Robin D.G. Kelley on Palestine: ‘A Level of Racist Violence I’ve Never Seen’

By Jamilah King Jul 28, 2014

Back in 2012, UCLA professor and public intellectual Robin D.G. Kelley did an interview with Mondoweiss, a website devoted to covering American foreign policy in the Middle East, about his experience as part of a U.S. delegation to Palestine. His comments offer some perspective on how even in time so-called peace, violence and destruction in the region are commonplace.

We went to Hebron, and visited and talked to Palestinian merchants, and witnessed a level of racist violence that I hadn’t even seen growing up as a black person here in the States (laughs), I have to say, and I’ve been beat by the cops. The level of racist violence from the settlers is kind of astounding. We visited Aida refugee camp just north of Bethlehem, and we went to Bethlehem as well. On my own, I went to Nablus and visited the Balata refugee camp. We also went to Haifa, and we met with a group of Palestinian-Israeli scholars and intellectuals to talk about the boycott.

Read more.