“Captain Filastine” and the Trappings of Success

Abstract

Many Arab Americans cheered Lieutenant Filastine Srour’s promotion to the rank of captain in the New York City Police Department as if this constituted a collective victory for Palestinians. But one person rising up in a notoriously racist institution does not end their community’s criminalization. Nor is individual advancement by a woman a feminist accomplishment, as feminism aspires to dismantle oppressive systems, not succeed in them.

Keywords:

• Filastine Srour
• respectability politics
• the master’s tools
• NYPD
• U.S.-Israeli trainings
• top cop

Endnotes

Notes

1 Jason Hanna, “Judge Rules NYC’s Stop-and-Frisk Policy Unconstitutional; City Vows Appeal,” CNN, 12 August 2013, https://www.cnn.com/2013/08/12/justice/new-york-stop-frisk/index.html.

2 Ed Pilkington, “NYPD Settles Lawsuit after Illegally Spying on Muslims,” The Guardian, 5 April 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/05/nypd-muslim-surveillance-settlement.

3 Israeli Ministry of Public Security, “The Israel Police,” Israeli Ministry of Public Security, 15 July 2018, https://www.gov.il/en/departments/general/about_israel_police.

4 Amnesty International, “Israeli Police Targeted Palestinians with Discriminatory Arrests, Torture and Unlawful Force,” Amnesty International, press release, 24 June 2021, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2021/06/israeli-police-targeted-palestinians-with-discriminatory-arrests-torture-and-unlawful-force/.

5 Amnesty International, “Israeli Police Targeted Palestinians.”

6 Deadly Exchange, “About Deadly Exchange,” website of Deadly Exchange, https://deadlyexchange.org.

7 Steven L. Pomerantz, “I Am the Architect of the U.S.-Israel Police Exchange. Don’t Believe the Lies,” Jewish Institute for National Security of America, 19 June 2020, https://jinsa.org/i-am-the-architect-of-the-u-s-israel-police-exchange-dont-believe-the-lies/.

8 Defense for Children International (DCI)–Palestine, “Israeli Forces Kill 15-Year-Old Palestinian Boy with Gun,” DCI–Palestine, 27 September 2021, https://www.dci-palestine.org/israeli_forces_kill_15_year_old_palestinian_boy_with_gun.

9 DCI–Palestine, “Israeli Forces Shoot and Kill 11-Year-Old Palestinian Boy in Hebron,” DCI–Palestine, 28 July 2021, https://www.dci-palestine.org/israeli_forces_shoot_and_kill_11_year_old_palestinian_boy_in_hebron.

10 DCI–Palestine, “Israeli Forces Shoot and Kill 17-Year-Old Palestinian Boy in Nabi Saleh,” DCI–Palestine, 24 July 2021, https://www.dci-palestine.org/israeli_forces_shoot_and_kill_17_year_old_palestinian_boy_in_nabi_saleh.

11 See Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh, Surrounded: Palestinian Soldiers in the Israeli Military (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008).

12 Quds News, “Filastine Srour Makes History Becoming NYPD’s First Palestinian Female Captain,” Quds News Network, 31 July 2021, https://qudsnen.co/?p=27730.

13 Marty Johnson, “Harris on the African American Vote: I ‘Have to Earn the Support,’” The Hill, 26 November 2019, https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/472111-harris-on-the-african-american-vote-i-have-to-earn-the-support.

14 Combahee River Collective, “(1977) The Combahee River Collective Statement,” BlackPast.org, April 1977, https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/combahee-river-collective-statement-1977/.

15 Combahee River Collective, “Combahee River Collective Statement.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nada Elia

Nada Elia is visiting senior scholar of Arab and Muslim American studies at Western Washington University. She is a regular contributor to Mondoweiss and Middle East Eye, where she publishes editorials on activism, joint struggle, and feminism. She is currently completing a book on diaspora Palestinian feminist activism.