I happened upon this tweet from Dr David Cumin, a senior lecturer at Auckland University and resident Zionist echo chamber here in New Zealand, making a comparison between protests in New Zealand and Israel during a pandemic. What the good doctor fails to mention is that here in New Zealand there has not been a newly diagnosed case of the virus for the past ten days, whereas in Israel there are still 1995 active cases and yesterday 59 newly diagnosed ones. While the situation in Aotea Square was not ideal, one has to wonder why he made the comparison and whether it was necessary.
I might have not taken any more notice of this tweet if I had not read the comments, but someone called Cerebus noted that the Black Lives Matter Protest in Aotea Square Auckland was attended by members of the Free Palestine Movement. Then David came out with-
“Arab Palestinians pioneered hijacking of aircraft; now they hijack causes. Where there is a racist will, there’s a way to blame Jews”.
The implied racism here comes from the Doctor himself who appears to suggest all Palestinians are racist hijackers, who always find a way to blame Jews, this in a twitter post whose subject was a Black Lives Matter protest in Aotea Square Auckland.
It appears the good Doctor Cumin, is ignorant of the historic solidarity between the Black Lives Movement and the Palestinians cause. For example, in 1967 when the SNCC in the USA transformed from a civil rights organisation to a more radical black rights one, it put out a strong statement in support of Palestinian rights, co-drafted by Stokely Carmichael, who went on to become a revolutionary icon of “Black Power” and Pan-African movements.
Also, the revolutionary Black Panther party issued three official statements on Palestine and the ME between the years of 1970-80, as well as writing a number of articles and publishing PLO editorials in The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service.
In September 1979, 10 American Black leaders ended a five-day tour of Lebanon, by inviting Yasser Arafat to America, during a late-night meeting with the leader of the PLO, the meeting ended with Arafat and the Americans arm in arm singing “We Shall Overcome”
As well as, in 2016, The Movement for Black Lives put out a strong-worded statement in regards to Palestine “using the term “genocide” and “apartheid” to describe Israel’s actions against the Palestinians”, they also condemned the Jewish settlements in the Westbank and the apartheid wall.
Doctor David Cumin owes two apologies, 1- To the Palestinian people for implying they are all hijackers, who somehow blame the Jews for everything under the sun. 2 – To the Palestinian supporters in Aotea Square, who went to show solidarity for the Black Lives Matters cause, mutual solidarity that goes back 60 or so years, and to whom he accused of trying to hijack the cause.
The Reverand Jesse Jackson embraces PLO Leader Yasser Arafat. upon arriving in Beirut, Lebanon 9/29/1979
The Palestine Activists Handbook 