Comrade George, Gaza and the Black Community

A Black child studies outdoors in Gaza after the Israeli destruction of their home in the countryside near Deir Al-Balah in the Gaza Strip. – Photo: Mahmoud Selmi Khawalda and Muhammad Ismail by Greg Thomas The beautiful struggle of the “George Jackson in the Sun of Palestine” exhibition, which first opened in the West Bank in October of 2015, ultimately connected me with the African Palestinian community of the Old City of Jerusalem. That community would soon host the exhibit in their African Community Hall, a “stone’s throw” away from Al Aqsa Mosque (of which these Black folk are said to be the “guardians”). That event was held only a few weeks after our appearance at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Black Panther Party at the Oakland Museum of California. It is so fitting then that when we eventually managed to mount the exhibition in the Gaza Strip, two Augusts ago, despite the inhuman Israeli siege of settler-colonial occupation, this exhibition work is what introduced me to the Black community of Gaza. They came out — and their response was a thing of beauty too. This poster artwork for the exhibition mounting in Gaza (Aug. 16-17, 2022) was designed...