Gerald Horne

Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories

In a March 28, 2014 Horne published an article in The Final Call, an official outlet of Minister Louis Farrakhan, who is a prolific disseminator of anti-Semitism.

In his article, Horne claimed that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas “has been backed into a corner where he must accept a bad deal for his people... because of the growing influence of the Israel lobby and the political shift in this country toward a right-wing, neo-conservative foreign policy view.”

In a 2013 interview on the Freedom Now show on KPFK radio, Horne suggested [00:21:42] that Israel wanted to take advantage of its influence over the U.S. before China overtook the U.S. as a superpower.

He argued [00:21:42]: “Since the Israeli lobby, shall we say, is not as strong in China as it is in the United States, this will obviously have repercussions and ramifications for Israel’s policies of expansionism and aggression.”

He continued: “So it seems to me that the Israelis recognize that time is short in terms of colonial expansion and building settlements and destroying their antagonists; they realize that they have to do it sooner rather than later because time is against them.”

Refusing to Condemn Palestinian Terrorism

On March 27, 2017, Horne gave a lecture at UH on “Black Radical Tradition and Palestine.” The lecture was hosted by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

In the Q&A, an Israeli student asked [00:58:40] whether Horne’s suggestion of collaboration between Palestinians and Black Lives Matter was asking for support for people who use terror to fight their cause.

The student asked [00:59:03] how Horne could stand next to the name of Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh (a “Justice for Rasmea Odeh” sign was prominent in the lecture hall, visible at 1:02:54) and whether he was asking people in the United States to also use terror attacks.

Odeh was a key military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a PFLP supermarket bombing that killed two college students. She also attempted to bomb the British consulate in Jerusalem. Odeh later moved to the United States but was deported to Jordan in 2017 for immigration fraud.

Horne laughed [00:59:27] in response to the student’s question, and continued to laugh as the student explained that his question referred [00:59:56] to Hamas and other terror groups, who also oppressed minorities living under their leadership.

Horne responded: [1:01:20] “It’s not for me or any organization I’m affiliated with to dictate to the Palestinian people - people living under occupation, people subjected to decades of dispossession, people subjected to a kind of terrorism - what strategy and tactics they should pursue.”

During his talk, Horne also recalled his long history of anti-Israel activism, saying [00:22:57]: “You had all these solidarity delegations to historic Palestine, including myself.” He continued: “I’m not as young as I look by the way. And so in the 1980s I was amongst those who traipsed to Lebanon to meet with Chairman Arafat.”

Yasser Arafat was the former leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and is known by some as the “father of modern terrorism.” Arafat reportedly told Arab diplomats in a secret meeting in 1996: "We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion. Jews will not want to live among Arabs. I have no use for Jews. They are and remain Jews."

Supporting BDS

At the March 2017 SJP event, Horne called for an alliance between Black Lives Matter and the Palestinians, as a means of mutually strengthening BDS and black causes, saying [00:03:29]: “Just as we enlist more black organizations in the BDS movement… [00:04:42] It would give a direct boost to BDS if we had the Palestinian forces and their allies internationally speak out more on police terrorism against black people.”

In 2016, Horne was a signatory of an anti-Israel resolution that was presented at the January 2016 annual American Historical Association (AHA) convention. The resolution, titled “Protecting the Right to Education in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” failed to pass and was criticized by AHA members for singling Israel out for special condemnation.

In a December 18, 2012 video interview on the Russian government-sponsored RT network, Horne compared Israel to apartheid South Africa and called for sanctions against it, saying [00:01:43] “He [Netanyahu] feels that his regime can continue in a land-grab, a grab of Palestinian land, and settling Palestinian land with Jewish settlers ad infinitum into the future…”

He further stated that [00:02:43] “Ultimately the international community is going to have to slap very severe sanctions on the Israeli apartheid regime, like sanctions were slapped on the South African apartheid regime.”

He continued: “Similarly, I think that the multilateral institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, not to mention the private banking sector, are going to have to refuse financial aid and loans to the Israeli regime, just like such financial aid and loans were refused to the apartheid regime some years ago.”

On May 25, 1988, Horne was reportedly one of those who endorsed a full-page advert by the Palestine Solidarity Committee that called for a “National Day of Protest to End Israeli Occupation.”