Baltimorean—Palestinean Solidarity — Michael Kaplan

The struggle for justice in Palestine extends beyond borders and across oceans to Baltimore, where a Palestinian Solidarity group is forming to help express the needs and daily struggles of the Palestinian people. Protesting for an end to the blockade of Gaza at the Annapolis Conference last November, five friends from Baltimore were shocked to find no other demonstrators condemning what many see as the imprisonment of 1.5 million Gazans as a result of the Israeli blockade of their border. While the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert were present, Israel refused to include the democratically elected Hamas government in Gaza to join the supposed peace talks in Maryland. These five Baltimoreans were the only demonstrators present on behalf of the Gazan population. While protesters attended in support of Palestinians to condemn the separation barrier in the West Bank, unequal rights for Palestinians, occupation, and other struggles facing the Palestinian population, no demonstrators were there to speak on behalf of the Gazan people, who many human rights activists believe have been strangled into poverty, hunger, and unemployment due to the Israeli blockade, which prohibits trade and travel from and to Gaza. The Baltimorean friends immediately realized the need for a group that would speak on behalf of the Palestinian people and stand in solidarity with their struggle for justice.

Palestinians make up the world’s largest refugee population, with around four million displaced people, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates two million Palestinian Refugees are in a “vulnerable” state, due to lack of food, water and medical supplies. One and a half million Gazans are unable to obtain a sufficient supply of basic needs due to the blockade of their border by both Israel and Egypt; however, the blockade has recently been eased due to a six-month truce between the Israeli and Hamas governments. Forty-two percent of the West Bank is politically or militarily controlled by Israel, which leads to frequent harassment at checkpoints, as well as Israeli Defense Force raids and settler violence. Palestinians living within Israel are what would often be considered “second-class citizens,” seeing as they are not allowed full rights and duties as citizens. Israel asserts that its restrictions on the Palestinian population are needed in order to halt attacks on its civilians. Since the Second Intifada (uprising), over 487 Israeli civilians have been killed by Palestinian attacks according to an Israeli Human Rights Information Center, B’Tselem.

Palestinian Solidarity movements are often seen as radical solutions to the daily struggles facing Palestinians. According to an organizer of the group, Umar Farooq [contributor to the present issue—ed.], the Palestinian conflict is especially important because it has sparked much conflict throughout the entire region. With it has come 60 years of bloodshed on both sides. While the group stands in Solidarity with Palestinians, that is not to say they do not sympathize with any innocent victim—Arab or Israeli. However, according to many Palestinian-sympathizers, at the heart of the issue lies “daily violence, apartheid, and racism” perpetrated against the Palestinian population. According to Umar, the situation is “purely a human rights problem.”

The Baltimore Palestinian Solidarity Group is still forming, and with around 30 members from diverse backgrounds, including Muslims and Jews, there is no set stance on the many issues facing Palestinians. There are those who believe in a democratic one-state solution, in which Palestinians and Israelis co-exist; others may stand for a two-state solution, implying separate Palestinian and Israeli states, side-by-side, complying with the 1967 borders. However, Umar believes the word solidarity implies that they must “agree to any solution [Palestinians] agree to—[not] impose a solution upon them.”

The group’s main focus for now is educating its own members about the conflict’s history, and later reaching out to the wider community. They hope to form networks with different groups pushing for similar goals, and eventually hold rallies and events which would offer information to the general public and pressure those whom they see as perpetrators of violence into fulfilling the Palestinians’ demands to find a just solution to the conflict. With the word “solidarity” comes the need for motivation, effort, and cooperation. The Baltimore Palestinian Solidarity Group is fully democratic and collective. While there are organizers who help hold the group together, there is no leadership. Everyone has influence in decision-making, and each member has an equal voice the weekly meetings.

While no organization will single-handedly solve the problems which have affected the region for decades, resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, impoverished and displaced millions, the Baltimore Palestinian Solidarity Group hopes to connect wit similarly motivated organizations, and build bridges across the ocean to those they see as oppressed brethren in Palestine.

The Baltimore Palestinian Solidarity Group meets at St. John’s United
Methodist Church, 2640 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, at 2 p.m. on Saturdays.