Opinion

What the 2020 elections mean for the Palestine movement

While the focus remains largely on the presidential election, November brings with it hundreds of local and state races that are equally consequential, and show the rising power of the Palestine movement.

Last week’s presidential debate made one thing very clear: both candidates are committed to American jingoism. Amid the competitive China-bashing on the screen, it was odd to hear no mention of the Middle East, and of Israel in particular, which has recently been much in the news. 

Israel’s omission can be read as a reflection of two things occurring simultaneously: the first is that the established leadership of both the Democratic and Republican parties remains generally committed to Israel’s project, with only sporadic and hollow reproaches from Democratic leaders like Nancy Pelosi. The second is that there is a rift growing within the halls of Congress that disrupts the bipartisan support Israel has relied on so thoroughly since the 1970s. Beyond some members of “the Squad” (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar), or Betty McCollum, a long-standing representative of Minnesota, there is a broader wave of newly elected and up-and-coming candidates across the US that is boldly departing from the Democratic Party blueprint on a number of issues, Palestine central among them. The successful bid for a US House Seat by Cori Bush, one of the leaders of the 2014 Ferguson uprising, exemplifies this trend. 

Though perhaps not premeditated, the absence of Israel in the debate is indicative of the broad agreement between both candidates on the basics of US policy toward Israel. Joe Biden has made it clear he will continue to support Israel both financially and politically, as he did under Barack Obama for eight consecutive years. We should have no illusions of a Biden presidency shifting the terrain in favor of a more robustly critical approach to Israel’s ongoing expansion and ethnic cleansing. Far from it. While Biden’s likely steps to reverse Trump’s closure of the PLO mission in Washington or refunding UNRWA would be a return to the status quo ante, they would do little to shake the roots of the political problem. And as a recent event co-sponsored by the Adalah Justice Project made clear: the roots of the situation facing Palestinians are fundamentally political, not humanitarian. 

Still, it may be the case that a Biden presidency would allow for more opportunities for political movements, including Palestine movements, to organize in a sustained and effective way to assert their own priorities without ceding ground to the political center.  Simply because a centrist Democrat will have won does not mean that the growing radical opposition would lower its expectations. Contrast this to the current model of shock-doctrine defense to the deliberate attacks of the Trump administration, an administration that is proudly and publicly riling up all manifestations of far-right organizing steeped in old and new molds of racism, antisemitism, and Islamophobia. 

But while the focus remains largely on the presidential election, November brings with it hundreds of local and state races that are equally consequential, because a great many of them are emerging from grassroots, left-driven, and in many cases explicitly socialist movements and organizations.

Israel can no longer rely on stable support from all the major demographics within US liberalism. A significant and expanding section of American society—young, diverse, and working class—has become increasingly aware of US support for Israel’s occupation, and is rapidly drawing the connections between Palestine, mass incarceration, austerity, and the immigration crisis, in other words between Palestine and all the other major political flashpoints that have arisen in the wake of the 2007-2008 economic crisis. It is this same generation which has witnessed Israel’s increasingly public and unabashed commitment to far-right figures like Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, Narendra Modi, and Viktor Orban. 

Only a few years ago, one couldn’t speak about Palestine and be taken seriously as a political candidate. Today, candidates are running for a wide range of offices and proudly standing by their support not just for Palestinian human rights as a rote, depoliticized mantra, but Palestinian liberation as a part of an unashamedly political struggle against racism and settler colonialism. It is extremely significant that candidates like Zohran Mamdani, the presumptive winner of a State Assembly seat in Queens, New York, or Julia Salazar, a state assemblywoman from Brooklyn, have been successful at the state level, while maintaining a commitment to uplift the Palestinian struggle. In a sphere saturated with apologetics for Israel, it’s easier to adopt the hardline position of uncritical support for the occupation rather than pay the price of opposition in smear campaigns and character assassination.

These new shifts are indicative of a larger trend of left voices putting forward a platform that sees the fight against austerity measures as fundamentally connected to US foreign policy. The more people like Mamdani in office, the more opportunities there will be able to shift the status quo on Palestine, not simply because electoralism in and of itself will bring about deep social change, but, because as Meagan Day has argued “there’s a particular way of engaging in electoral politics that strengthens movements.”  

Ocasio-Cortez’s decision to heed the call of Palestinians and cancel her participation at an event memorializing former Israeli military general Yitzhak Rabin is yet another example of the openings to redefine the parameters by which an electoral platform that supports Palestine can be adopted, and what it can look like to build relations with candidates  accountable to the movement.

There’s no doubt the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is playing a role in this shift as well, having endorsed the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions in 2017 at its annual convention.  At least in theory, if not yet fully in practice, anyone who engages seriously with DSA, and certainly any candidate vying for an endorsement, will be introduced to the struggle for Palestine in one way or another. 

In a country where people have been detained, imprisoned, and deported for allegedly funding Palestinian organizations, it is vital that we explain these deeper shifts as a direct result of many years of grassroots organizing in the Palestine movement, both in the diaspora and on the ground. 

The strength of the movement is why Palestine is increasingly seen and understood as a component of the broader movement around racism, sexism, immigration, climate change, health care, etc.

It goes without saying that the struggle is far from over. With gains comes fear on the part of the establishment. The Israel lobby is investing enormously in intelligence-gathering and defamation targeting critics of Israel, especially those most vulnerable, often based on their immigration status, class, and race. 

Attacks aimed at silencing and marginalizing Palestine advocates continue to intensify with new laws and lawsuits introduced each year. Just last week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cynically proposed labeling international rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch antisemitic. It is no coincidence that both these groups have made headlines this year over campaigns illuminating Israel’s unlawful suppression of free speech and silencing of boycott activists. 

As we continue forward in the struggle for collective liberation, our demands need to move past hollow humanitarian rhetoric or diluted, sanitized messaging for an imagined audience that ceased to exist many years ago.  In fact, it’s time we contend with the fact that most people today are far closer to understanding the integral ties between the injustices they are experiencing at home and those they are learning about in Palestine than ever before. 

These long-term shifts in political consciousness, coupled with the unpredictable political period that lies ahead, present openings to explore new strategies and take collective action to transform the material conditions of our current reality. Let us be bold in deliberating our next steps. 

This article is part of the Mondoweiss series Redefining Liberation by the Adalah Justice Project on moving past the narrow definition of national struggle and embracing liberation strategies grounded in the rich Palestinian legacy of joint struggle and transnational solidarity. With strong connections to radical organizing happening in their Palestinian homeland, Adalah Justice Project’s vision of transformation is rooted in the understanding that race, gender, sexual orientation, and class all intersect to create the conditions of our current reality. AJP is a Palestinian organization that works to transform public discourse and U.S. policy on Palestine through public education, coalition-building, and advocacy within all realms of political activity, from the grassroots to Capitol Hill. Learn more about AJP’s work, and follow the entire series here.

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Given Biden’s advanced age, if he wins the presidency, he will serve only one term. Not having to worry about being reelected, he may pursue the best interests of the U.S. (& the Middle East) by setting the wheels in motion to end its now 72 year destructive “Special Relationship” with “Israel.”

“Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II. To date, the United States has provided Israel $134.7 billion (current, or non inflation-adjusted, dollars) in bilateral assistance & missile defense funding. Almost all U.S. bilateral aid to Israel is in the form of military assistance, although in the past Israel also received significant economic assistance. At a signing ceremony at the State Department on September 14, 2016, representatives of the U.S. & Israeli governments signed a new 10-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on military aid covering FY2019 to FY2028. Under the terms of the MOU, the United States pledges to provide $38 billion in military aid ($33 billion in Foreign Military Financing grants plus $5 billion in missile defense appropriations) to Israel. This MOU replaces a previous $30 billion 10-year agreement, which runs through FY2018.” (“Congressional Research Service, U.S. Foreign aid to Israel, Jeremy M. Sharpe, Specialist in Middle East Affairs, April 10/2018.”)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=T1PtICv-RrQ&feature=emb_logo
Video: “Israel lobbyist describes ways to procure massive US aid to Israel, despite US recession” May 3, 2020
“Over 30 million Americans have lost their jobs due to the coronavirus. American businesses have closed & the U.S. economy is devastated. Yet, the Israel lobby works to ensure that American taxpayers will continue to give Israel over $10 million per day…”

If Americans Knew Blog, Alison Weir, May 22/20
Senate Committee slips through $38 billion package to Israel
 EXCERPT:
The Foreign Relations Committee passed a bill yesterday to give Israel a minimum of $38 billion over the next ten years, despite current devastation to the US economy. The bill was passed in a meeting closed to Senate live-streaming, in a voice vote on a group of 15 items, without any discussion or debate of the largest such package in US history, & without its title even being said…”
“…the bill was passed without being named, debated, or even discussed, even though it would set into law the largest such aid package in US history.”

If we’re talking about the 2020 elections we have to talk about voter suppression, both here and in Israel:

https://www.972mag.com/voter-suppression-trump-netanyahu-advisers/

In the U.S. and Israel, voter suppression is the ruling parties’ game plan…While the tactics may differ, this strategy should be familiar to Israeli voters, who witnessed the attempts by Likud and Benjamin Netanyahu to deter Palestinian citizens from voting in the 2019-2020 elections. Most infamous was the installation of cameras in polling stations in Palestinian towns and neighborhoods, intended to deter voters. A group of right-wing Jewish Israelis also put up billboards deceptively calling on Palestinian citizens to boycott the elections….But whether we characterize these figures and groups as ideological or mercenary, the art of manipulation has become an election issue in the United States. The growth of anti-democratic policies and practices, of which voter suppression is emblematic, is just another shared value of the Israeli and American authoritarian right 

So, Israel’s devoted propagandist Bari Weiss is trying to make herself relevant again, by appearing on The View. She still wears that victim face.
It would be interesting to know who exactly decided to invite her there. Maybe someone is looking after their ardent supporter. She did open with a negative shot at AOC and Ilhan Omar when it comes to “packing the Supreme Court”. She sounds like an anti Biden pro Trump “journalist”. I guess moving that embassy to Jerusalem has scored good points with Weiss.

“Let us be bold in deliberating our next steps.”______________________________________

As with BLM, the justice for Palestine movement will benefit from specific ideas on how to move forward, their debate and discussion. For example how best to solve dilemmas such as Ariel and the return of refugees.

I just listened to Evan Osnos at a Harvard Hillel event. One of the questioners from the audience said she has friends who are afraid that Biden isn’t sufficiently pro-Israel. Oy vey…… But maybe, just maybe, if he is elected he won’t be beholden to the Zionists, and will be able to move, however slightly and slowly, away from being the tail on the Israeli dog.