By Kazembe Batts IG: @kazbatts
Profound similarities and stark differences exist with Haiti and Israel. Haiti’s population of about 11.5 million people is slightly more than Israel’s population of about 10 million people, including over 2 million Arab residents. Haiti’s geographic area of 10,710 square miles is also slightly bigger than Israel’s size of 8,019 square miles. People who Identify with Haiti and Israel have made Brooklyn, New York home in huge numbers for many years.
The population of Haitian Americans in the NYC metropolitan area is about 200,000 The population of Israeli Americans in the metro area is about 100,000 and Jewish-Americans about 1.4 million.
Just as with power on the world stage where Haiti and Israel cannot be compared, so too the political influence of the two communities living in NYC on American issues vary greatly.
Haiti, a nearby country founded in 1804, contributed to the development of the USA even before becoming independent. Hundreds of free Black men, the Les Chasseurs Volontaires de Saint Domingue, fought to capture Savannah, Georgia from Britain in 1779. Some of these soldiers would soon return home and lead the revolution that created Haiti.
Although General Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed Haiti as an independent and sovereign state on January 1st, 1804, the USA refused to recognize Haiti’s independence until 1862. Having many Black people in chattel slavery, the USA establishment was terrified of the implications of a state controlled by free Africans.
Economically, although not recognizing Haiti’s independence, the USA nonetheless during the mid-19th century exported more goods to Haiti than to any other country in Latin America. But now the economic relationship between Haiti and the USA consists mostly of the USA providing humanitarian aid and corporations exploiting the extremely low wages of the masses of people in sweatshops.
On the positive side, a few weeks ago Congress advanced H.R. 1689, a bill requiring DHS to designate Haiti for TPS (Temporary Protected Status) for the remainder of the Trump Administration. The House passed the bill on April 16, 2026 (224–204). It now awaits Senate action. This bill came after the Department of Homeland Security formally moved to terminate TPS for Haiti effective February 3, 2026. However, on February 2, 2026, the U.S. District Court for D.C. issued a stay, preventing the termination taking effect.
This means Haitians with TPS continue to live and work legally in the U.S. while the case proceeds. If the bill is also passed by the senate and enacted, then the bill would override the DHS termination and secure TPS for Haitians through January 2029.
Contrasting the USA government’s relationship with Haiti compared to Israel. On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion, proclaimed the independence of the State of Israel and that very same day USA, led enthusiastically by President Harry S. Truman became the first nation to recognize Israel. In hours Israel was recognized but it took Haiti sixty-one years to be acknowledged reluctantly by the US government. Israel is located on the other side of the world and was founded 144 years after Haiti in 1948. 250 years ago, when America was founded, Israel didn’t have a role because it did not exist. The land was part of the Ottoman Empire. Haiti existed before modern day Israel. Yet, Israel has a “special relationship” and is treated very differently than Haiti.
Recently another U.S.-Israel Free Trade Agreement (FTA), became law, adding to several treaties and agreements that foster a strong bilateral economic relationship between the USA and Israel. The annual $50 billion trade relationship is encouraged by universities, elected officials and prominent American and Israeli persons.
Focusing on the two nations, since the independence of Haiti in 1804 and for Israel in 1948, up till now, the strategic, diplomatic, economic and military relations the USA has maintained are completely different. This imbalance of historic memory is magnified by the imbalance of contemporary material support for the two nations. The diplomatic, economic, military, civil and political relations between the USA and Haiti compared to the USA and Israel are shamefully different negatively affect the quality of life for people in all three nations, but especially Haiti.
The Earth is nearly 25,000 miles in circumference but only ninety miles from the Florida is the historic and deserving nation of Haiti for American Africans and all residents of the USA to prioritize for support, while respecting sovereignty. Haiti can use Black people’s Pan African assistance, including forcing the USA government and corporations to do the right thing regarding Haiti. Can we practice “HI”. “H” before “I”, Haiti before Israel in all discourse regarding aid, foreign affairs and what is a good use of American tax dollars.