For Immediate Release -
Attention Assignment Desk!
Contact:
John Parker: (323) 899-2003
On the Birthday of Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Black Activists Condemn Role of U.S. as Israel's Siege of Gaza Continues
-say Israel's war is
genocide
What:
Press Conference of Black Community
Leaders and Activists
Who:
Hank Jones:
San Francisco 8, the Committee for the Defense of Human
Rights; Jasimen Syler: co-founder Active Students for African
People; Minister Tony Muhammad: Nation of Islam; KPFK
Host Margaret Prescod: of Global Women's Strike;
KPFK Host Dedon Kamathi, of All African
People's Revolutionary Party; John Parker: International
Action Center
When:
Dr. King's Birthday -
Thursday, January 15th at 12 Noon
Where:
Downtown Federal
Building - 300 N. Los Angeles, St., Los Angeles
While the president of the UN General
Assembly has condemned Israel's killings of Palestinians as
"genocide," so too have Black activists and religious leaders who
will be holding a press conference Thursday at the Downtown Federal Building to
denounce the U.S. government for funding and supplying with arms Israel's
latest war in Gaza, which has killed nearly 1,000 Palestinians with well over
4,000 injured.
"Given the history of lynchings of
Black people in the U.S., and the recent murders of Black men in Oakland, Texas
and New Orleans by police, it is no wonder that we feel an obligation to be in
solidarity with innocent people being massacred by a military power propped up
by the U.S. government," said one organizer of the press
conference.
Human Rights Watch has added to the
assertion of genocide by also confirming that white phosphorous is indeed being
used against Palestinians. Used as a chemical weapon, this targets civilian
populations due to its indiscriminate and wide reach. Doctors in Gaza have
stated that they are now witnessing the skin of children and anyone who comes
into contact with this substance literally peeling off as they lay in hospital
beds. Yet, as the offensive by Israel continues on the eve of Dr. Martin Luther
King's birthday, so too will the outrage of these Black activists who say
they are very disappointed in white, and especially Black, elected officials
who have been complicitly silent in the face of this new holocaust.
Echoing Former Congresswoman and
Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney, activists will be urging that
President Obama end his silence and live up to his campaign promises of
initiating change towards Dr. King's dream of justice and an end to racism
and genocide.
