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Andrew Cuomo Would Have Blacklisted Muhammad Ali
by Dave Zirin
Governor Cuomo’s executive action to create a blacklist of those who stand with the Palestinian people would have undoubtedly caught Muhammad Ali in its web.
Governor Andrew Cuomo is a thuggish, tin-eared politician. Yet there is a near-poetical deafness about his latest decision: a timing so awful it’s beautiful. In a week where the world is mourning the great Muhammad Ali, Governor Cuomo has taken the step to unilaterally criminalize New York State businesses and individuals who exercise their freedom to stand with the people of Palestine. Signing an executive order for a “Boycott Divestment and Sanctions blacklist,” Governor Cuomo said, “If you boycott against Israel, New York will boycott you. If you divert revenues from Israel, New York will divert revenues from you. If you sanction Israel, New York will sanction you.” He was immediately “saluted” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Senator Chuck Schumer also followed up immediately to say that said he was excited to make this blacklist federal law.
Muhammad Ali was many things: boxer, humanitarian, draft resister. He was also someone who unapologetically stood for Palestinian liberation. Despite the fact that Ali had already felt the sting of a blacklist, banned by boxing from 1967–70, he did not stop speaking out upon his return to ring. In 1974, Ali visited the Palestinian refugee camps of Southern Lebanon and, amid the crushing poverty and disease, said, “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.”
Unlike some of Muhammad Ali’s polarizing politics on questions of racism and US empire, which faded over time as the movements of the 1960s dwindled and Parkinson’s Disease seized brutal control of his body, the question of Palestinian liberation was something that he did not surrender easily. Here is a picture from a 1988 rally in Chicago amidst the First Intifada, a six-year period of mass resistance by Palestinians to Israeli occupation, where Ali proudly stood with solidarity activists.
...
To deny Muhammad Ali’s pro-Palestinian politics is erasure. It’s whitewashing. It’s violence. It’s performing the ugliest possible sin: lying about someone’s life over their dead body. Upon Ali’s passing, Andrew Cuomo tweeted, “RIP Muhammad Ali, you inspired us all and will always be #?TheGreatest.” Get the Champ’s name out of your mouth, Governor, and tell the disturbing truth. If Muhammad Ali was in his prime today, he would be your target: someone denied the right to make a living in the state of New York.
Muhammad Ali was many things: boxer, humanitarian, draft resister. He was also someone who unapologetically stood for Palestinian liberation. Despite the fact that Ali had already felt the sting of a blacklist, banned by boxing from 1967–70, he did not stop speaking out upon his return to ring. In 1974, Ali visited the Palestinian refugee camps of Southern Lebanon and, amid the crushing poverty and disease, said, “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.”
Unlike some of Muhammad Ali’s polarizing politics on questions of racism and US empire, which faded over time as the movements of the 1960s dwindled and Parkinson’s Disease seized brutal control of his body, the question of Palestinian liberation was something that he did not surrender easily. Here is a picture from a 1988 rally in Chicago amidst the First Intifada, a six-year period of mass resistance by Palestinians to Israeli occupation, where Ali proudly stood with solidarity activists.
...
To deny Muhammad Ali’s pro-Palestinian politics is erasure. It’s whitewashing. It’s violence. It’s performing the ugliest possible sin: lying about someone’s life over their dead body. Upon Ali’s passing, Andrew Cuomo tweeted, “RIP Muhammad Ali, you inspired us all and will always be #?TheGreatest.” Get the Champ’s name out of your mouth, Governor, and tell the disturbing truth. If Muhammad Ali was in his prime today, he would be your target: someone denied the right to make a living in the state of New York.
http://www.thenation.com/article/andrew-cuomo-would-have-blacklisted-muhammad-ali/
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