Louisianas Elites Support for Israel is Just in Line with Its Brutal History
Louisiana's Elite continue to express support for Israel's genocide of Gaza. This can be best visualized by Mike Johnson's support for the Zionist entity.
The October 31st attack by the I.D.F. (Israeli Defense Forces) on the Jabalia refugee camp is a recent example of the sheer brutality of the campaign that Israel is Launching on Gaza. That strike killed almost 200 people (1) and injured hundreds more. The justification by the Israelis for launching the attack was that there was a single Hamas commander present.
Whether the I.D.F killed the Hamas official has not been confirmed by the I.D.F. The attack on the refugee camp garnered more discussion on Israel's vagrant disregard for human life in its campaign against Gaza and its legacy. The current House Speaker supporting Israel's genocidal policy, Mike Johnson, expresses his solidarity with Israel and has even proposed cutting 14 billion dollars from the I.R.S. budget to pay for it. Mike Johnson is the representative of District 4, centered in Shreveport-Louisiana. He is third in line for the presidency, right behind the vice-president. Many of the white political elites in his district, state, and town have expressed similar support for Israel's genocidal campaign.
Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux has expressed his solidarity with Israel just a few days after the beginning of the current iteration of the conflict. The current governor of Louisiana (John Bel Edwards) has also stated his support for Israel and has reiterated the talking point of calling Hamas "evil." Due to the Evangelical and Christian nationalist support for the Zionist regime, Louisiana even has anti-BDS (boycott divestment sanctions, specifically on Israel due to human rights violations) laws. Resolution 39:1602.1 states that "Israel is a faithful friend of the state of Louisiana:" and that executive branches of Louisiana cannot engage with a business that supports B.D.S. All businesses that do help B.D.S. or begin to support B.D.S. can have their contracts terminated at any time. This support for Israel is seemingly unexpected due to the widespread support for anti-Semitic political figures like David Duke during the 90's, receiving nearly 40 percent of the vote. But, if you look at Louisiana's bloody race history, you will see a stark parallel with Israels.
The history of Israel is of the nation of Jews attempting to subjugate and annihilate another nation, the Palestinian nation. This same dichotomy is of the American South, where one nation attempts to dominate and/or eliminate another. The relationship between the black and white nations is of the same dichotomy. The best parallel to the destruction of the Jabalia refugee camp is the long history of racial massacres in the south during reconstruction, specifically the Colfax Massacre, the bloody Caddo massacre of 1868, and the St. Bernard Parish Massacre. The most recent 1985 police bombing of the M.O.V.E. organization is of closer significance as the massacre was state-sanctioned and involved the destruction of an entire black neighborhood from aerial bombardment. The police bombing killed eleven people, some of them children. The bones of these black children were used in a Princeton anthropology course recently, showing the blatant disrespect and disregard this society has for its victims of colonial oppression.
The carceral states of both societies share some similarities. Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the U.S., with ⅔ of its prison population being black. Compare the incarceration of our people to Israel's Palestinian people, which has a policy of kidnapping Palestinians and holding them indefinitely and has about 40 percent of its prison population being Palestinian non-citizens. (8)(9). Currently, about 4.500 Palestinians are in Israeli prison under some of the worst conditions. The incarceration of one nation by another is a key feature of the mutual oppression of Palestinians and black Americans (African-Americans, New Afrikans, ADOS, etc). The conditions of the Louisiana prisons are abysmal, with 135 deaths in Louisiana prisons in 2021 alone. The heat wave of the summer of 2023 turned many prisons in Louisiana into torture chambers. Children were being housed by the state in these conditions, with 80 mostly black children being held in Angola in 2022 in decrepit conditions. Israel is being accused by human rights organizations of torture and arbitrary arrest of Palestinians in the West Bank, with more than 2000 people being kidnapped by the Israelis since the Hamas military operation. This is not unlike security forces within Louisiana, whose victims are accused of operating a torture chamber called the "Brave Cave" in Baton Rouge.
Louisiana's support for Israel is just in line with the history of national oppression that both governments have. The oppression of Louisiana's black population has much in common with the National oppression of Palestinian people. It is only fitting that the white, Christian nationalist elites of this government see a friend with the genocidal Zionist entity. Any black political movement needs to make it known that Israel is not a friend of black people but is, in fact, an enemy of all progress for our people and colonized people across the globe.
References:
(1)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabalia_refugee_camp_airstrikes
(3)https://www.ktalnews.com/news/local-news/shreveport-mayor-issues-statement-on-israel-conflict/
(4)https://gov.louisiana.gov/index.cfm/newsroom/detail/4290
(5)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colfax_massacre
(6)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_MOVE_bombing
(8)https://www.prisonstudies.org/country/israel (look at percent of incarcerated as foreign
(10)https://theappeal.org/angola-prison-louisiana-children-deadly-heat/
(12)https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/11/louisiana-angola-prison-teens-conditions
(14)https://www.blackstrikes.org/history.
(15)https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/22/move-bombing-black-children-bones-philadelphia-princeton-pennsylvania