ISSUE #3

by Omar

On August 4, 2023, the first in-person Convention of the Democratic Socialists of America commenced after the 2020 surge in membership. Several important questions were up for debate: Should DSA expand its National Political Committee? Will DSA work within the Democratic Party, or will it declare independence? Will DSA be an anti-Zionist organization in principle and practice?

Anyone who has read the 2021 statement where DSA took a rhetorical departure from its Zionist history will be given the impression that DSA is “unwavering” in its commitment to Palestinian solidarity and liberation against Zionist settler colonialism. But the 2021 Bowman affair has suggested that the professed “solidarity” with Palestinians is actually implicit Zionisim. And inextricable from the Bowman affair was the NPC’s decision to decharter the BDS & Palestine Solidarity WG, providing yet another example of the solidarity collapsing from “merely professed” to “a total lie.” 

Now the year is 2023. The last-minute recommendation by the NPC to incapacitate Palestine organizing within DSA by absorbing the Palestine Solidarity WG into the International Committee, their refusal to place the anti-Zionist resolution on the agenda, their proposed amendment to the anti-Zionist resolution that renders it useless, as well as the use of tokenism on the debate floor and handing out propaganda flyers outside debate to impel delegates to support the IC absorption are all new examples of a new liberal Zionism within DSA. 

From this tremendous effort it is extremely difficult to conclude that it is perpetuated in good faith by anti-Zionists. It seems exactly what liberal Zionists would do, who begrudgingly resort to implicit Zionism only because of the moral progress within DSA that no longer renders acceptable explicit Zionism. 

Actual solidarity is described no better than by Paulo Freire, who in 1968 famously said that “solidarity requires that one enter into the situation of those with whom one is solidary; it is a radical posture.” To enter into the situation of Palestinians means to support BDS in principle, given that over 80% of Palestinians support BDS. Actual solidarity is militant intolerance to Zionism within DSA. Actual solidarity would completely transform DSA’s reputation away from liberal Zionism, which will improve both the quality and quantity of membership. We would unlock a vibrant and necessary collaboration with grassroots Palestinian organizations such as the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). 

I moved to Colorado in 2021, soon after the Israeli Occupation Forces conducted widespread terrorism in Palestine: Invading the al-Aqsa compound, unloading airstrikes on Gaza, and expediting colonialism in the West Bank and al-Quds. 

In light of this, I sought Palestine organizing, looking primarily towards political education and campaigns such as the BDS movement. Without a local PYM or SJP chapter, I reluctantly joined Denver DSA with full awareness of DSA’s historic ties to Zionism. 

I was pleasantly surprised to find that substantial internal work was being done to make DSA a truly anti-Zionist organization, with like-minded folks in Denver and the National BDS & Palestine Solidarity WG, who proposed a resolution to enforce the actual anti-Zionism that DSA needs. What’s more, anti-Zionists in DSA have been met with great internal hostility and sometimes even violence, but that does not deter us from nurturing our organization.

It remains unclear whether the new NPC, after being handed the responsibility of deliberating whether to make DSA an anti-Zionist organization in principle and praxis, will be in solidarity with Palestinians. In my view, weakness on anti-Zionism has no place in leftist organizations and cannot sustain the types of enduring structures we are trying to build.

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Omar is a member of the Denver Democratic Socialists of America and an organizer with the Colorado Palestine Coalition.