Eldridge Cleaver on Zionism and Racism
Eldridge Cleaver on Zionism and Racism THE RECENT UN resolution labeling Zionism as racist both shocked and surprised me. It shocked me because of all the people in the world, the Jews have not...
...To attack the Jewish survival doctrine of Zionism as racism is a travesty upon the truth...
...One time, while traveling through Bamako, Mali, I asked a cab driver to take me to the Algerian Embassy, and he flew into a rage...
...he exclaimed...
...Yet the Western democracies are so guilt-ridden because of their histories as colonizers that they now swallow hook, line and sinker every half-baked argument emanating from the General Assembly's Wise Men...
...Having lived intimately for several years among them, I know they rank with the most racist people on earth...
...Concrete steps must be taken to safeguard the world organization from the cynical manipulations of hypocritical leaders devouring freedom in the name of justice and undermining democratic principles through a distortion of the right to vote...
...Why should so-called nations with minuscule populations have votes equal in weight to that of the United States...
...I believe the time has come to reexamine the credentials of all the members of the General Assembly...
...It is not enough to criticize the negative aspects of the UN in print and in fiery speeches, and then lose the crucial votes when the chips are down...
...Don't you realize the Arabs still have black slaves...
...The Communist dictatorships, theocratic Arab dictatorships and economically dependent black African dictatorships, moreover, are basically united in their opposition to democratic forces inside their own borders...
...The cab driver was right, although I didn't find this out until later...
...The causes of democracy and freedom can best be served by speaking out against the forces that seek to nullify them, even if this means speaking out from a prison cell...
...Many wealthy Arabs keep one or two black slaves to do their menial labor...
...Once I pressed an Algerian official for an explanation, and he ended up describing a complicated form of indentured servitude...
...Sometimes they own an entire family...
...It may seem paradoxical that I write these words from a prison cell in California...
...But they do not deserve respect from countries enjoying democratic liberties and traditions of freedom, and they must be struggled against...
...I have seen such slaves with my own eyes...
...Yet I see no net gain for freedom and human dignity in the world if power blocs, because of their ability to underwrite sagging economies for a season, are able to ram resolutions through the UN repugnant to reason and historical fact...
...I have the deepest sympathy for the Palestinian people in their search for justice...
...It is a forum for crude killers like Idi Amin Dada, the hatchet man of Uganda...
...It shocked me because of all the people in the world, the Jews have not only suffered particularly from racist persecution, they have done more than any other group in history to expose and condemn it...
...No one understands this better than black Africans living along the edge of the Sahara...
...Even the "hard line'' adopted by Ambassador Daniel P Moynihan seems too soft to me, and the support he is getting in certain political circles is softer still...
...The stakes in the international arena are high, and the General Assembly is not filled today with Mahat-ma Gandhis pleading the case of the downtrodden colonized masses...
...Generations of Jewish scholars have labored long and hard in every field of knowledge, from anthropology to psychology, to lay bare and refuie all claims of racial inferiority and superiority...
...This gives them a lot in common, and considerable room to wheel and deal...
...When these votes are recklessly cast for anti-Zionist resolutions, we should sit up and take notice...
...But I have also shared the experience of thousands of men and women now languishing in the jails of Communist and Third World countries...
...I am certainly not a stranger to racism—I have personally experienced it in the ghettoes and prison yards of America...
...It surprised me because resolutions against racism can so easily and righteously be turned against the Arabs...
...The conversation concluded after I told him this was nothing but a hypocritical form of slavery...
...This is especially true with regard to their attitude towards blacks...
Vol. 59 • February 1976 • No. 4
