Malcolm X visits GAZA and refutes Zionism (1964)

[Music] while it is true that Malcolm encountered several leading members of state and influential ministers who had extended offers to host him and his family in their countries as well as providing Financial Security Malcolm remained ever so committed to the plight of 20 million African-Americans who were still being oppressed and marginalized in the so-called land of the free and the home of the brave thus he forfeited many lucrative opportunities to enrich himself and evade further threats to his Security in favor of returning to the United States and continuing his work as an advocate for his people not long after that Malcolm began to forge a new alliance with Reverend Martin Luther King Jr and publicly began declaring his plans to take the American government to court Malcolm's strategic thinking and Relentless Drive made him the formost and most feared opponent of the American establishment in 1964 when he became the very first prominent American to openly attack and criticize America's violent foreign policies in southern Asia and its criminal acts against the Vietnamese during the war in 1964 Malcolm set pace for many others to raise similar concerns and follow his example his fearless and direct criticism of America's duplicitous and hypocritical policies highlighted many inconvenient truths for many of his fellow black Americans who were considered good enough to sacrifice themselves serving in the military but not good enough to sit next to a white person on a bus however Malcolm's critique was not reserved for the American government alone in his now more inclusive role as an advocate for international Justice Malcolm also began campaigning for the Palestinians and had even gone as far as traveling to Gaza and personally meeting with the leaders of the Palestinian Liberation Organization exchanging ideas about the mutual plight of the African-Americans and that of the Palestinians who had also been subject to get all like conditions in their own land Malcolm's direct interaction with the leading members of palestine's PLO in Gaza resulted in the publication of an essay in the Egyptian Gazette on September 17th 1964 which he entitled Zionist logic Malcolm sought to create allies in all parts of the world and advocated even for the r of the oppressed minorities in places as far off as Mongolia his light was shining bright across four continents and he was sending Tremors of fear within the American Administration Malcolm was a man who had been accepted everywhere else but not in his own country his plans and growing connections to Leading Liberation movements and organizations in Africa the middle east Europe and South America caused much concern for the United States I had gotten an invitation to visit Paris from the afroamerican community community in Paris which was sponsoring a rally in conjunction with the African Community when I got to Paris the man said I couldn't come in some man French man uh they gave me no explanation other than to say we have our orders they wouldn't let me phone the American Embassy and they tried to imply that the American Embassy was behind it which I told them that I didn't know that France was a satellite of the United States well this made them angry cuz they like to be independent you know or pretend to be independent they were taking their orders from someone as high up in the French Foreign Ministry who did not want me to enter France and there's a reason for it I don't blame them uh and because uh and I told them while I was there maybe my plane got mixed up and I was in South Africa in the wrong country I I told him this could couldn't be par Paris it must be Johannesburg there's a large increasing number of dark skinned people uh swelling the PO the dark population of France and Britain and it's is giving them a great deal of cause for worry no effort has been made to unite the afroamerican community or the American Negro Community with the uh West Indian Community and then those two communities with the African Community and those communities with the Asian community this has never been done and this frightened many power many interests in this country many people in this country who want to see us the minority and who don't want to see us taking too militant or too uncompromising a stand are absolutely against the successful uh regrouping or organizing of any faction in this country whose thought and whose thinking pattern is international rather than National and then if this man over here plays too rough we got some brothers who can play as rough as he there's a worldwide Revolution going on it goes beyond Mississippi it goes beyond Alabama it goes beyond Harlem what is it revolting against the power structure the American power structure no the French power structure no the English Power structure no then what power structure an international Western power structure so our next move is to take the entire civil rights struggle problem into the United Nations and let the world see that Uncle Sam is guilty of violating the human rights of 22 million afro-americans and still has the audacity or the nerve to stand up and represent himself as the leader of the Free World there'll be a hot time in the old town [Applause] with regret with great regret now I am well aware of what I'm setting in motion by what I'm saying up here tonight I'm well aware but I have never said or done anything in my life that I wasn't prepared to suffer the consequences [Music] for [Music] in 1959 I visited katum and optiman in the Sudan and I also visited the Muslims in Nigeria Ghana Egypt and Arabia I was most impressed by the Muslims of the Sudan their religious piety and Hospitality are unmatched in anywhere I really felt at heaven and at home [Music] there