Statement on Israel by the Board of Directors of the Workers Circle

2019

The Workers Circle has always had two defining premises that inform our positions about Israel. The first is that we are in favor of a two-state solution and the second is that equality and democracy must be the basis for the existence of both states. This view is reflected in Israel’s 1948 founding document which stated that Israel would “ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.” Further it guaranteed “freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture.”

We vehemently reject the idea that if you express legitimate opposition to Israeli government policies, you are an anti-Semite. We recognize that there are occasions when opposition to Israeli policies and Zionism crosses the line into anti-Semitism. When that happens, we have and will continue to call out those statements for what they are. Broad resistance to the growth of inequality and oppression in Israel is now needed. This form of opposition is an overwhelmingly healthy development. That right-wing ideologues are branding it as anti-Semitic only serves as a means for them to avoid engaging in debate over this indefensible policy.

The Workers Circle does not support the Boycott Divest Sanction (“BDS”) movement. However, we reject the conflation of BDS’s anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.