What we face today on the global left is a fundamental issue, not just with ideology, but with clarity of purpose. There’s a fixation on the destruction of Israel, a vision rooted in an anti-Semitic worldview. It’s crucial to confront this head-on. The struggle for Palestinian liberation, over the past decades, has become entangled in a cynical game between the most reactionary forces in both the Middle East and the West. What they call themselves doesn’t matter. What matters is the future they envision, and what they are really offering.

Advocating for the destruction of Israel, or opposing it without a clear alternative, while aligning with regimes like the Islamic Republic, leads nowhere. Maybe a handful of confused Europeans will cheer from a café, but this kind of rhetoric ultimately hands power to the right-wing. Is the Islamic Republic your idea of an anti-colonial future? If so, it’s a farce.

The left, both in Iran and in Europe, needs to embrace a position that can stand against Israel’s crimes, particularly under Netanyahu and the far-right, but that doesn’t advocate for its annihilation. The recognition of Israel, alongside Palestine, is crucial. This conflict must end, and in Iran, as leftists, we should push for a foreign policy that is non-interventionist, rooted in peace, and rejects any alignment with authoritarianism disguised as resistance.

This is the blind spot of the European left. They have aligned themselves with the most reactionary forces, dreaming of Israel’s destruction, standing shoulder to shoulder with fascism. It’s not only a betrayal of any true anti-colonial stance but also of the very people they claim to defend. In the West, we see how, under the guise of multiculturalism, the rights of many people are trampled under cultural relativism. Some defend these violations by saying, “It’s their culture.” But this is no defense of liberation—this is complicity with oppression, a tool the right-wing weaponizes against non-white communities in Europe under title defending Western values. In such a distorted view of solidarity, there is no alternative being offered.

Our task is to create a different image. Take the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ protests as an example. Not once did you see overt political support for the Israeli government from these protesters. Why? Because even the Israeli right-wing recognized the threat such a progressive, peace-driven movement posed to their ambitions. That’s why protesters in Tel Aviv, without hesitation, equated Netanyahu with Khomeini, signaling that the issue is the right-wing authoritarianism, it’s the occupation. There is a vast difference between rejecting a government and calling for the destruction of an entire society.

The left in Europe, especially, is hoping that Islamic fascism will finish the job for them through war. While Western governments are fully arming Israel, they [the European left] are merely condemning. Just like now, they show images of children killed in Gaza and say Israel is committing crimes, but instead of taking effective steps, they silence critics of political Islam.

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Comments

12 responses to “The Anti-Colonial Dilemma: Israel and Palestinian Liberation”

  1. It is strange that you believe in the debunked and the well-documented-non-viable-two-state solution.

  2. Wessel Bindt

    Framing anti-zionism as anti-semitism is inherently anti-semitic. It equates the plight of the Jewish people with the interests of the Israeli state, and as a consequence implicates Jewish people world-wide in the war crimes and genocide perpetrated by Israel, even though they have nothing whatsoever to do with it. Please stop shoving anti-semitic drivel like this into my inbox. I wish to unsubscribe.

    1. You can be anti-Zionist and still not seek the destruction of Israel. In fact, my argument as an Iranian leftist is about rejecting the racist idea that Iran as a state, and we as Iranians as a society, must fight against Zionism or Israel!

  3. Jay Ginn

    As I understand it, and as everyone on the Palestine marches seems to agree, no one is advocating the ending of Israel. What we all want is a democratic, egalitarian state in the land, with equal rights shared by everyone, irrespective of religion or ancestry. Ie no Apartheid. No discrimination based on Racism. One law for all, homes for all, votes for all etc. Jay

  4. Alfredo Louro

    Israel is a rogue state.They are carrying out a genocide, they could not care less about international law and institutions. They attack anyone trying to bring in food to Palestinians. They attack UN peacekeepers. They attack journalists.They kill children. They declare the UN Secretary General persona non grata. They are doing their best to drag Iran into a major confrontation. And you’re babbling about what the left should and should not say.

  5. Maureen

    I don’t think the so called left realise that Saudi Arabia and UAE are helping Israel’s war efforts and are as keen to rid the region of the Iran backed militias as Israel is.

  6. Rohini Hensman

    Hi, Siyavash, I fully agree with your criticisms of the ‘axis of resistance,’ which, along with their ally – Putin’s Russia – I too made a critique of in my book Indefensible. However, I agree with Wessel Bindt that your framing of anti-Zionism as antisemitism is inherently antisemitic. Zionism was from its inception a genocidal ideology, just as Israel was from its inception a genocidal state. What makes you equate ‘Jews’ with this genocidal ideology and state rather than with millions of anti-Zionist and non-Zionist Jews, from the Jewish Bund to the inspiring Jewish organisations which today are calling for an arms embargo and sanctions against Israel? What is wrong with calling for the end of a fascist, genocidal settler-colonial state which from its inception opposed the establishment of a Palestinian state? If we oppose an Islamic state, shouldn’t we equally oppose a Jewish state (or, indeed, a Christian, Hindu, or Buddhist state)? And there are well-thought-out alternatives to having a fascist Jewish state from the river to the sea, namely one democratic Palestinian state with equal rights for all, including those who are currently Jewish citizens of Israel (not the Occupied Territories). That is what you and all Iranian leftists should be supporting. In my view, promoting the non-violent, anti-racist BDS movement is the best way of moving towards this solution.

    1. Dear Rohini Hensman, thank you for your comment. I’m glad to engage in this discussion, but I’m surprised that you’ve attributed a statement to me that I haven’t made. I have never equated Jews with Israel or Zionism, neither in this writing nor in any other. In fact, I’ve repeatedly criticized both political Islam and Zionism as forms of exclusionary ideologies, and I’ve always acknowledged the important anti-Zionist struggle of Jews, including those within Israel.

      It’s concerning how often people blur the lines between Israel, Zionism, and Jews, which ends up denying the efforts of anti-Zionist Jews fighting against occupation. So please, let’s stick to what I’ve actually said.

      Regarding Israel, 164 countries recognize it, and dismantling such an apartheid state, as was done with apartheid South Africa, requires a global movement across both societal and governmental levels. Expecting Iran, with its internal crises of poverty, rights violations, and war, to lead this effort alone is unrealistic.

      It’s crucial to support the civil movement of the Iranian people in their fight for rights rather than expecting them to be silent under the guise of defending Palestine. The Islamic Republic claims to stand for Palestine, but in reality, it sacrifices Palestinian solidarity for its own geopolitical gains. This is something we must be clear-eyed about.

      You must confront the reality (which you also wrote about in your book) that we, the Iranian left, are censored and oppressed outside of Iran, strangely enough, even among the global left, due to the Islamic regime and the claim of anti-imperialism and fighting Israel. This situation is changing, but I don’t understand what more we need to do to show that we fully stand with Palestine and do not see the Palestinian cause as separate from our own revolution?

      As an Iranian living in Europe, I also see the intense racism and anti-Semitism that make it impossible to advocate for Palestine outside the confines of the Islamic discourse that is palatable to Western Orientalists. That’s why I deeply respect and follow the work of anti-Zionist and anti-war Jews both inside and outside Israel.

      1. Rohini Hensman

        Hi, Siyavash, this is the sentence I was referring to when I said you frame anti-Zionism as antisemitism: ‘There’s a fixation on the destruction of Israel, a vision rooted in an anti-Semitic worldview.’ Aiming at the destruction of Israel, a fascist, genocidal, settler-colonial state, is the very opposite of antisemitism: it is a way of freeing Jews from this association for ever. That is what the One Democratic State Initiative aims to do: https://odsi.co/en/ and it answers some of your questions about the right of Israel to exist as a state versus the right of Jewish Israelis to become citizens of a democratic Palestine. If you feel isolated, perhaps you should contact them and work with them.

        1. Thank you very much for clarifying. That sentence reflects our perspective in Iran regarding the recognition of the existence of a Jewish state and nothing more. This is not about supporting the idea of Zionism. I agree that I need to refine this language further. Thank you for introducing this association.

  7. Behzad

    Israel is a niddle in the eyes of totalitaian regimes in middle east as well the Ilamist left. Israel as the only democracy in middle east, is a bad example. it shows that people in middle east can have democracy. For many years, the left argue that Russian revolution became dictatorship because of the war. But everybody saw that while Israel fights in 5 fronts, not even one political party is banned in Israel. 39 political parties active before oct. 7th and they are all active now from left to right. the so call left, can see the dictatorship by Lenin and his excuse to ban all parties under excuse of war, was all farce. dictators in the middle east have the same issue with Israel. that is the reason, woman life freedom in Iran feel very sypatic towards Israe and nit supporting the eactionary Paletinian movement which from day one established by the slogan to destroy Israel not to build new nation for Palestinian.

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