A Jewish Anti-Zionist Perspective, updated, October 29, 2023
The Jewish Case for Palestine:
Jewish anti-Zionismrevised1029a
By Peter Bohmer, Economics for Everyone
Given at “A Conversation on Gaza-Israel War”, program at the Olympia Center,
October 17, 2023, revised 10/29/2023
I want to share how my background causes me to support the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation of all of Palestine including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Since 1967, I have actively opposed the U.S. military aid and ideological support for Israel, and in solidarity with Palestine.
I mourn the deaths of 9500 people murdered in southern Israel and Gaza over the last three weeks (as of October 29th) over 1400 in Israel, mainly Israeli civilians by Hamas and over 8000 Palestinians in Gaza and growing numbers in the West Bank by the Israeli military, the IDF. Let us take a moment to reflect on this death of human life and the injuries of many more.
My parents and grandparents were Jewish from Central Europe, my parents grew up in Vienna, Austria. The German military and Nazis were welcomed by much of the Austrian population when they invaded in spring 1938. Germany immediately annexed Austria. My dad was 22 when he was incarcerated in Vienna by the Austrian Nazis and frequently beaten. According to Nazi records, he was imprisoned for being “political” and Jewish. He was released after four months. My parents escaped a few days later to France.
They wanted to leave Europe because they expected an imminent Nazi invasion of France. They were denied visas to Australia and Canada because of these countries’ antisemitic immigration policies. After a few rejections, my parents were admitted to the U.S. in June 1939. My grandfather and at least four other relatives were gassed to death in concentration camps.
Antisemitism, as anti-Jewishness, has been prevalent all over Europe and to a lesser but real extent in the U.S. It continues today although less systemic. Many Jewish people as a response have seen their liberation and fair treatment as integrally connected with the liberation of all people, e.g., Karl Marx, Rosa Luxemburg, the many socialist Jews, in the civil rights and anti-apartheid movement and in the Palestine Solidarity movement.
Because of this history of oppression, I grew up believing Jewish people would not oppress others. I was naïve. A majority of Jewish people in Israel and around the world support a Jewish dominated state. A Jewish state where Palestinians are systematically displaced from their land and are treated less than equal within the Israeli state formed in 1948; and less than human on the land Israel seized in 1967: the West Bank Gaza, and East Jerusalem. When you take someone’s land or enslave them, as15 what also happened in the U.S. there is a strong tendency for the dominant group to justify it.
On Facebook recently and for years, I have been accused by individuals of being antisemitic. An earlier version of this talk given on October 17th in Olympia, Washington was censored and removed by Facebook administrators for being inappropriate. I am anti-Zionist which is fundamentally different from being ani-Jewish. The Netanyahu led Israeli government, many leaders of the Republican and Democratic Party and some Jewish groups in the U.S. try to undermine criticisms of Israel and support for Palestinian self-determination and justice by calling criticism of Israel, antisemitic.
Some criticisms of Israel are motivated by hatred of Jews, e.g., white supremacist groups in the US, and we should never ally with them in opposing the Israeli occupation.Zionism means a Jewish State where the laws, educational system and major institutions favor Jewish people, and that Palestinians are second class citizens or non-citizens.
Zionism also means the right of return for anyone around the world who is Jewish while hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and their millions of descendants who were expelled from Israel’s 1948 created borders are not allowed to return. Most of the population of Gaza are Palestinians forced out of Israel in 1948 and their children and grandchildren. A Jewish dominated State where Palestinians have lived for millennia is Jewish supremacy.
Moreover, the Israel government has supported many anti-Jewish and antisemitic governments such as Hungarian leader, Viktor Orban in Hungary, and provided arms and military training to the military dictatorships in Guatemala and Argentina in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Israel was furthering US foreign policy in these actions, one important reason why the U.S. has been such a supporter of Israel. While opposing antisemitism, don’t allow Zionists to define you as antisemitic. My perspective is similar to Jewish Voice for Peace (jewishvoiceforpeace.org). They have been organizing a series pf powerful demonstrations and sit-ins in, mainly in D.C., demanding an immediate cease-fire and against U.S. support for the Israeli war.
It is not an exaggeration to call the Israeli occupation, apartheid; and Gaza an open-air prison that has become a concentration camp. Violence and displacement by Israeli settlers and the IDF of Palestinians have also increased in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as has the blockade of Gaza. Groups such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the U.N. Secretary General, and an Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem use these terms although we seldom find them in the mainstream media or by U.S. politicians.
This does not justify the killing of Israeli civilians in southern Israel but let us understand its causes did not begin with what happened on Saturday, October 7th but with British colonialism and the 1948 Nakba (forced removal of Palestinians). Israeli’s revenge, mass murder, starvation and collective punishment of Palestinians including the16 year blockade of Gaza is a war crime that is wrong and will not bring security to Jews.
All Israeli governments, Labor, Likud, Netanyahu, and the recent mass Israeli social movement that has opposed the Netanyahu government’s increasing authoritarianism towards the Jewish population, are rejectionist. This means they do not accept Palestinians as equals, neither in the past nor present.
Whether it’s one state or a real independent two state solution, it must center economic and political justice and equality for all, especially but not limited to Palestinians. This includes the right of Palestinians to return to inside the 1948 borders that Israel imposed.
Since 1967, the U.S. has unconditionally supported the illegal, immoral occupation of the West Bank, the annexation of East Jerusalem, and made more than a dozen vetoes in the UN security council of resolutions critical of Israel. The U.S. just vetoed a UN resolution calling for a cease fire and negotiations. The U.S. provides $3.8 billion dollars of military aid annually and has committed to continue this through 2029. Biden just proposed an additional $14 billion of military aid to Israel, and it is sure to be passed by Congress.
Rather than supporting a cease fire, negotiations and opposing the massive Israeli bombing and invasion of Gaza, the Biden administration is sending Israel additional weapons and military advisers. The U.S, has sent since October 7th, two aircraft carriers and 2000 marines to the Middle East in support of Israel, and has given Israel carte blanche to invade Gaza and commit the murders of tens of thousands and further ethnic cleansing.
The more we actively support the end of the Israeli occupation and U.S. support for Israel, the more we have the right to criticize the Hamas killings and taking of more than 200 hostages. I differ from the few groups and individuals who justify the October 7th murder of Israeli civilians by the Hamas led attack. They claim because the Palestinian struggle is anti-colonial and for self-determination all actions are justified. The killing of Israeli civilians, especially those and their descendants who fled the Nazi control of Europe is wrong. Many of them were not granted permission to immigrate to Great Britain, the U.S., Canada, Australia and other countries because of antisemitism and had no place else to go but Palestine. This does not justify the forced displacement of Palestinians but makes their situation somewhat different from other settler colonialists.
I am also critical of those who ignore or even worse, support the mass killing by Israel in Gaza, directly by bombing and the ongoing military invasion. But also, indirectly by blocking most food, water, electricity, fuel and medical supplies from getting in. To defend Israel’s increasingly genocidal policies by calling it self-defense is horrendous.
Israel claims a Zionist State is the only security for Jews around the world. Long run security cannot be based on the oppression and domination of another people. People will rise up. Israel is developing formal relations with and recognition by some of the conservative Arab states in the Abraham Accords. That will not further security in the long run, as the population in Egypt, Morocco, the UAE, etc. strongly support the Palestinian struggle.
The Hamas attack of October 7th shows the limits of this immoral strategy of Israel. Even if Israel destroys Hamas, oppression breeds resistance and Israel will eventually be defeated. Moreover, this security state strategy moves Israelis further to the right.
For moral and political reasons, the security of Jewish people and Palestinian people requires the end of the Israeli occupation, the end of U.S. support for Israel, and justice for all Palestinians.
The goal of a Palestinian socialist organization, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, DFLP, is, “a people’s democratic Palestine, where Arabs and Jews live without discrimination, a state without classes and national oppression, which allows Jews and Arabs to develop their national culture together”.
Let us do what we can in the streets, in letters and by lobbying politicians to oppose U.S. military aid to Israel including the massive, proposed increases and for ending U.S. support for Israeli aggression. Expose and challenge US corporations like Boeing and Raytheon that have sent billions of dollars of weapons to Israel, paid for by our taxes. Support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement against Israel.
Educate yourselves, friends, and family about the colonization of Palestine. It is a horrible situation for Palestinians, especially in Gaza and it is our responsibility to do what we can to change U.S. policy so that it is more in line with popular sentiment all over the world including declining U.S. support for the Israeli occupation. A minimal demand is for an immediate cease fire and an end to the siege of Gaza.
I often hear that Palestine-Israel is too complicated to take a position on, or there is no solution because Israelis and Palestinians are equally victims. An insightful response in a talk at Evergreen by Khader Hamide, a leading Palestinian activist who the U.S unsuccessfully tried to deport for 20 years: “Palestinians are losing their land, and their lives and Israelis are losing their humanity.”
A common slogan among Jewish people and Israeli leaders is “Never Again”, which they usually restrict to Jewish people. The holocaust against Jewish people is horrendous but so is the holocaust against African people, Native and indigenous people, and others. Let us mean by “Never Again” for All People. That is both the moral and strategic position.
Si Se Puede!
Thank You!
Global Justice and Participatory Socialism
We live in a world of obscene economic inequality within and between nations. In this essay, I will address what a participatory socialist society[1] would mean for global justice and equity.
A guiding principle is that the quality of life would be the same within and between societies[2].
A goal is global equity, the same quality of life within and between nations (societies), with diversity of cultures, diversity of what is produced, in the kinship sphere, etc.
There is no moral justification for the quality of life being better because one lives in one society rather than another, it is an accident of birth. Global equity should be a principle of groups and individuals advocating in favor of participatory socialism.,,I am including both the text and the video of my talk. https://znetwork.org/zvideo/global-justice-and-participatory-socialism/
[1] I am using the term, participatory socialist. Many of the authors in this text use the term participatory society. The difference is over terminology, not over the vision.
Jewish Anti-Zionism
STOP the War on Gaza and U.S. Support for Israel!
A Jewish anti-Zionist Perspective
By Peter Bohmer, October 17, 2023
Economics for Everyone
I want to share how my background causes me to support the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation of all of Palestine including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Since 1967, I have actively opposed the U.S. military aid and ideological support for Israel, and in solidarity with Palestine.
I mourn the deaths of 4500 people murdered in southern Israel and Gaza over the last 11 days, over 1400 in Israel, mainly Israeli civilians by Hamas and over 3000 in Gaza and growing numbers in the West Bank by the Israeli military, the IDF. Let us take a moment to reflect on this death of human life and the injuries of many more.
My parents and grandparents were Jewish from Central Europe, My parents grew up in Vienna, Austria. The German military and Nazis were welcomed by much of the Austrian population when they invaded in spring 1938. Germany immediately annexed Austria. My dad was 22 when he was incarcerated in Vienna by the Austrian Nazis and frequently beaten. According to Nazi records, he was imprisoned for being “political” and Jewish. He was released after four months. My parents escaped a few days later to France.
They wanted to leave Europe because they expected an imminent Nazi invasion of France. They were denied visas to Australia and Canada because of these countries’ antisemitic immigration policies. After a few rejections, my parents were admitted to the U.S. in June 1939. My grandfather and at least four other relatives were gassed to death in concentration camps.
Antisemitism, as anti-Jewishness, has been prevalent all over Europe and to a lesser but real extent in the U.S. It continues today although less systemic. Many Jewish people as a response have seen their liberation and fair treatment as integrally connected with the liberation of all people, e.g., Karl Marx, Rosa Luxemburg, the many socialist Jews, in the civil rights and anti-apartheid movement and in the Palestine Solidarity movement.
Because of this history of oppression, I grew up believing Jewish people would not oppress others. I was naïve. A majority of Jewish people in Israel and around the world support a Jewish State. Palestinians are systematically displaced from their land and are treated less than equal within the Israeli state formed in 1948; and less than human on the land Israel seized in 1967: the West Bank Gaza, and East Jerusalem. When you take someone’s land or enslave them, like what also happened in the U.S. there is a strong tendency for the dominant group to justify it.
On Facebook recently and for years, I have been accused of being antisemitic, I am anti-Zionist which is fundamentally different. The Netanyahu led Israeli government, many leaders of the Republican and Democratic Party and some Jewish groups in the U.S. try to undermine criticisms of Israel and support for Palestinian self-determination and justice by calling criticism of Israel, antisemitic.
Some criticisms of Israel are motivated by hatred of Jews, e.g., white supremacist groups in the US, and we should never ally with them in opposing the Israeli occupation. Zionism means a Jewish State where the laws, educational system and major institutions favor Jewish people and that Palestinians are second class citizens or non-citizens.
Zionism also means the right of return for anyone around the world who is Jewish while hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and their millions of descendants who were expelled from Israel’s 1948 created borders are not allowed to return. A Jewish dominated State where Palestinians have lived for millennia is Jewish supremacy. Moreover, the Israel government has supported many anti-Jewish and antisemitic governments such as Orban in Hungary, today, and provided arms to the military dictatorships in Guatemala and Argentina in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Israel was furthering US foreign policy in these actions, one important reason why the U.S. has been such a supporter of Israel. While opposing antisemitism, don’t allow Zionists to define you as antisemitic. My perspective is similar to Jewish Voices for Peace, jewishvoicefor peace.org.
It is not an exaggeration to call the Israeli occupation, apartheid; and Gaza an open-air prison becoming a concentration camp. Violence and displacement by Israeli settlers and the IDF against Palestinians has increased in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as has the blockade of Gaza. Groups such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the U.N. Secretary General, and an Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem use these terms although we seldom find them in the mainstream media or by U.S. politicians.
This does not justify the killing of Israeli civilians in southern Israel but let us understand its causes did not begin with what happened on Saturday, October 7th but with British colonialism and the 1948 Nakba (forced removal of Palestinians). Israeli’s revenge, mass murder, starvation and collective punishment of Palestinians including the16 year blockade of Gaza is a war crime that is wrong and will not bring security to Jews.
All Israeli governments, Labor, Likud, Netanyahu, and the current mass Israeli movement that has opposed the Netanyahu’s government increasing authoritarianism towards the Jewish population, are rejectionist. This means they do not accept Palestinians as equals, neither in the past nor present.
Whether it’s one state or a real independent two state solution, it must center economic and political justice and equality for all, especially but not limited to Palestinians.
Since 1967, the U.S. has unconditionally supported the illegal, immoral occupation of the West Bank, the annexation of East Jerusalem, and made more than a dozen vetoes in the UN security council of resolutions critical of Israel. The U.S. provides $3.8 billion dollars of military aid annually and has committed to continue this through 2029.
Rather than supporting negotiations, and opposing the massive bombing of Gaza and an Israeli invasion, the Biden administration is sending Israel additional weapons and two aircraft carriers in support of Israel, and giving Israel carte blanche to invade Gaza and commit the probable murders of tens of thousands and further ethnic cleansing.
The more we actively support the end of the Israeli occupation and U.S. support for Israel, the more we have the right to criticize the Hamas killings and taking of 200 hostages.
Israel claims a Zionist State is the only security for Jews around the world. Long run security cannot be based on the oppression and domination of another people. People will rise up. Israel is developing formal relations with and recognition by some of the conservative Arab states, the Abraham Accords. That will not further security in the long-run, as the population in Egypt, Morocco, the UAE, etc. support the Palestinian struggle.
The Hamas attack of October 7th shows the limits of this immoral strategy of Israel. Even if Israel destroys Hamas, oppression breeds resistance and Israel will eventually be defeated. Moreover, this security state strategy will further move Israelis to the right.
For moral and political reasons, the security of Jewish people and Palestinian people requires the end of the Israeli occupation, the end of U.S. support for Israel, and justice for all Palestinians.
The goal of a Palestinian organization that is socialist, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, DFLP, is “a people’s democratic Palestine, where Arabs and Jews live without discrimination, a state without classes and national oppression, which allows Jews and Arabs to develop their national culture together”.
Let us do what we can in the streets, in letters and lobbying to oppose U.S. military aid to Israel including the recent increase and ending U.S. support for Israeli aggression. Support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement against Israel.
Educate yourselves, friends, and family about the colonization of Palestine. It is a horrible situation for Palestinians, especially in Gaza and it is our responsibility to do what we can to change U.S. policy so that it is more in line with popular sentiment all over the world including declining U.S. support for the Israeli occupation.
I often hear that Palestine-Israel is too complicated to take a position on, or there is no solution because Israelis and Palestinians are equally victims. An insightful response in a talk at Evergreen by Khader Hamide, a leading Palestinian activist who the U.S unsuccessfully tried to deport for 20 years: “Palestinians are losing their land, and their lives and Israelis are losing their humanity.”
A common slogan among Jewish people and Israeli leaders is “Never Again”, which they usually restrict to Jewish people. The holocaust against Jewish people is horrendous but so is the holocaust against African people, Native and indigenous people, and others. Let us mean by “Never Again” for All People. That is both the moral and strategic position.
Thank You!
Dan Leahy
Dan Leahy Presente!
Comrade, Dan Leahy!
by Peter Bohmer,
(Given at Dan’s memorial, April 15, 2023)
Dan Leahy is a close friend, a community leader, committed to furthering labor and other social movements, for global justice and to a world beyond capitalism. I will talk today about Dan’s interconnected roles as an inspiring and effective teacher and organizer.
Both as a teacher and organizer, he demonstrated his respect for working class people, his deep understanding of the current conjuncture, excellent preparation and follow through, sharp political economic analysis and great strategic thinking and interconnected practice. When Dan taught, he was teaching organizing skills and when he organized, he was teaching and sharing his in-depth knowledge of history and social movements.
I had the honor of teaching with Dan at the undergraduate and graduate level at the Evergreen State College five times between the early 1990’s to 2008. He was student centered, always prepared, often sharing charts that succinctly focused on what was most important, e.g. his chart on different labor movements. His mentoring of first-generation college students was exemplary. Dan made a major difference in many, many students lives.
Let me share our teaching together in fall, 1999 through winter, 2000, a 32 credit program called, Political Economy and Social Movements with 75 students. Cynthia Adcock was the third faculty member.
Dan had researched the World Trade Organization (WTO), reading like he always did its key documents. He concluded it was a global bill of rights for transnational corporations, Dan did the same careful reading when we taught a class on NAFTA, six years earlier.
Usually in this academic program, we focused on the U.S. in the fall and the global political economy in the winter. For that year, Dan suggested so that students would understand the significance of the WTO, we switched the order. We studied the global economy including the WTO in the fall, so our students would be prepared to understand and protest the coming WTO ministerial, which was scheduled to begin November, 29th, 1999.
For our students but even more so for organizers against the WTO in the Pacific Northwest, Dan conceptualized and took the lead in organizing a weekend conference on the WTO and its destructive impact, such as further reducing democracy.
He prepared like he always did for this and other conferences, information packed loose-leaf binders for the more than 150 attendees, and the conference like all the ones Dan organized, ran smoothly and the learning was impressive.
We brought our entire class up to Seattle for that historic week at the end of November 1999. Dan had found places for students to stay and shared with the students, detailed plans for maximum learning but also safety. He did this also learning from students.
The handout, Dan wrote included the daily list of protests but also events that supported the WTO and we asked students to go to at least one pro WTO event, which were being organized by the Chamber of Commerce, Microsoft and other big business in Seattle.
On the first day, which was the most successful one in stopping delegates from getting to the hall where they were meeting, I saw students and young people who had been at the Evergreen teach-in, a month earlier, argue with arrogant EU delegates who assumed the ignorance of young protesters. They were wrong, This reminded me of Dan’s wisdom and strategic thinking in organizing the teach-in. We blocked their entrance to WTO which eventually was cancelled.
Many of us were arrested, tear-gassed and clubbed and Dan supported us with his continuing presence and financially. Dan is very generous.
So that participants in that intense week of actions could reflect and debrief on what was has been called the Battle in Seattle and made news around the world, Dan rented and filled the Capitol theater the following Friday. The speakers were organizers and participants in these significant actions, which significantly raised awareness of neoliberalism and the WTO. Seattle became known around the world for our direct action against the WTO.
To preserve the historical record, which is important to Dan, he hired Stephanie Guilloud, to collect and edit and publish, Voices from the WTO, reflections by participants in this powerful action. (added after talk)
This is just one important example of Dan’s thinking through the many steps to make this a successful action, dotting all of the i’s and crossing the t’s.
Dan has been a truly good friend for 35 years. I miss him. I have learned so much from Dan. So have many others. Let us honor Dan Leahy by organizing at a local, national and global level for a socialist world.
Dan Leahy Presente!
P.S.. For more about Dan’s life, see http://danleahy.org
In Memory of Rachel Corrie
My End of Year Letter, 2022
I hope 2023 brings you joy and fulfillment and there is progress towards justice and liberation in the U.S. and globally. And that fascist, racist and authoritarian organizations and governments suffer some serious defeats.
About my 2022!
Although I had a mild case of Covid in July, I was mainly healthy and feel so as I approach 2023. Many friends, some very close died in 2022. I attended memorials for Alan Parker at the Squaxin Tribal Center, near Shelton, and Gary Owens at the Philippino Cultural Center in Seattle. I plan to attend in the next few months, the memorials of two close friends, Jeff Perry and Dan Leahy. They have both, significantly contributed to the struggles for racial and economic justice. They live on in the many people they touched and influenced. I miss them. With these deaths, I am reminded of our own mortality and the need to focus our energy on what is important and not trivialities. 2022 was my first full year of retirement. I miss teaching, especially the social interaction with students and faculty but am no longer interested in future full-time teaching….
Rest in Power, Dan Leahy
Dan Leahy, a great human being, an inspiring and effective organizer, a builder of left institutions, and a great teacher, inside and outside of the classroom died of pancreatic cancer, December 10, 2022. Dan was also a community and neighborhood organizer, an excellent researcher of the power elite, a wonderful father, husband and friend.
With Dan’s advice and consultation, two his closest friends, Melissa Roberts and Stephanie Guilloud, created a website about his life, his organizing and relevant lessons for those of us committed to creating a just world, danleahy.org. I strongly recommend you check it out, whether you knew Dan or not.
Just one example of Dan’s effectiveness was the leading role he played in stopping the operation of two nuclear power plants in the early 1980’s, near Olympia, where we both live. They still stand there, almost fully constructed but never producing nuclear power.
I had the honor of teaching with Dan at the undergraduate and graduate level at the Evergreen State College five times. He was student centered, always prepared, often sharing charts that synthesized Dan’s insightful political economic analysis and his strategic insights. Many of these informative charts are on his website. His mentoring of first-generation college students was exemplary. He made a major difference in many, many students lives.
I also observed Dan giving talks, classes and organizing workshops and conferences, when teaching groups of workers. He always challenged these workers in a respectful manner to understand more deeply the political economic context of their working conditions and the society in which they lived. He presented in an accessible manner lessons from history for these workers and students to work collectively to build and confront power and to further economic and social justice. He also created spaces for workers to share experiences and learn from each other.
Besides being a good friend, I have learned so much from Dan. So have many others.
Let us honor Dan Leahy by organizing at a local, national and global level for a non-capitalist world.
Dan Leahy Presente!
The Case for a Universal Basic Income
(Based on my presentation at Global Forum for Democratizing Work, October 6, 2021)
Howard Zinn Presente!
Talk given at Conference in Pekarna, Slovenia
by Peter Bohmer, November 25, 2022
My Reflection on Howard Zinn