, they're they're talking about the
Speaker 1: powers that be trying to keep us separated and not
Speaker 1: have us unify, you know, unify like we're talking about
Speaker 1: in this episode. But there's a one line that stood out.
Speaker 1: I like that. It was, you know, they spend billions
Speaker 1: of dollars to keep us separated. That the thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a direct indictment of the infusion of of dollars,
Speaker 1: billions of dollars a military aid to uphold this our
Speaker 1: part apartheid regime. When we were listening to it, I
Speaker 1: was mentioning that it gave me Missy Elliott vibes. The
Speaker 1: instrumental was very The instrumental sounded like if you went
Speaker 1: on YouTube and found like Timberland type beat. Yeah, one
Speaker 1: of those you know, not the disrespect. It just sounded
Speaker 1: very Timberland influence, but that that era of Timberland, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. And and they were rocking at
Speaker 1: The video also is dope, but it starts off with
Speaker 1: all three of the members heads on the ground. Yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: with boots on top of it, sort of like they're
Speaker 1: in an interrogation rooms fresh moves with some strobe lights
Speaker 1: going on. Later on in this yeah yeah, they had
Speaker 1: that b boy be girl vibe with the dancers. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it was that was really fresh and that was nineteen too,
Speaker 1: so yeah, yeah, like you just you just heard Mariah
Speaker 1: since she's putting that in her Spotify playlist, so that
Speaker 1: ship is certain. We don't we don't normally do it,
Speaker 1: but that should have certified waiting on reparations fresh. So
Speaker 1: for this last track, we're gonna go to a English
Speaker 1: speaking rapper, Palestinian Canadian rapper who I first heard of
Speaker 1: him from a pretty popping freestyle that he did on
Speaker 1: some radio thing that was a YouTube clip for a while.
Speaker 1: But this is the rapper Belly. He's also a singer
Speaker 1: and songwriter as well. But this is his track history
Speaker 1: of Violence. Let what has been to Palestinaian right? Flipping
Speaker 1: these freedom of all aimed just to religion life, just
Speaker 1: shut them. I like that. He's like, I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to say that we're perfect, you know, like he had
Speaker 1: you know, amidst that, like, yo, yeah, we kind of
Speaker 1: you know, there's been some fun up ship, but there's
Speaker 1: a history of violence. You gotta understand the whole like
Speaker 1: where all of this began, like who did what, to
Speaker 1: whom win and to what degree? Which again coming back
Speaker 1: to that asymmetricality I was talking about at the top,
Speaker 1: um in order to like understand how things became the
Speaker 1: way that they are. That was fresh. You know, it
Speaker 1: started off kind of wobbly for me personally as far
Speaker 1: as like the styles I like, but he picked it up,
Speaker 1: especially with that second verse. He um. One of the
Speaker 1: things that I really appreciated him mentioning was the second
Speaker 1: or third class apartheid level living conditions the Palestinians have
Speaker 1: to live in, not not having the proper municipalities and
Speaker 1: running water or you know what I mean, and and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Um. Yeah, now that was I'm still
Speaker 1: kind of taken aback. That was. I'd recommend y'all go
Speaker 1: listen to that full song that was and it's like
Speaker 1: it's like couching a bit of like direct material historical context,
Speaker 1: but like if you strip that out. It sounds like
Speaker 1: it could have been written in Compton. It sounds like
Speaker 1: it could have been written in It sounds I could
Speaker 1: have been written in Chicago, given that he's like an
Speaker 1: actual songwriter, like he he writes for other people and
Speaker 1: stuff too. I kind of the sense that I got
Speaker 1: from it. I have no idea because I'm not in
Speaker 1: his head, but the sense that I got from it
Speaker 1: is that was the intent of that song was to
Speaker 1: wrap about it in a way that it could just
Speaker 1: be like he was rapping about Compton or rapping about
Speaker 1: any hood that we you know what I mean that
Speaker 1: that the people could recognize here in the US, but rapping,
Speaker 1: but what like the he's actually talking about his Palestine,
Speaker 1: And I think that is a cool concept to the instrumental.
Speaker 1: The instrumental was it it left some to be desired. Um,
Speaker 1: not that it was bad, but you know, it's just
Speaker 1: kind of like you know, yes, I mean yeah. But
Speaker 1: then again, it's a testament to Belly because his lyrics,
Speaker 1: like his his pen game was so strong. As with
Speaker 1: um the first Damn song we listened to, like the
Speaker 1: Beata's understated in order for the songwriting to shine. I
Speaker 1: felt like you're listening very intently to the words, because
Speaker 1: you're not like bopping your head that hard to the
Speaker 1: eight O waits there anything? And I dig how like
Speaker 1: his uh. I felt like the more that the song
Speaker 1: went on, the more complex I guess he started to rhyme,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It started off very basic,
Speaker 1: which for me was like, okay, so that's that's the
Speaker 1: sort of rapper that he does, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And it's like as you got into the middle of
Speaker 1: the first verse, he started picking it up. In the
Speaker 1: second verse, he just started going in like oh, oh okay,
Speaker 1: Like yeah, so if the song covers a lot of fronts,
Speaker 1: it's it's got really good rapping, and you know, the
Speaker 1: subject matter and how he's going about discussing it is
Speaker 1: a pretty fresh take. Yeah. Well that's all we got
Speaker 1: for this week. Please go check out these artists and
Speaker 1: support UM as well as you know, advocate for the
Speaker 1: dismantling of the military industrial complex in the person industrial
Speaker 1: complex worldwide. Preach Preach my name is Dope Knife. Wait
Speaker 1: wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait.
Speaker 1: How the hell am I like trying to close the
Speaker 1: shift off, Like I'm just trying to like end ship
Speaker 1: like niggas ain't wrapped. I'm just trying to like like,
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, we can't even do it like that.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, y'all, Like, how could I forget a my
Speaker 1: homie Joel? Can we can we get an instrumental? Please? Uh?
Speaker 1: I was gonna start, yo, yo, yo yo. I don't
Speaker 1: gotta truly to spit when it comes to written versus.
Speaker 1: I am truly legit on another different curve in school
Speaker 1: with you, Brick, because when I dropped, give the urge,
Speaker 1: kick a dude, and the ship proven it this bit
Speaker 1: of scene words, and then I did. I stacked my
Speaker 1: brain and that means work, and I persist. I mixed
Speaker 1: the red and the green herb, and I quit, come
Speaker 1: off the head with a mean verse and let it rip.
Speaker 1: I can't rip because I lost my place, danger, danger
Speaker 1: of loss of space, and I've lost some pace. I
Speaker 1: looked greater, quit awesome, tick. That's what I can do it,
Speaker 1: yo yo. My name's Dope Knife Franca, and we are
Speaker 1: waiting on reparations. See you next week, See you next week.
Speaker 1: Listen to Waiting on Reparations on the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts m h
Speaker 1: m hm