Zionists Should Not Feel Comfortable in Our Spaces

From our book clubs to our political organizations, Zionists should be run out of every space available and isolated from the public sphere at every opportunity.

Photo showing the moment Israeli occupational forces struck the Ru’ya Commercial Tower in Gaza City.

When Palestinian resistance fighters broke out of the open-air prison of the Gaza Strip on October 7th, 2023, and liberated territory occupied by the Zionist entity since 1948, a mixture of confusion, adulation, joy, and worry exploded across the world. Those feelings were not lost in socialist spaces, as those within the imperial core wrestled with the implications of a military operation that had been, by all reasonable standards, an unmitigated success.

In the span of a day, the movement within the United States had to wrestle with how to respond, whether to condemn decolonial violence or accept and defend it outright as the right of a colonized people. As Israelis and their Zionist allies spread propaganda related to the deaths of settlers in the Gaza envelope and demonized Palestinian resistance groups, chief among them Hamas, the socialist Left within the United States had a clear choice in front of them: stand with the oppressors, or the oppressed.

Not everyone within the movement, itself an ideologically diverse, fragmented one, oftentimes tainted by Western chauvinism, Islamophobia, and aversion to the acceptance of the necessity of armed struggle, chose to side with the resistance factions fighting for their liberation. Some even went so far as to condemn the decolonial violence itself, siding with the lies and logic of the colonial entity that had waged a genocidal effort of annihilation of Palestinians for decades up to this point.

Now, over 700 into the genocide we have seen unfold in Gaza, those on the Left who chose to stand with the Zionist entity and oppose the resistance continue to be thoroughly discredited as the spineless colonial acolytes they decided to be. In the weeks after October 7th, however, this was not immediately clear to all in the space. In my home city, this reality became apparent when, amid myself and others celebrating the “Al Aqsa Flood” in the chats of the socialist organization we called home, one voice arose to condemn the operation.

This organizer was relatively new to the organization, and their views on the occupation had, to this point, gone unchallenged, as they had not been prompted to enter the discussions around Palestine before October 7th. What my comrades and I soon found was that this organizer was a Zionist, one with family ties to settlers in the Gaza envelope. When this was discovered, intense internal discussion and debate took place between principled anti-Zionist comrades, the Zionist we now discovered was amongst our ranks, and third parties who were likely trying to figure out why the local Slack had hundreds of messages in the span of a couple of hours.

Several of our members, myself included, were maligned as antisemites who wanted to see harm done to Jewish people and as “Jihadist sympathizers” for our support of Hamas and other resistance factions. The Zionist individual, after failing to elicit sympathy and then failing to bait anti-Zionist communists into childish back-and-forths devoid of principled analysis, chose to leave the chapter entirely - another victory courtesy of Hamas and the Palestinian resistance factions on the ground in Gaza.

Though an immediate victory, it did lead to larger organizational discussions around the ease with which a Zionist entered our space for so long, and the lack of firm red lines regarding Zionism in our chapter at large. This was rectified months later as comrades from across the ideological spectrum came together to successfully and overwhelmingly pass an anti-zionist resolution. Its passage meant being a Zionist and contributing materially to the Zionist colony was an expellable offense. More specifically, it stated:

Be it resolved, that engaging in zionism, as referenced in the preceding clause, shall be defined as Philadelphia DSA members who are credibly (e.g. through public statements or actions, internal documents or communications, or credible news reports) shown to:

1. proclaim that they are a Zionist and intend on advancing the interests of the Zionist settler colony

2. be a member of or have consciously provided material aid to any Zionist organization, the Israeli government, affiliates or supporters of the Israeli government including but not limited to Friends of United Hatzalah, the Anti-Defamation League, and the Jewish Defense League, or any Zionist lobby group(s) such as but not limited to AIPAC, J-Street, and DMFI

And this behavior will be considered in substantial disagreement with DSA’s principles and policies, which is subject to disciplinary process under Article I, Section 3 of the national DSA Bylaws;

The logic was simple: Zionism is a fascist ideology, and allowance of Zionists into our socialist space was not just a disorganizing act that put the security of anti-Zionist organizers at risk, but was also no different functionally than allowing a member of the Ku Klux Klan or Proud Boys into our space.

This logic makes sense, and yet even over 700 days into the genocide in Gaza, so many social and political spaces maintain a startling lack of barriers to entry for Zionists. It has not been uncommon in local organizing spaces, my own included, to run into “progressive” organizers who maintain Zionist positions, even when the goals of their organizing projects and their views on the occupation of Palestine seem contradictory. In social spaces and formations as well, from friend groups to book clubs and beyond, individuals with Zionist views have been able to maintain a presence. Zionist business owners or companies sourcing products from Israeli companies have, in many instances, gone ignored by the general public, and even sometimes find themselves defended by “progressive leaders” when they come under fire.

A local Philadelphia business displaying a sign saying “This is an Apartheid Free Zone” as part of the local No Appetite for Apartheid campaign.

Even as Zionism becomes more of a generally unpopular ideology, many of its adherents have been able to live their lives more or less fundamentally unchanged or unchallenged. This presents a problem, not just one of safety for Palestinians and their anti-Zionist allies, but of moral standing.

It must be clearly stated: Zionists should feel no comfort in any space, social or political. They should be run out of every place they attempt to find community in, made pariahs by merit of their fascist views. With Palestinians continuing to be murdered by the occupation’s stormtroopers and anti-Zionist organizers at home facing state repression bolstered by the efforts of Zionists in communities across the country, there can be no bridge-building or truces in any form with Zionists in any space they find themselves in.

We as a movement should not only be ensuring that Zionists have no place in our organizations, but also be actively looking for every opportunity to make pariahs out of Zionists in any space we find them existing in. Whether it’s a Zionist in our book club, Zionist organizers in our local political coalitions, a Zionist politician vying for an endorsement, businesses that defend the colony, or other countless examples, we must ensure that they are militantly opposed and organized against.

Zionism should be treated no differently than any other fascist ideology, and its adherents should be treated no differently than any other fascist acolyte. To give them exception is to make exceptions for genocidal ideologies, no matter our reasoning behind it. We owe it to those who have been subjugated, brutalized, and murdered by the Zionist entity and its allies to give them no home or quarter in the spaces we exist in - or any spaces at all.