San Jose Against War, joined by SVDSA, held a rally on October 6, 2024 to mark a year of Palestinian resistance to genocide.
Today, a nuclear-armed state rains down terror on an oppressed population of natives, behind a multi-billion dollar shield of rockets protecting its settlers. Built on the ethnic cleansing of almost a million natives, the occupying state imposes a system of apartheid and ethnosupremacy over its claimed territories, placing its own settlers’ rights above the natives’ democratic will. Despite the natives having an internationally recognized right to resist their subjugation and pursue self-determination, other major powers refuse to recognize this – saying only the occupier has a “right to self defense.”
We could have written a similar introduction about any number of colonial and occupied groups. White Americans and Indigenous people – who were similarly genocided under the guise of “manifest destiny.” Hindutva supremacists and occupied Kashmir – where Kashmiris have been denied their internationally recognized right to a plebiscite and self-determination.
As Israel today continues its genocide on Palestine and begins to destroy Lebanon, we must be clear as socialists that we oppose not only Israel’s actions, but also the racist, colonial ideology underpinning it all. Just as DSA has previously taken stances on anti-racism, anti-colonialism, and anti-imperialism, today we commit to organizing around dismantling Zionism in our local governments and communities.
At our end-August chapter meeting, Silicon Valley DSA unanimously passed a resolution reinforcing our chapter as an anti-Zionist organization in principle and practice.
Zionism, as defined by Theodor Herzl in the late 19th century, has always been a settler-colonial project intended to dispossess natives – to create “a wall of Europe against Asia… an outpost of [Western] civilization against [Eastern] barbarism.” Armed with the lie of “a land without a people for a people without a land,” Zionists regularly terrorized Palestinians alongside the British, and built their own segregated systems during the years of the British Mandate. During the Nakba (“catastrophe”) of 1948, Zionists prevailed in ethnically cleansing 750,000 Palestinians to form the state of Israel – against the consent of most natives.
In opposing Zionism, SVDSA seeks to end all forms of oppression and ethnosupremacy, in line with our prior opposition to caste discrimination and white supremacy.
Since October 2023, SVDSA has mobilized to call for a ceasefire, helped pass ceasefire resolutions at the Democratic Party and local levels, initiated Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns, and educated our neighbors about Israel’s genocide. We recognize that, as U.S. taxpayers, we are directly paying for the destruction of Palestine – to the tune of $3.8 billion in annual military funding, and a further $10+ billion in arms approved just this year. Redirecting these funds alone would give $1250 per year for every American child in poverty.
Following the lead of other DSA chapters, including DSA SF and East Bay DSA, we drafted a resolution to fully commit our chapter to anti-Zionism, and place ourselves firmly on the side of the struggle for Palestinian liberation.
The adopted resolution clearly defines anti-Zionist expectations for our membership and endorsed candidates. With the passage of this resolution, Zionist positions — such as opposing BDS or the Palestinian right of return — are considered to be in substantial disagreement with Silicon Valley DSA’s principles and policies. Supporting Zionist lobby groups — such as Christians United for Israel (CUFI), the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) — is also now a violation of our principles, because we recognize how these lobbies disingenuously provide political cover for Israel’s genocide. Members who commit these violations can be subject to expulsion, as is the case with violating any other DSA principles.
Along the same lines, our endorsed candidates must now publicly support BDS, disaffiliate from any Zionist lobby groups, and — when elected — politically support the Palestinian cause and oppose Zionist legislation.
Our resolution against Zionism is a product of our diverse chapter. Just as we firmly rejected any conflation between Hinduism and ethno-nationalist Hindutva in opposing caste discrimination in 2023, so too do we reject any conflation of Judaism and Zionism. We recognize and commend the long history of Jewish anti-Zionist and non-Zionist organizations – such as Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, the 20th-century socialist Jewish Labour Bund, and the modern Jewish Labor Bund – as well as the efforts of our own anti-Zionist and non-Zionist Jewish members.
We expect our anti-Zionist resolution will make us an even stronger ally in the struggle for a free Palestine, and commend the work of several local organizations and coalitions fighting towards this end, including Palestinian Youth Movement, Arab Resource & Organizing Center, Jewish Voice for Peace, CA15forPalestine, Vigil4Gaza, Stanford Against Apartheid in Palestine, and San Jose Against War. We look forward to working more closely with our allies, who have made it clear that DSA nationally must explicitly connect the fight against Zionism with our socialist and anti-colonialist principles.
We commit to making Palestine central in our ongoing struggle against global capitalism, settler colonialism, and U.S. imperialism. Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea!
Join SVDSA!
Help us build democratic socialist power locally by joining SVDSA! Join our mailing list through the form below. We will get you set up with email & text updates, and reach out to you individually. Please also read our Code of Conduct for participating in SVDSA spaces.