The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute is finally going to issue you the Fred L. Shuttlesworth Award
during a virtual event on Juneteenth.
And I wanted to ask you about this, because you returned to your hometown of Birmingham,
Alabama, last February after the institute had at first rescinded the award due to your
support for BDS — Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement — and your support of Palestinians.
After outcry, the institute reversed its decision.
A lot has happened over the last period, including
within the context of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.
They have completely reorganized.
They have reorganized their board.
They have been involved in conversations with the community.
Of course, as you know, the mayor of Birmingham was threatening to withdraw funding from the institute.
There was a generalized uprising in the Black community.
And, you know, while at first it was a total shock to me that they offered this award to
me, and then they rescinded it, I’m realizing now that that was an important moment, because
it encouraged people to think about the meaning of human rights and why is it that Palestinians
could be excluded from the process of working toward human rights.
Palestinian activists have long supported Black people’s struggle against racism.
When I was in jail, solidarity coming from Palestine was a major source of courage for me.
In Ferguson, Palestinians were the first to express international solidarity.
And there has been this very important connection between the two struggles for many decades,
so that I’m going to be really happy to receive the award, which now represents
a rethinking of the rather backward position that the institute assumed, that Palestinians
could be excluded from the circle of those working toward
a future of justice, equality and human rights.
Speaking about what’s going on in the West Bank right now and about the whole issue of
international solidarity, the global response to the killing of George Floyd.
In the occupied West Bank, protesters denounced Floyd’s murder and the recent killing of
Iyad el-Hallak, a 32-year-old Palestinian special needs student who was shot to death
by Israeli forces in occupied East Jerusalem.
He was reportedly chanting “Black lives matter” and “Palestinian lives matter,”
when Israeli police gunned him down, claiming he was armed.
These links that you’re seeing, not only in Palestine and the United States, but around
the world, the kind of global response, the tens of thousands of people who marched in
Spain, who marched in England, in Berlin, in Munich, all over the world, as this touches
a chord and they make demands in their own countries, not only in solidarity with what’s
happening in the United States?
And then I want to ask you about the U.S. election that’s coming up in November.
Well, yes, Palestinian activists have long supported
Black people’s struggle against racism, as I pointed out.
And I’m hoping that today’s young activists recognize how important Palestinian solidarity
has been to the Black cause, and that they recognize that we have a profound responsibility
to support Palestinian struggles, as well.
I think it’s also important for us to look in the direction of Brazil, whose current
political leader competes with our current political leader in many dangerous ways, I would say.
Brazil — if we think we have a problem with racist police violence in the United States
of America, look at Brazil.
Marielle Franco was assassinated because she was challenging the militarization of the
police and the racist violence unleashed there.
I think 4,000 people were killed last year alone by the police in Brazil.