Malcolm X in Palestine: From Black Liberation to Global Revolution

In 1964 Malcom X traveled to Palestine, deepening his global anti-imperialist vision, linking the African American struggle to the fight for Palestinian liberation

Malcolm X stands as one of the most electrifying and uncompromising figures in modern history, a leader whose political trajectory was defined by an unrelenting pursuit of justice.

His transformation—from an outspoken figure in the Nation of Islam to an internationally recognized advocate for human rights—was neither linear nor limited to the borders of the United States.

In fact, his experiences abroad illuminated for him the realization that Black liberation was not an isolated struggle but part of a much broader global fight against imperialist domination.

By the final year of his life, Malcolm had adopted a comprehensive global perspective on oppression, forging connections with revolutionary movements across Africa, the Middle East, and beyond.

Nowhere was this evolution more apparent than in his 1964 visit to Palestine. This experience sharpened his already incisive critique of colonialism and imperialism, reinforcing the inescapable link between the struggles of African Americans and the plight of Palestinians living under occupation and displacement.

In his own words, Malcolm X’s time in Gaza solidified his belief in the interconnectedness of struggles against white supremacy, capitalist imperialism, and colonial domination.

In The Autobiography of Malcolm X, he described how his travels in the Middle East and Africa broadened his perspective, making him recognize that “the plight of the oppressed Black man in America was not unique, but part of a worldwide pattern of subjugation.”

Palestine in 1964: A Land Defined by Displacement

By 1964, the Palestinian people had already spent more than a decade living under the shadow of the Nakba—the ehtnic cleansing of 1948, when over 700,000 people were forcibly expelled from their ancestral lands by Zionist militias.

The echoes of this violence were evident during his visit. Entire villages had been massacred, family lines erased from existence, and a stateless refugee population was left to languish in overcrowded camps.

Gaza, then under Egyptian administration, had become a focal point of Palestinian resistance.

Following the 1956 Suez Crisis—an invasion launched by Israeli forces in response to Egypt’s nationalization of the Suez Canal—Egypt retained administrative control over the Gaza Strip.

While nominally under Egyptian authority, Palestinians living in Gaza had virtually no political representation. Refugees, many displaced since the Nakba, endured dire conditions: exposure to the elements, chronic food shortages, and repeated incursions by Israeli forces that reinforced a perpetual siege.

The Palestinian struggle for self-determination was gaining momentum, but the obstacles remained formidable.

For Malcolm—who had spent his life challenging the American systems that relegated Black communities to urban ghettoization, economic deprivation and state violence—the conditions in Palestine struck a deep chord.

The racial hierarchy that homesteaded the United States found a clear parallel in the settler-colonial dispossession unfolding in Palestine.

His visit to Gaza further cemented his belief that the forces of imperialism, white supremacy, and capitalist exploitation operated globally, and thus required a unified resistance across nations and struggles.

Malcom in Cairo, 1964

Malcolm X’s Global Awakening

Malcolm’s 1964 tour across Africa and the Middle East was a radical political pilgrimage. He sought to build alliances with post-colonial nations, learn from the struggles of those who had resisted European imperialism, and expose the hypocrisy of American democracy—an empire that claimed to champion freedom while brutalizing its Black population.

His travels took him through Egypt, Ghana, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Algeria—each a node in the emerging map of postcolonial struggle.

In Ghana, he witnessed a newly independent nation grappling with the promises and contradictions of Pan-African socialism.

In Sudan, he moved through a country already split by war, its south rising up against northern domination in a conflict that foreshadowed the consequences of imposed borders and suppressed identities.

In Algeria, he arrived at a revolutionary capital forged through armed resistance, where the victory over French colonialism had energized a generation of anti-colonial freedom fighters.

In Lebanon, he stepped into a society straddling modern cosmopolitanism and sectarian fracture, where the Palestinian cause simmered in the refugee camps and in the pages of Arab leftist journals.

In Saudi Arabia, his pilgrimage to Mecca redefined his sense of spiritual solidarity, revealing the unifying potential of Islam even within a monarchy beholden to Western influence.

Everywhere he went, Malcolm X engaged with revolutionaries, religious scholars, and state leaders, absorbing lessons of resistance, learning from contradictions, and refining his vision of an interconnected global struggle against empire.

Palestine, however, offered no illusion of decolonization. It was not merely postcolonial turbulence or internal repression—it was the ongoing machinery of active dispossession.

There, Malcolm was not just a visitor but a witness to a colonial project still unfolding, its violence not historical but current, its architecture of erasure still expanding.

Bearing Witness: Malcolm’s Time in Gaza

Malcolm’s first exposure to Palestine came during his 1959 trip to Jerusalem, where he briefly toured religious sites and observed the conditions of Palestinians under Israeli occupation.

This visit, though brief, was his initial glimpse into the Palestinian struggle. At the time, he was deeply connected to the ideologies of the Nation of Islam, which largely focused on the conditions of African Americans rather than broader global struggles.

Returning to Palestine: A Radical Shift in 1964

Malcolm’s visit to Gaza was transformative; his time with the Nation of Islam had been defined by a philosophy of self-sufficiency and and religious identity, but his travels opened his perspective to broader global struggles.

Khan Younis Refugee Camp

Malcolm walked through the overcrowded camps, speaking with Palestinian families who had lost their homes in 1948 and listening to stories of mass displacement. The scenes of poverty and despair mirrored what he had witnessed in Black communities in America, but with the added horror of military occupation.

Meeting with Harun Hashem Rashid

Malcolm met with Harun Hashem Rashid, a Palestinian poet and journalist who recounted the horrors of the 1956 Khan Younis massacre, in which Israeli forces executed 275 unarmed Palestinian men in a brutal act of collective punishment.

Rashid’s poetry, which memorialized the massacre and the broader Palestinian struggle, deeply moved Malcolm.

One line in particular resonated with him:

"We must return. No boundaries should exist. No obstacles can stop us."

The words reinforced Malcolm’s growing conviction that liberation must be pursued by any means necessary.

Press Conference and Symbolic Gesture

At the end of his visit, Malcolm delivered a press conference in Gaza, where he denounced Western powers for their role in enabling Zionist expansionism. He was also presented with a photograph of the Aswan High Dam, a symbol of Arab unity and resistance to Western imperialism.

Aligning with the PLO: A Shared Vision of Resistance

Malcolm’s trip coincided with the rise of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the principal body advocating for Palestinian self-determination. During his visit, he met with Ahmad al-Shukeiri, the PLO’s first chairman, to discuss strategies for global resistance.

The two leaders saw their struggles as intertwined—one against American racial capitalism, the other against Zionist colonial expansion.

This meeting was pivotal in forging early ties between the Black liberation movement and Palestinian resistance, a connection that would continue in later years through the activism of figures like Huey Newton, Angela Davis, and Kwame Ture (born Stokely Carmichael).

Malcolm X Meets Faisal Al-Saud

Malcolm X’s Final Word on Palestine: “Zionist Logic”

Malcolm’s visit to Palestine culminated in his article “Zionist Logic”, published in the Egyptian Gazette in 1964. This piece was one of the most direct and unfiltered critiques of Zionism ever penned by a major Black leader.

In it, Malcolm compared Zionism to European imperialism, arguing that it was a colonial project masquerading as a movement for self-determination. He accused the U.S. and Western powers of hypocrisy, supporting Israel while denouncing decolonization efforts elsewhere.

He also drew explicit parallels between the displacement of Palestinians and the systematic oppression of Black Americans:

"The same white supremacy that lynches Black people in America bombs villages in the Congo and bulldozes homes in Palestine."

Malcolm’s unwavering stance put him at odds with pro-Zionist Black intellectuals of the time, including W.E.B. Du Bois and Martin Luther King Jr., who hesitated to critique Israel’s role in Palestinian displacement.

Malcolm X’s Legacy: Solidarity Without Borders

Malcolm X’s visit to Palestine was a defining moment in his evolution from community leader to a revolutionary thinker with a global vision. His time in Gaza reinforced his belief that no freedom struggle exists in isolation. His message—that oppression anywhere must be opposed everywhere—remains as urgent today as it was in 1964.

In an era where the fight for Palestinian liberation continues against the backdrop of occupation and apartheid, Malcolm’s voice echoes through the generations. His legacy reminds us that true solidarity is not selective, and that liberation movements must transcend borders.

As Malcolm himself wrote:

"I, for one, will join in with anyone—black, white, brown, yellow—who wants to change the miserable condition that exists on this earth."