Letter: A Call from NYC YDSA for NYC DSA to Uphold Our Anti-Zionist Program in Local Endorsements and Censure AOC
By: New York City YDSA
Letter republished in support of NYC YDSA, with full endorsement for the language from our Editorial Committee. [Credit, NYC YDSA]
NYC YDSA calls on all of its members, and the members of NYC DSA, to sign onto the following letter, and to pass Resolutions modeled off of it in their Branches and Working Groups.
In the last several months, the movement for Palestinian liberation exploded onto our college campuses, as students and workers established Gaza Solidarity Encampments in the fight to end U.S. support for the genocide in Gaza. At the same time, locally-endorsed elected Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has frequently and repeatedly taken actions and made statements which are incompatible with our socialist values, including slandering members of our organization and our allied organizations in the struggle for Palestinian liberation by conflating Anti-Zionism with anti-semitism. Organizations like Jewish Voices for Peace, Within Our Lifetime, and National Students for Justice in Palestine have condemned AOC and publicly called on DSA to hold our endorsed electeds accountable. Our members, who have put their bodies on the line for the liberation of Palestine, find it unconscionable that an elected endorsed by our chapter would be allowed to disregard and undermine our political program with no attempt to hold them accountable for their votes and for their public statements.
NYC YDSA calls on NYC DSA to uphold our democratically decided program of Anti-Zionism and Palestinian liberation in its practice of local endorsements. We call on the NYC DSA steering committee to censure Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for substantial disagreement with this program. This censure should condemn the following recent actions by AOC:
Voting in favor of H.Res.888 which affirmed Isreal’s right to exist and “recognizes that denying Israel's right to exist is a form of antisemitism;” H.Res.966 which only condemned Hamas, and not the IDF for sexual violence, and H.Res. 5917 which sanctioned the use of human shields by “Palestine Islamic Jihad”
Signing onto an April 20th congressional letter, which affirmed Israel’s right to self-defense and signaled support for Iron Dome funding, further stating in a press release that: “All of us support strengthening the Iron Dome and other defense systems and we are committed to a sovereign, safe, and secure future for Israel,”
Frequently and repeatedly conflating Anti-Zionism with anti-semitism, including hosting a June 10th live stream on “Antisemitism and the Fight for Democracy” which allowed panelists to openly conflate Anti-Zionism with anti-semitism unchallenged, tweeting on June 11th that pro-Palestine protesters at the Nova exhibit, which used atrocity propaganda to legitimize the genocide in Gaza, were guilty of “atrocious antisemitism,” and finally tweeting on June 12th that criticism of her conflation of rejecting Israel’s right to exist with antisemitism is “conspiratorial.”
These political standards were overwhelmingly approved at our 2023 National Convention in Amendment A to NPCR#8 - DSA Stands with Palestine and the BDS Movement, which called for DSA-endorsed electeds to pledge to commit to, and that national endorsing bodies abide by, the following tenets of Anti-Zionist politics:
1. Support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement;
2. Refrain from any and all affiliation with…
The Israeli government or Zionist lobby groups that support the occupation and apartheid regime (such as AIPAC, DMFI, Christians United for Israel);
Think tanks that obfuscate the reality of the occupation (such as the Foundation for Defense of Democracies);
Political junkets to Israel (such as those sponsored by J Street);
3. Pledge to oppose legislation that harms Palestinians, such as…
Any official adoption of a redefinition of antisemitism to include opposition to Israel’s policies or legal system, or support for BDS (e.g., IHRA definition of antisemitism);
Legislative and executive efforts to penalize individuals, universities, and entities that boycott Israel (which, in addition to harming Palestinians, violate rights to freedom of speech and expression);
Legislative and executive efforts to send any military or economic resources to Israel;
4. Pledge to support legislation that furthers the cause of Palestinian liberation, such as…
Legislative and executive efforts to end Israeli apartheid and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians and promote Palestinians’ rights to return to and live freely on the land (e.g., H.R. 3103, most recently introduced in the 118th Congress);
Condemnation of Israeli apartheid and colonial practices (e.g., H.Res. 751, introduced in the 117th Congress);
Attempts to end the spending of U.S. tax dollars on Israel and/or sanction Israel until it ceases its practices of apartheid and colonialism (e.g., “Not On Our Dime!”);
These standards were further upheld by the democratically elected National Political Committee, alongside the requirement that AOC regularly participate in the DSA Federal Socialists in Office Committee, with near-universal agreement across political tendencies on the necessity of imposing a conditional endorsement at the national level. If AOC does not agree to meet these standards, the NYC steering committee should consider revocation of local endorsement.