North Star Calls for the Defeat of Anti -Zionist Resolution

Defeat Member-Submitted Resolution # 12:
“Make DSA an Anti-Zionist Organization in Principle and Praxis”
 
The Steering Committee of DSA North Star calls for convention delegates to defeat Member-Submitted Resolution # 12, which has been submitted by adherents of the DSA Boycott Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) Working Group. There are three reasons why the DSA convention must defeat this resolution.
 
1. SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINIAN STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL SELF-DETERMINATION
The first and 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.”  
 https://twitter.com/BDSmovement/status/1466490844475797506
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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
There is no solidarity task more important than building the broadest and strongest opposition to the occupation and Israeli state violence. Yet in this resolution, the authors attack prominent DSA members, including Congressman Jamaal Bowman, who are among the most vocal public opponents of the Israeli occupation and state violence in the United States. Moreover, they single out by name as a prohibited “Zionist lobby” group a Jewish organization, J Street, which has been the strongest lobby against the occupation on Capitol Hill.
 
It was precisely this counter-productive use of purist litmus tests that led the Palestinian BDS National Committee to issue a statement separating itself from the unprincipled campaign the DSA BDS WG conducted against Comrade Bowman and the DSA NPC.
 
 The resolution undermines 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 what can only be described as 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 a proposed amendment to the primary resolution.  However this proposed amendment cannot completely fix a resolution that has these central, overriding flaws. The basic resolution needs to be entirely reconceived and rewritten.
 
If adopted, this resolution would contribute to the destruction of DSA as a relevant political organization by fomenting attacks and expulsion of elected DSA members who are respected as progressive leaders.