DEFEAT Amendment B to NPC Recommendation #8: “Make DSA an Anti-Zionist Organization in Principle and Praxis.”

The Steering Committee of DSA North Star unanimously calls for convention delegates to DEFEAT Amendment B  to NPC Recommendation #8. 
Update, the convention agenda has been amended. This topic is back on the agenda for discussion. 
Amendment B would bring back the resolution rejected by the survey of Delegates, to "Make DSA an anti-Zionist Organization" and expel all members found to be "Zionists", which was proposed by adherents of the DSA Boycott Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) Working Group.
 
There are three reasons why the DSA convention must defeat this proposal:


1. SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINIAN STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL SELF-DETERMINATION
A cardinal principle of solidarity is respecting the right of an oppressed people to democratically choose their own representatives. Yet in a resolution which purports to support the Palestinian struggle, there is no mention of the Palestinian BDS National Committee, the broad organization of Palestinian civil society which is the coordinating body for the BDS campaign.  Instead, the resolution proposes that DSA should work with the Palestinian Youth Movement, which is not affiliated with the BDS National Council, and which proclaims, “It Is Time for the Palestinian Leadership to Go.”  

The Palestinian BDS National Committee issued a statement separating itself from the unprincipled campaign the DSA BDS WG conducted against Comrade Bowman and the DSA NPC.

DSA has no business taking sides in the internal affairs of Palestinians.

​2.    BUILDING THE BROADEST, STRONGEST OPPOSITION TO THE OCCUPATION AND ISRAELI STATE VIOLENCE AGAINST PALESTINIANS
Building the broadest and strongest opposition to the Israeli occupation and state violence is a vital solidarity task. Yet in this resolution, the authors attack prominent DSA members, including Congressman Jamaal Bowman, who are among the most vocal public opponents in the United States of the Israeli occupation and state violence. Moreover, they single out by name as a prohibited “Zionist lobby” group a Jewish organization, J Street, which has been the strongest lobby on Capitol Hill against the occupation. 
  
Proposed amendment B would undermine vital coalition work against the occupation and Israeli state violence and must be defeated.
 
3.    TURNING AWAY FROM A SELF-DESTRUCTIVE PATH OF PURGES
The bulk of the resolution lays out an apparatus for conducting purges of DSA members who do not submit to   the DSA BDS Working Group’s view of the Palestinian struggle. It leaves no doubt that its primary targets are prominent elected officials who are DSA members.
 
There is another proposal to amend NPC Recommendation 8, Amendment A, without a mandate to purge DSA members and elected officials. However, amendment A also has the central, overriding flaw of prioritizing the   issue of Palestine over all other issues in the world, by officially making DSA an "Anti-Zionist Organization". DSA    is already an anti-racist and anti-imperialist organization. DSA's existing policy of opposing Israel's occupation by supporting BDS should not be replaced by either of these divisive factional statements, especially Amendment B.
 
If adopted, Amendment B would contribute to the destruction of DSA as a relevant political organization by fomenting attacks on and expulsion of elected DSA members who are respected as progressive leaders.