Introduction: Locating Palestine in the Arab Americas – Part I

As we write these words, the United States has just launched an invasion of Venezuela, resulting in the kidnapping of its president, Nicols Maduro.Among those observing these events firsthand are Palestinian communities that have long made their home in the Americas.For many people in these diasporic communities, events in Venezuela reinforce a sense of shared historical experience that connects their historical homeland with their adopted countries across the Americas.Since at least the 1960s, Palestinians have framed their struggle for freedom within a global movement against imperialism-a movement in which Latin America has often occupied a central position.This history cannot be flattened into simplified narratives of solidarity: some Palestinians in the Americas have become part of a conservative elite that views anti-imperialist politics with suspicion.And yet, for many Palestinians, the parallels remain clear.At a historical juncture where Palestine is suffering a genocide financed and armed by the United States, the synergies between emancipatory struggles in Palestine and the Americas appear stronger than ever.What position do the Americas occupy in the Palestinian imaginary, and how have diasporic communities connected these distant regions?In September 2024, a group of scholars and writers