Why we should talk about Zionism

Do I think it’s ok to ambush Jeremy Corbyn in the street when he was about to speak at a pro-Palestine rally to ask if he is anti-Zionist? No, I don’t.

It was too reminiscent of the many times the media did the same when he was Labour leader; the many times they waited for him to come out of his home to shout leading questions at him. But this time the questions came from a Palestinian rights activist on the left.

Do I think the question is irrelevant and that Corbyn shouldn’t be asked it by those on the left who suspect he isn’t or by those who just want him to clarify his position? Especially after his response when asked about Zarah Sultana’s clear statement that she is anti Zionist, when he was tetchy and evasive (see 11 minutes in to the video interview).

No, I don’t think it’s irrelevant. But it does matter how the debate over it is handled. And shouting a question at him is hardly a debate.

There are, no doubt, real arguments inside the inner and secret machinations of the leadership of Your Party. Though whether they are about politics or about presentation and tactics or all of these isn’t really clear, despite Sultana’s statement. And how much is about control over the future party is anyone’s guess.

But Zionism is too important to be the focus of a factional row on twitter where Corbyn’s vague answer is used as proof by one side that there is a serious divide between him and Sultana, with Zionism at its core, and by some of those who are his firmest supporters claiming anyone who is critical of his response is out to wreck the proto-party.

The current row on social media between those condemning his refusal to say he is an anti-Zionist and those who support his not doing so highlights some harsh home truths. First, that the current level of political debate within Your Party supporters is not particularly high. This is not surprising, perhaps, when there isn’t a party yet and when the pronouncements on policy from its inner sanctums are bland and general (which is why Sultana’s comments on anti-Zionism and on trans issue have been refreshing).

But what it also reveals is that many on the left, including some of Corbyn’s advisors who were there during his Labour leadership, don’t seem to have learnt any lessons from that time. There are many of us who have signed up to Your Party who have learnt those lessons and from bitter experience. As an anti-Zionist Jewish Labour member during that period I have never experienced anything as toxic. Everyone, Jews and non-Jews, who knew the antisemitism claims were lies, watched as every time the party conceded ground to the smears it made it worse.

Of course the concerted attacks on Corbyn from his right-wing and Zionist organisations inside and outside the party must have been devastating to Corbyn, and on one of the rare occasions where Corbyn did fight back – on the IHRA – he was finally defeated by the NEC and by his own close advisors. But that doesn’t justify the leadership’s response to the smears being weak and politically inept and that it led to many members being expelled for spurious reasons.

Those who now say that Your Party, and Corbyn in particular, should not give ammunition to its many enemies by making statements about the new party being anti-Zionist (or even mentioning Zionism at all) are repeating the mistakes of the Corbyn era over the antisemitism smears – by refusing to state a clear position and to explain what it means by Zionism is to concede to those who will smear the party regardless, with false claims about anti-Zionism being antisemitism.

There are millions of people now in the UK who have watched in horror a genocide happening daily on their screens and many thousands who protest against it month after month. There is no more important time to be clear about why it’s happening.

Why then has Corbyn refused to say he’s an anti-Zionist, and in interviews sidestepped the issue by repeating that he is against all racism? I expect he is once again being advised to steer clear of an issue that could misfire, and by his (understandable) caution in starting the antisemitism smear saga again. But that isn’t perhaps the whole story.

Corbyn has all his political life campaigned for Palestinian rights and against the horrors of 77 years of oppression and occupation. No-one can deny that. But more important than Corbyn repeating Sultana’s statement is to question what his position now is on Zionism. When the majority of the party membership was on his side about Palestine he said in his keynote speech at the 2018 annual Labour Party conference that if elected, his government would immediately recognise the Palestinian State as a way of supporting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But this doesn’t recognise the settler-colonial nature of Zionism and its need from its conception to expand ^I: the previous rounds of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians were never likely to succeed. Even more so now the two-state ‘solution’ is a fig leaf for hard-line Zionists like Labour Friends of Israel to hide behind. It is stated by the UK and the EU regardless of Netanyahu’s government position and of the reality on the ground of continued ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and the West Bank. The formula repeated by Starmer and Lammy is a cover for their continued support for Israel.

If the fallacy of the two-state solution wasn’t obvious in 2018 surely it must be now.

What else? Jeremy Corbyn does support the Palestinian right to return but he hasn’t explained how that can be a reality whilst a Jewish state exists. He has never been in favour of BDS (the campaign for Boycott, Disinvestment, Sanctions against Israel). In this Guardian article from 2018 he said that “in the 1970s some on the left mistakenly argued that “Zionism is racism”. That was wrong.” That is not only untrue it doesn’t fit well with what he has said recently when pressed on anti-Zionism that he has always been anti racist?

I have no doubt that once Your Party is formed it will see as a priority exposing the reality of genocide and ethnic cleansing, of mass starvation and the hypocrisy of Starmer and Lammy’s weasel words of regret at the latest war crime whilst continuing to provide arms and intelligence and opposing sanctions.

If this new party, however, is to match up to its aspirations on openness and democracy (which its development so far has not done) there are going to be many issues that are fiercely contested and anti-Zionism will be one of them. The Zionism issue shouldn’t be reduced to simple loyalty tests. If the members of Your Party decide it has to be an openly anti-Zionist party (which would be extremely significant for a mass party) complex and divisive questions still remain – how can, for example, decolonisation be achieved; what are the implications for Jewish Israelis of the Palestinian right to return to a secular de-Zionised state and how can the voice of Palestinians be centred?

These are surely critical issues that Your Party and its leadership can’t avoid.

The question of Zionism isn’t a marginal issue for the new party. Whatever Corbyn believes or says, it is a crucial test of the direction of the party’s policies on imperialism and settler-colonialism.

To go back to my first question: Corbyn’s seeming side-stepping of stating any position on anti-Zionism can’t last if he is elected leader or co-leader of Your Party. He needs to be challenged on this – though not by aggressive ambushes at rallies and not by simple purity tests.

And the left shouldn’t wait for the party’s launch to progress that debate – it is essential that it is happening now in local groups and national rallies. Zarah Sultana was right to kick off that debate.

1. Israel’s Agenda. Ethnic Cleansing & Regional Hegemony  Mosche Machover’s introduction to a TAS meeting on Zionism and Palestine[↩]