America’s largest socialist organization overwhelmingly voted to support the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement at its biannual convention in Chicago on Saturday.
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) conveniently held its convention on the Jewish Sabbath, when no observant Jews would be able to appear or protest.
BDS aims at crippling Israel’s economy as political protest against the “oppressive” state. It has been very successful in destroying employment opportunities for thousands of Palestinians who worked for Israeli companies that BDS targeted.
After the vote, which passed by 90 percent, was met with wild applause, the crowd of DSA attendees began to chant a popular genocidal slogan of the pro-Palestinian movement, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA PALESTINE WILL BE FREE @DemSocialists pic.twitter.com/F7IBFPHTLr
— the mao kid ???? (@kid_mao) August 5, 2017
The slogan calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, where Israel currently sits, suggesting that the Jewish state will vanish from the map and be replaced entirely by “Palestine.” It is commonly heard at left-wing anti-Israel campus protests.
“Democratic Socialists of America declares itself in solidarity with Palestinian civil society’s nonviolent struggle against apartheid, colonialism, military occupation and for equality, human rights, and self-determination,” reads the BDS motion.
What a Palestinian “nonviolent struggle” might look like is not made quite clear by the DSA.
The DSA claims to be the largest socialist organization in the US, with 25,000 dues-paying members. As the organization admits that America is “unlikely to see an immediate end to capitalism tomorrow”, it does its best to fight the capitalist system by working to achieve “equitable distribution of resources…a healthy environment…gender and racial equality, and non-oppressive relationships”, among other goals.
Perhaps the DSA is unaware that wiping an entire country and people off the map, a vision they seem particularly excited about, could be defined by some as an “oppressive” move.
