ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine) 24.03.2026
The Left Part in Lower Saxony has published a letter on Zionism[1]. While it calls out Israel’s actions as genocide, it suffers from serious weakness. Namely it only criticizes Political and/or ethno-nationalist Zionism, as if there is a possibility of another, more peaceful, version of Zionism! Zionism is a political ideology and always was.
What Zabotinsky wrote very clearly in the “Iron Wall”, the members of the Left Party in Germany have a problem understanding:
“There can be no voluntary agreement between ourselves and the Palestine
Arabs. Not now, nor in the prospective future. I say this with such conviction, not
because I want to hurt the moderate Zionists. I do not believe that they will be hurt.
Except for those who were born blind, they realised long ago that it is utterly
impossible to obtain the voluntary consent of the Palestine Arabs for converting
“Palestine” from an Arab country into a country with a Jewish majority.
My readers have a general idea of the history of colonisation in other
countries. I suggest that they consider all the precedents with which they are
acquainted, and see whether there is one solitary instance of any colonisation being carried on with the consent of the native population. There is no such precedent. The native populations, civilised or uncivilised, have always stubbornly resisted the colonists, irrespective of whether they were civilised or savage” [1]
Zionism has never had an “emancipatory character” – it was reactionary from day one, both towards the Palestinians and towards the Jews in Eastern Europe(Zionist were allowed to operate relatively free in Tsarist Russia, and also in Nazi Germany until 1939), and resting on the support of Imperial powers.
This letter also suffers from the “both side-ism” issue – did the White Afrikaans have a right to form their own oppressive society? I hope the predecessors of the Links Party at least had a better position in South Africa. Furthermore, the 2017 of Hamas removes any antisemitic language.
However, the leadership response no doubt is even worse, trying to shut down the debate and saying that “‘Zionist’ should not be used as an insult”! While we oppose any motions to expel or shut down the members who signed the petition, we cannot join the petition as it has significant shortcomings. The petition has done its job – it has exposed the rottenness of the leadership of the Linke party.
Down with the rotten Zionist leadership of the Linke Party!
[1] https://en.jabotinsky.org/media/9747/the-iron-wall.pdf
[2] https://www.dielinke-nds.de/fileadmin/user_upload/A01_geaendert.pdf
[3] https://www.die-linke.de/start/presse/detail/news/debatte-um-nahost-verlangt-besondere-verantwortung
[4] https://www.timesofisrael.com/german-antisemitism-commissioner-quits-far%E2%80%91left-party-over-anti-israel-resolution/