Anti-Palestinian Racism on the U.S. Left

If your source of information on Leftist beliefs in the United States is mainstream media, you may believe that the greatest prejudice in the U.S. Left currently is antisemitism. Anti-Zionism, even when advocated by Jewish organizations and people, is conflated with antisemitism. It is conflated by a belief that the security and well-being of apartheid Israel is the security and well-being of Jewish people worldwide. And to some degree (though more so outside the U.S.), it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Ignorant angry people, especially those who do not know Jewish people in real life and have nothing to compare an antisemitic caricature to, look at Israel’s statements saying they’re committing their ethnic cleansing on behalf of all Jewry and take them at their word. That does not make any antisemitism acceptable — prejudice is unethical unto itself and should never be tolerated.

But this piece is not about antisemitism.

While antisemitism is on the rise around the world, including the U.S., there has been no clear evidence presented that such is the case for the U.S. Left. Protests against Zionism and for Palestinian liberation are not the sole province of Leftists. To the contrary, they attract a wide range of political ideologies with various motivations, from the libertarian isolationism of Rep. Massie to the religious fundamentalism of the Satmar Jewish people to the wide range of right wing Arabic anti-colonial and nationalist ideologies, such as Hamas itself which has always attacked opponents, true or not, for being “communists.” And this does not even include the many Neo-Nazis and fellow travelers that take advantage of any circumstance like the present conflict to try to attract people to white supremacy.

However, there is a deep prejudice on the U.S. Left against one discrete group of people — Palestinians. This prejudice is palpable and provable, and most often is seen through the following aspects:

1. Belief that Israeli lives are more important than Palestinian lives;
2. Belief that Palestinians do not have a right to self-defense; and
3. Belief that Palestinian groups like Hamas can only be motivated by barbaric antisemitism.

None of these racist beliefs are surprising to hear from Zionists — similar beliefs existed in the Jim Crow South and apartheid South Africa.

But it is surprising to hear these beliefs from U.S. Leftists. It is surprising to hear in some cases these beliefs coming even from those who support the call for a ceasefire. I suppose I was naive to believe this kind of racism would not exist on the U.S. Left. And it is more than a personal failing of those who hold these racist beliefs. It is a huge political problem, cleaving deep divisions into our ability to organize on this issue effectively. This in turn hampers our ability to impart an egalitarian Leftist character to Palestinian liberation struggle in the United States, to keep it as free from antisemitism and other reactionary ideologies as possible.

How do we expect any Palestinian to believe that socialism is the means of liberation when some of our comrades do not even see them as equally human?

I was motivated to write this piece in large part after reading Senator Bernie Sanders’ recent op-Ed in The NY Times, titled “Justice for the Palestinians and Security for Israel.” The title alone was off putting, equating the security of an apartheid state with justice for the victims of that apartheid, which are simply not compatible. But I tried to have an open mind when reading it. And, most importantly, I know Sen. Sanders is a fairly reliable barometer of the U.S. Left, so reading it would at minimum be useful to determining where many are at with this issue.

Unfortunately the piece exemplifies each of the three aspects of anti-Palestinian racism I have mentioned:

1. Sen. Sanders begins by giving a per capita analogy of the impact of the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, saying that it would be equivalent to killing 40,000 Americans. Regardless of whether this is an appropriate metric, the clear point of the analogy is to elicit empathy for Israeli victims by essentially creating an American equivalent. No such equivalent is provided by Sen. Sanders for the Palestinians murdered by Israel in the ongoing genocide against Gaza. The reason is obvious — we are not supposed to empathize with the Palestinians. Unlike the far right Zionists, Bernie does want us to pity them, which is why he elaborates the inhumane conditions they are living in, similar to how one might talk about the inhumane treatment of farm animals. He does not tell us what the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza would be, and the per capita equivalent would be 6,745,000 Americans being killed. Imagine if both Los Angeles and Chicago were wiped off the face of the earth — that is the per capita equivalent. Bernie cannot face this because it becomes clear that, while the Hamas attack was an atrocious war crime, the attack on Gaza is an existential abomination with only one accurate name: genocide.
2. Sen. Sanders is committed to perpetuating the myth that this is a war between Israel and Hamas. First, this ignores the participation of other groups like Islamic Jihad, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, and Lions’ Den, the latter two being secular groups. But moreover, it pushes a “both sides” myth prevalent in the liberal varieties of Zionism that, while recognizing that Israel has been inhumane and even racist, Hamas is equally if not more so the impediment to peace in the region. But armed Palestinian resistance to genocide predates Hamas and will continue after Hamas if and when Hamas ceases to exist. Armed resistance is not the product of a fundamentalist Islamic ideology but of a fundamental human inclination to self-defense and self-preservation. To believe that Palestinians should simply turn the other cheek when subjected to such inhumane treatment is dehumanizing. After all, if a man were to attack you, my hopefully US Leftist reader, no court would condemn you for defending yourself. But despite the existence of animal cruelty laws, no court would apply such self-defense reasoning to exonerate a pig who kills a man that attacked her first. That is how liberal Zionists, for all their protestations about the cruel treatment of Palestinians, look at Palestinians — as pigs.
3. Sen. Sanders is against a ceasefire. Instead, his short term solution to the conflict is to have a “humanitarian pause” whereby the innocent Palestinians and evil Hamas can be cleanly demarcated before attacks on Gaza resume to minimize civilian killings. The premise, which Sanders does state expressly, is that Gaza must “be free of Hamas.” It is hard for me to think of an equivalent circumstance where an American elected, let alone a Leftist like Sen. Sanders, sets the annihilation of a combatant as a prerequisite for peace. I’m not aware of any similar calls as to, for example, the paramilitary fascist Wagner Group. Notably, Sen. Sanders warned before the invasion by Russia of Ukraine of the need for a diplomatic solution. He noted that there was nothing mutually exclusive between condemning Putin and understanding that Russia’s motivations were not just barbarism. Such recognition allows for the reality that diplomatic solutions could exist. When Sanders fails to recognize that Hamas is motivated by defending Palestinian people, that in particular its foot soldiers are driven by the ghosts of their family members that haunt the rubble of Gaza, it is clear that he does not recognize their humanity. Bernie seems to be somewhat self-aware and tries to preempt criticism early by stating “First, Hamas has made it clear, before and after Oct. 7, that its goal is perpetual warfare and the destruction of the state of Israel,” citing to a statement by a Hamas spokesperson: “I hope that the state of war with Israel will become permanent on all the borders, and that the Arab world will stand with us.” Bernie’s argument contradicts itself, arguing that Hamas somehow has the mutually exclusive goals of both “perpetual war” and “the destruction of the state of Israel.” The clear intent of the Hamas spokesperson is that they want the Arab world to do to Israel what Israel is currently doing to Gaza. That may be a counterproductive and destructive thing to call for (and frankly not a realistic thing to hope for), but it is understandable to want the violent destruction of the state that is committing genocide against you. And there is a palpable racist hypocrisy for Bernie to believe that Israel is capable of a long term diplomatic solution and Hamas is not. Israel’s statements of genocidal intent rival if not surpass those by Hamas, and unlike Hamas it has the power and international support to accomplish those ghoulish aims. Bernie thinks they nevertheless are capable of a diplomatic solution with the nebulous “new Palestinian leadership.” Bernie thought someone as outright cynical and power-hungry as Putin could and should still be brought to the table to avoid war. The fact that he does not extend this principle to Hamas is simply racist — racist against the Palestinians that make up Hamas as well as against the Palestinians that elected them in 2006. The U.S. has regularly engaged in diplomacy with groups and leaders with just as much or more blood on their hands. There is no explanation for not doing so here other than a racist belief that Palestinians like Hamas cannot be diplomatic, and that their sole motivation is death and destruction.

Even before the current truce, Hamas was repeatedly calling for a ceasefire. This is not to project some kind of naive benevolent intentions on them, though they of course want killings of Palestinians to end. To the contrary, Hamas has a clear self-interest. Hamas wants to leverage the hostages it took during the October 7 attack to free its own combatants (and other Palestinians) held by Israel. Hamas also recognizes that its support in Gaza is not guaranteed. If the genocide continues to be carried out and Hamas’ October 7 attack yields no arguable gains for Palestinian liberation (and at the moment it clearly has not), it is plausible that their dominance of the movement in Gaza wanes, as happened to Fatah before them. This is the kind of analysis that can be done when it is recognized that Hamas is made up of human beings with a variety of personal and political motivations like any other political force.

The timing of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ op-ed is likely not a coincidence. I do not doubt that, in his own racist way, Bernie does want to help the Palestinian people. One need not view someone as fully human to oppose cruel treatment of them. But I believe, since it is an English language piece in an American publication, it is not so much a plea for restraint aimed at Israel and Israelis as it is a justification for the resumption of hostilities after the currently agreed truce expires. In politics this is sometimes referred to as sheepdogging. It is an attempt to guide those who might call for a ceasefire to instead supporting the genocide of Gaza by morally absolving themselves by wringing their hands about the inevitable deaths of innocent Palestinians.

Ultimately, the short term goal of American supporters of Palestinian liberation remains a ceasefire. Frankly I do not care much about how we reach that goal given the urgency and the stakes. Given the prevalence of anti-Palestinian racism in the U.S., and how entrenched those views are, we need to win over people with those racist views to advocating for a ceasefire (and there are signs that we are doing so slowly). Hell, if President Biden or some Qatari autocrat wants to take credit for turning the current truce into a permanent ceasefire, that is fine by me.

However, I believe that the long term goal of Palestinian liberation will never come without international support for it, and international support for Palestinian liberation will never reach sufficient levels without eliminating much of the racism against Palestinians prevalent in the U.S. The Left should spearhead such a campaign, but we can only legitimately do so by getting our own house in order first. Those conversations will be difficult. After all, Leftists believe they are not racist, and if like Bernie they criticize the Israeli government, they probably even think of themselves as advocates for the Palestinian people. But we cannot effectively advocate for a people that we treat differently than all other people, even if our discrimination is benevolent or sympathetic.

Palestinians are human beings. We cannot continue to tolerate viewpoints among our own comrades that fail to recognize this basic humanity.