ShaKea Alston, Peace and Conflict Studies

Our Liberation is Bound Together: Exploring Reciprocal Solidarity Between Black and Palestinian Activists

My thesis explores solidarity as a political tool for marginalized groups — specifically Black and Palestinian activists. I create an overview of parallels of injustice in the realms of race, violence, and international law, describing how the United States and Israel’s policies have historically served as systems of oppression. While acknowledging the critical differences in their separate but interrelated contexts, I use this comparison to understand how and why these two groups have become allies, and how this relationship affects their pursuit of mutual liberation. I attempt to place the coalition between #BlackLivesMatter and #FreePalestine within the scholarship on solidarity. I conclude by describing existing practices of solidarity between the movements and explore additional avenues to coalesce.