Footnote on Israel and Palestine

The Israel-Palestine conflict divides the left. We want to try to facilitate discussions and build bridges. It is clear to us that the massacres of 7 October are not an emancipatory act and the bombing of Gaza with tens of thousands of victims is not legitimate self-defence. Anti-Semitism has no place in BUKO, nor do other forms of racism and discrimination.

It is crucial for us to differentiate between Jewish people, Israeli citizens and the state of Israel - both when synagogues are attacked in response to Israeli military actions and when protests against Israel's warfare are labelled as anti-Semitic across the board. The same distinction also applies to Palestinians and Hamas, who cannot be equated. It is also important to note that the conflict is characterised by unequal power relations, as the Gaza war makes abundantly clear.

It is true that Zionism differs from other European colonialisms in that there is no "motherland" and other European settlers did not flee from centuries of discrimination or even genocide. It is also true that Zionism was also about buying the land from the supposedly backward natives or taking it away from them and driving them out, which is why there was openly talk of colonialism, as the "Palestine Jewish Colonisation Association" illustrates. It is true that the 1948 war not only led to the Nakba, the forced expulsion of 750,000 Palestinian people from what is now Israel, but also to the expulsion of Jewish people from the neighbouring Arab states. These hostilities took place primarily as a reaction to displacement and expulsions in Palestine. It is true that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, a central leader of anti-colonial Palestinian nationalism, was anti-Semitic and collaborated with the Nazis. It is also true that the leaders of Zionist nationalism did not strive for equal coexistence with the Palestinians. It is true that British colonialism acted as a protective power for the Zionist movement for a long time, but the founding of the state of Israel was enforced against it. However, the same could also be said for the founding of states in the USA and South Africa. It is true that the partition plan of 1947 was proposed by a majority in the United Nations - where at that time, due to colonialism, most of the peoples of Asia and Africa still had no say at all. The Palestinian people affected and the neighbouring Arab states also never agreed to this plan. It is also true that there has been an occupation in violation of international law since 1967, which has been and continues to be perpetuated by the illegal settlement of settlers in the West Bank. It is also true that the non-violent BDS movement is demanding an end to this occupation, equal rights for Palestinian Israelis and a right of return for displaced persons by boycotting cultural, economic and academic institutions of the State of Israel. However, it is also true that there are repeated anti-Semitic statements from the ranks of this movement. The list could be continued and some statements could certainly be differentiated, but the central question for us is: what does a left-wing, internationalist position look like in this mixed situation that recognises the rights and livelihoods of all people, the victims and the pain on both sides, without setting up hierarchies and without being blind in one eye?