Cornel West at a pro Palestinian rally

WASHINGTON — Young African-Americans facing heavily armed police in the streets of Baltimore and Ferguson over the past year have compared their situation to that of Palestinians under Israeli fire, telling reporters that their conditions were “like Gaza.”

On Tuesday, black racial-justice activists took the comparison a step further, issuing a statement linking their cause with that of Palestinians, and putting their weight behind the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

The BDS campaign, modeled after the mass movement to isolate South Africa during the apartheid era, aims to pressure Israel through tactics of economic and cultural isolation into ending its occupation of Palestinian territories and adhering to international law in its treatment of Palestinians.

Tuesday’s statement — signed by more than 1,000 black activists, artists, scholars, politicians, students and representatives of organizations — proclaimed their “solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and commitment to the liberation of Palestine’s land and people.”

“We offer this statement first and foremost to Palestinians, whose suffering does not go unnoticed and whose resistance and resilience under racism and colonialism inspires us,” the statement said. The activists said they are committed to working through cultural, economic and political means to help the Palestinians’ cause.

Signatories included ‘60s black power icon Angela Davis; writer and philosopher Cornel West; death row inmate and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted in 1982 for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer; rapper Talib Kweli; and Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors.

The statement called ending the occupation of Palestine a “key matter of our time,” urged the U.S. government to end diplomatic and economic aid to Israel, and said black institutions and other entities should support BDS.

A Pew study at the height of last year’s Gaza war found that 43 percent of African American respondents favored Israel in the conflict, while 20 percent supported the Palestinians.

But Israeli media report fears that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign against President Barack Obama’s Iran diplomacy has alienated black elected leaders, and the Reverend Al Sharpton has called on black churches to lobby in support of the nuclear agreement — which Israel has taken a lead in trying to stop.

Organizers of Tuesday’s statement sought to win support by drawing connections with apartheid South Africa. Co-organizer Kristian Davis Bailey singled out companies that have become a focus of the BDS movement for allegedly enabling the occupation, including Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions, noting that the three firms had also done business with apartheid-era South Africa.