Iconic figures of the century and their support for Palestine

Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, more commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi, is considered as the father of nonviolent resistance movement, which proved instrumental in driving Britain out of India. As an anti-colonial leader and a lawyer, Gandhi asserted that “Palestine belongs to the Arabs,” along with his well-known sympathy towards Jewish people.

“No exception can possibly be taken to the natural desire of the Jews to found a home in Palestine. But they must wait for its fulfilment till Arab opinion is ripe for it,” he said in 1938.

Gandhi also said that “Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English and France to the French".

Malcolm X

“Did the Zionists have the legal or moral right to invade Arab Palestine, uproot its Arab citizens from their homes and seize all Arab property for themselves just based on the “religious” claim that their forefathers lived there thousands of years ago?” he said, standing firm against occupiers.

Then he answered: “Only a thousand years ago, the Moors lived in Spain. Would this give the Moors of today the legal and moral right to invade the Iberian Peninsula, drive out its Spanish citizens, and then set up a new Moroccan nation... where Spain used to be, as the European zionists have done to our Arab brothers and sisters in Palestine?”

One another time, Malcolm X stated, “The Zionist argument to justify Israel’s present occupation of Arab Palestine has no intelligent or legal basis in history”.

Muhammad Ali

Celebrated as “The Greatest,” not only for conquering the boxing ring but also for speaking truth to power, Ali refused to enlist himself for the Vietnam War in 1967 when he was at the height of his boxing career. As a result, he lost his heavyweight title.

“I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end,” he said.

Years later, during a 1985 visit to Palestinian refugee camps in South Lebanon, Ali raised his voice against what he deemed “Zionist invaders”. He declared support for the Palestinian struggle, aligning himself with a cause that transcends borders.

“In my name and the name of all Muslims in America, I declare support for the Palestinian struggle to liberate their homeland and oust the Zionist invaders,” he said.

Larry Hochman

Larry Hochman, a Jewish professor of physics at Michigan University, known for his book titled “Zionism and the Israeli State”, said in 1967:

“A Jewish state has been established in the midst of the Arab world without the invitation or consent of the indigenous population. The Jewish immigration that occurred could only have occurred under the aegis of Western colonial control”.

Jeff Halper

An American-Israeli political activist and lecturer, Halper lived in Israel until 1973. He identified himself as a Jewish Israeli. He considered Israel guilty of being an “apartheid” state.

Halper actively stood against occupying Palestinian land and demolishing their houses. He was also the Director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD).

He referred to Gaza as “the largest prison in the world.”

“Israel has developed what we call the matrix of control and you can clearly trace the development of these policies,” he said.

“You can’t present yourself as victims but be the fourth largest nuclear power in the world”, and later adds, “How do you put together the fact that we’re super-strong but we’re victims, and you should still support us? It’s that mixed message that’s problematic for Israel,” he said in a statement.

James Baldwin

A well-known American writer, James Baldwin, said in 1979 that Israel wasn’t created for the salvation of Jews but as a strategic move for Western interests.

Baldwin highlighted the enduring cost borne by Palestinians due to colonial policies and Europe’s Christian conscience.

“The state of Israel was not created for the salvation of the Jews; it was created for the salvation of the Western interests,” he said.

Baldwin then added, “The Palestinians have been paying for the British colonial policy of ‘divide and rule’ and for Europe’s guilty Christian conscience for more than thirty years.”

Edward Said

Edward Said, a prominent Palestinian-American intellectual, scholar, and writer, made a significant impact in challenging stereotypes and misconceptions about the Arab and Islamic world and countering the Israeli and western settler-colonial narrative on the question of Palestine.

“The long-run goal is, I think, the same for every human being, that politically he or she may be allowed to live free from fear, insecurity, terror, and oppression, free also from the possibility of exercising unequal or unjust domination over others,” he once said.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder Pakistan and president of the All-India Muslim League, brought increased focus to the Palestinian issue on the world stage.

Jinnah objected to the establishment of a Jewish national state on Palestinian territory. He consistently supported the Arab cause and maintained friendly relations with Palestinian leaders throughout his political career.

He once stated, “It is not shame. It is monstrous and criminal. Why doesn’t President Truman take one million Jews into the USA? The reason is that the Jews do not want a National Home in Palestine. What they want is to reconquer Palestine, which they lost 2000 years ago, with the help of British bayonets and American money”.

Allama Iqbal

Dr. Allama Iqbal, a poet, philosopher and a politician, was one of the earliest supporters of the Palestinian cause.

He stood by Muslim Palestinians and said, “Muslims are martyred in Palestine, and their women and children are killed, and their blood is shed in Jerusalem.”

Dr. Iqbal then added, “Al Aqsa Mosque in its entirety is an endowment for God – the Almighty – in Islamic law, and it is not permissible to own it for anyone at all, so the claim of the Jews to own part of the Al Aqsa Mosque is null and void from the legal and historical point of view”.