Groucho Marxism

The UK’s new left-wing party, provisionally called ‘Your Party’, still hasn’t officially launched yet, but already cracks are beginning to show. The bone of contention appears to be the question of the new party’s stance on Zionism. The dispute seems to have been sparked by Zara Sultana’s recent Twitter proclamation that she is anti-Zionist. This has led people to ask Jeremy Corbyn whether he is anti-Zionist too, to which he has so far failed to give a straight answer (in true politicians’ style). Many have concluded that his lack of a straight answer betrays that he is sympathetic to Zionism, or at least that the people advising him are. Some have even gone so far to argue that Corbyn is a Zionist himself. The issue has divided those supporting the party into two camps.

In one camp (the Corbyn camp) are those who believe that whether the new party calls itself anti-Zionist or not is irrelevant. These people argue that the important thing is that the new party stands up for the Palestinian people, regardless of the party’s explicit stance on Zionism. For these people, arguing about whether Corbyn is a Zionist or not is at best pointless and at worst risks derailing the project before it has even started. In the other camp (the Sultana camp) are those who believe it is crucial that the new party declares itself to be anti-Zionist from the outset. These people argue that it is not possible to stand up for Palestinians without taking an explicitly anti-Zionist stance. For these people, failure to take such a stance means that the party is doomed to repeat mistakes of the past, and will therefore fail.

So who is right? In order to answer this question, we first need to define what we mean by ‘Zionism’. Contrary to what some might say, this term is actually quite easy to define. Zionism is the nationalist movement that emerged in late 19th-century Europe to establish and support a Jewish homeland through the colonization of Palestine. The stated aim of Zionism is to create a Jewish state in the Levant with as much land, as many Jews, and as few Palestinian Arabs as possible. Straight away we can see the problem with the idea that it is possible to stand up for the Palestinian people without taking an explicitly anti-Zionist stance: Zionism as a concept is fundamentally antithetical to the rights of Palestinians.

Those in the Corbyn camp would probably argue that Corbyn is anti-Zionist but doesn’t want to state that explicitly, as making such statements has got him into trouble in the past. In particular, he may be wary of once again being smeared as an antisemite; and on a personal level, I can totally understand that. The psychological abuse this man has had to endure since he became leader of the Labour party nine years ago has been off the charts. Imagine devoting your entire life to fighting racism, only to then become the target of a vicious and coordinated smear campaign as a result of which most of the country now thinks you are racist! When put in that way, it’s amazing he’s still participating in British politics at all, and the fact that he is testament to his resilience and devotion to the cause.

However, if that is the case, it suggests Corbyn and his supporters have failed to learn the lessons of the past nine years. The problem wasn’t that Corbyn was perceived as anti-Zionist; on the contrary, the problem was that under his leadership, Labour conceded too much ground to the Zionist lobby. This was exactly the point that Chris Williamson made in his speech at the Labour Party Conference, for which he was accused of antisemitism and thrown out of the party. There was nothing remotely antisemitic in what Williamson said – in fact the thrust of it was that he was proud to be a member of a party that had done more than any other to combat racism. His removal from the party was done solely to placate the Zionist lobby. Needless to say, it didn’t work, and the smear campaign simply continued as before.

What about the claim that Corbyn is himself a Zionist? This claim seems absurd at first given Corbyn’s support for the Palestinian cause, but there is some evidence behind it. First, as Labour leader, he opposed any boycott of Israeli goods. Second, in 2018, he declared support for a two-state solution, which is incompatible with giving Palestinians the right to return to their homes. Third, in an article in The Guardian in August 2018, he wrote that it was it was wrong to say that Zionism is racism, despite the fact that it is, by definition, a racist ideology. Fourth, he drove acceptance of the Zionist IHRA definition of antisemitism, which conflates antisemitism with anti-Zionism, through the Labour Party. Taking all of this into account, the claim that Corbyn is a Zionist starts to seem a lot more plausible.

It will probably be clear from the above that I sit squarely in the Sultana camp on this issue. Zionism is a poisonous, supremacist ideology which must be opposed. Appeasement of the Zionist lobby should not be countenanced – firstly on principle, and secondly because it has been proven not to work. In my view, taking a firmly anti-Zionist stance is imperative to making the new left party a success. We must learn the lessons of the past and stand up to Zionism. At the end of the day, those who belong to the Zionist lobby are bullies – and aren’t we always told we should stand up to bullies?