Israel is Not Enemy of Black People Rustin Scores Black Resolution Calling for Dismantling of Israel

A major Black civil rights leader believes that Israel’s survival is important to Blacks because Israel is a democracy and “all minorities, including our own, need democracy in order to attain economic, political and social justice.” Those sentiments were expressed by Bayard Rustin, executive director of the A. Philips Randolph Institute, in an article in the New York Amsterdam News, an influential Black newspaper.

Rustin scored a resolution calling for the dismantling of Israel, passed by voice vote in the closing minutes of the National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana on March 12. “It should be emphasized that its contents did not reflect the thinking of the majority of delegates to say nothing of the majority of Black people in this country,” he wrote. “It was passed because of the concerted efforts of a small group of nationalists who took advantage of a confused and disorganized convention floor to muffle the voice of saner minds.”

Rustin devoted his article to clearing up “misrepresentations and distortions” about Israel “which enabled the conference of Black people to even consider” a proposal to dismantle Israel. “The oft-repeated myth is that Israel is the enemy of Black Africa,” Rustin wrote. “Historically, Black nations were exploited not by Hebraic peoples but by the Moslem kingdoms that plundered the continent’s wealth and enslaved and murdered its inhabitants well in advance of the European colonial expeditions. Nor have racial and religious hostilities between Moslems and Black Africa disappeared with the passing years.”

ARABS PERSECUTE MINORITY GROUPS

Rustin referred to the recent civil strife in the Sudan where “hundreds of thousands of Black Sudanese were slain and several hundred thousand others displaced or forced into exile” by the Moslem majority. “Israel, in contrast, has established ambitious programs of cooperation with and assistance to Asian and African nations,” Rustin wrote.

He also attacked the “widespread misconception” that racial and religious minorities enjoy equal status in Arab nations while an Arab minority is persecuted in Israel.” Noting the persecution of Copts in Egypt, of Kurds in Syria and Iraq and of Palestinians in Jordan, Rustin observed: “While the conditions of the Arab minority in Israel are not ideal, they in fact enjoy a measurably higher standard of living than the people of Arab nations. They are permitted to vote, participate equally in a free labor movement and in fact enjoy more freedom than do Arabs in Arab lands.”

Finally, Rustin stated, “We must consider the fundamental issue of democracy. In the Middle East, Israel is a democratic society in a sea of feudal sheikdoms and military dictatorships…. Rather than calling for the dismantling of Israel, Black people all over the world should take an active interest in Israel’s survival.”