Peninsula DSA Supports Single Inclusive Democratic State for Palestinians and Israelis

SAN MATEO, July 16, 2024 - Following the leadership of our comrades in Chicago DSA, Peninsula (CA) DSA voted at our June 2024 General Membership Meeting to declare our support for a political vision of one democratic state in Palestine. We identify Zionism’s politicization of identity and Israel’s nature as a state exclusive to Jews as a root cause of the suffering and injustice which Israel has inflicted upon the people of Palestine, and we believe that true peace and liberation can only be achieved by the dismantling of the apartheid, settler-colonial state and the establishment of one democratic state in its stead.

The material reality is that a two-state solution is not feasible, and it has long been more of an aspirational myth rather than a serious policy proposal. In the words of Jewish Currents contributing editor Joshua Leifer, the idea is little more than a “political fiction” which gives liberal Zionists a way “to reconcile their seemingly contradictory commitments to both ethnonationalism and liberal democracy.” Since the 1970s, when Palestinian intellectuals first proposed a “mini-state” on 22% of historic Palestine, Israel has continuously redefined the conceptual Palestinian state to include ever-less territory and to hold ever-less sovereignty. By the 1980s, there were already 100,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank, prompting former Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Meron Benvenisti to warn that it was “five minutes to midnight” for the two-state solution. Now, there are over 650,000 settlers in the West Bank, and settlers, emboldened by Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, are committing even more violence and stealing more Palestinian land. The two-state solution—which has come to mean a fragmented Palestine under de facto Israeli control—cannot generate a movement powerful enough to bring liberation to Palestine; it only provides cover for ongoing ethnic cleansing.

For this reason we support a movement for a single, inclusive state between the river and the sea that is:

• Democratic. All citizens would be equal in the eye of the state, including its laws, institutions and policies, regardless of identity. This includes the right of those who have been ethnically cleansed from Palestine to return and enjoy full citizenship.
• Secular. Freedom of worship would be guaranteed, and one’s religion or identity would not be a factor in granting or denying rights to citizens or non-citizens.
• Socially just. Stolen land, homes and property would be restituted to all victims of dispossession. Resources and social welfare would be allotted fairly to all citizens. The income, poverty and education gaps would be bridged.

Finally, we call on national DSA to likewise declare its support of one democratic state in Palestine: a “one-person, one-vote” state in which everyone is represented equally, regardless of ethnicity, religion, origin, etc. As socialists it is our responsibility to imagine what a just world would look like and share that vision with the world. Without democracy, self-determination is impossible, and without full equal rights under a secular state, there can be no democracy for the Palestinian people. Separate can never be equal.

Further reading:

• “What Does ‘From the River to the Sea’ Really Mean?” (2021), Jewish Currents
• “Teshuvah: A Jewish Case for Palestinian Refugee Return” (2021), Jewish Currents
• The Resilient Fiction of a Two-State Solution” (2020), Jewish Currents
• “Yavne: A Jewish Case for Equality in Israel-Palestine” (2020), Jewish Currents
• “The Case for the One Democratic State Initiative as a Counter-Hegemonic Endeavor” (2023), Mondoweiss
• One Democratic State Initiative

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DSA Cleveland’s Public Pressure Non-Campaign Activity for Trans Rights was passed unanimously at the February 2024 general meeting. The “non campaign activity” was NOT a priority project of Cleveland DSA, therefore it did not have an elected leadership body and other privileges of being a priority. From February-April 2024 DSA sent members to make public comment at meetings where the restrictions on trans health care were being considered, including the Ohio Health Advisory Board, Ohio Department of Health and Department of Mental Health. DSA members also attended a public meeting of the Cuyahoga County Board of Health to bring up our concerns about anti-trans legislation. We made 345 phone calls and sent countless emails and public comment submissions. We engaged 58 DSA members and community members in this work. We also worked directly with Abortion Fund of Ohio on an education event. At the end of the authorization period for this activity, it was ultimately the lower Ohio courts that opted to block and stall the implementation of HB 68, and interest in mass action over the issue died down.

We wanted to host a large scale demonstration occupying the Cuyahoga County Department of Health, this also did not happen. We hosted a smaller demonstration in the Cuyahoga County Board of Health parking lot where we distributed literature to the workers there. The culmination of the work on this project is a plan for a Trans Liberation Priority Project. While the authors of this proposal believe it holds untapped potential, they did not recommend it for approval due to a lack of developed leaders ready to take on the four elected roles; legislative researcher, project administrator, comms coordinator and membership coordinator. DSA new members and observers should note that although we do not have ongoing work in every issue-area we have experience and projects prepared for prioritization when chapter capacity and external circumstances align, we are ready and we need your help.

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The Colorado Springs and Denver chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) together stand firmly beside the people of Palestine and all those on the side of liberation and humanity. We reaffirm our unwavering and unequivocal solidarity with our partners in the Colorado Palestine Coalition and the broader Palestinian liberation movement, especially Palestinian-led organizations including the Palestinian Youth Movement and Within Our Lifetime. We call on the National Political Committee (NPC) to immediately pass the resolution ‘Making DSA an Anti-Zionist Organization in both Principle and Practice’ (MSR #12), that was tabled for the NPC after being pushed off the floor at the 2023 DSA National Convention. 

To quote our comrades in Albany YDSA, “Palestine is not dividing the left, it’s defining the left.” It’s long past time to shut the door on our organization’s tolerance for candidates who are ‘Progressive Except for Palestine’. We commend the NPC’s recent withdrawal of DSA national’s conditional endorsement of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), whose many recent words and actions have reinforced the Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism at the heart of the US imperial project and enabled Israel’s US-sponsored genocide of the Palestinian people, including: endorsing the war criminal Joe Biden [1] and shielding him from calls to step aside [2], publicly criticizing Palestinian liberation organizations as antisemitic [3], platforming Zionists intent on demonizing the movement for Palestinian liberation and agreeing with their bad faith critiques [4], equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism, demanding that Hamas release all hostages with no acknowledgment of the thousands of hostages held (and tortured) by Israel or the many offers by Hamas to release hostages in exchange for a permanent ceasefire, and continued insistence that Israel has a “right to defend itself” [5]; all while denying the right, enshrined in international law, of the oppressed people of Palestine to defend themselves, resist annihilation, and engage in armed struggle against their violent colonial occupiers. 

We condemn New York City DSA’s push to endorse AOC without condition – a decision which undermines the work of principled electeds and working class organizers across the country. Refusing to draw a clear moral line on Palestinian liberation damages the morale of DSA members and turns potential recruits away from DSA’s socialist project; leaves principled anti-Zionist politicians vulnerable to AIPAC attacks and principled activists vulnerable to state violence; and contributes to the social conditions that allow Zionists to murder, assault, and intimidate Palestinians and their allies. AOC’s re-endorsement was an affront to our anti-racist, anti-Zionist, and anti-imperialist internationalist values and a hindrance to our work to build multi-racial working-class socialist power. While we commend the NPC’s attempts to rectify this situation by extending a conditional endorsement, we demand more accountability in the endorsement process at the chapter level in the future to prevent the kind of fallout caused by the initial vote to re-endorse. Rank and file DSA members put our trust in the NPC to uphold our values and support our work, and passing MSR #12 would go a long way towards solidifying that trust and assuaging our concerns about future endorsements and electoral efforts. 

True socialist power is built from the grassroots and in solidarity among the working class, not from proximity to and conformity with ruling elites. DSA’s local chapter work is fueled by countless hours of unpaid, working-class labor. Many of our members have risked arrest and experienced state repression as a result of their support of Palestinian liberation and other anti-fascist organizing. We reject the endorsement of any candidates who do not take a strong, principled, and consistent stance on solidarity with the people of Palestine. Such endorsements serve to channel our labor toward platforming liberal politicians who reinforce capitalism, imperialism, and the rise of fascism. Whenever we decide to compromise our integrity in exchange for power, we have already lost both. Our endorsed electeds must reflect and be accountable to our working-class base, and DSA must solidify its commitment to anti-Zionism in both principle and practice at a national level by passing MSR #12.

1  By endorsing Biden, AOC is backing genocide, Electronic Intifada, July 18, 2024

2 Ocasio-Cortez backing Biden: ‘The matter is closed’, The Hill, July 9, 2024

3 https://x.com/fatimazsaid/status/1801200752393666631

4 https://x.com/SxarletRed/status/1800526900625870996

5 November 28,2023, AOC voted in favor of H.Res. 888 ‘Reaffirming Israel’s Right To Exist’, which conflates opposition to Israel’s “right to exist” with antisemitism and demands Hamas release all hostages