Zionists need to show how they fit into progressive agendas

Student politics reveal tensions between the Australian Left and Jews, but PHILIP MENDES argues the relationship is not irreconcilable.

During 2022, three student unions from leading universities – University of Melbourne, Australian National University and University of Sydney – have passed extreme pro-BDS, anti-Israel motions.

The inflammatory and binary language (for example, all Israelis and Zionists are evil oppressors and conversely all Palestinians are innocent victims of oppression) typically used in these motions can be highly intimidating and alarming to Jewish students, but do they matter?

On the one hand, student unions have little real power or influence, and most student politicians quickly disappear from the public eye once they graduate. But there is no doubt that the BDS movement targets students because they are more likely to be progressive in their politics and sympathise with the perceived underdog. This targeting is strategic because university students are likely to form the next generation of opinion leaders in significant professions, plus the media, business and politics.

It seems, however, that the demographic of radical student politics is changing. For many decades dating back to the mid-1970s, small radical Left (often Marxist-influenced) groups led anti-Israel campaigns. Those groups are still active, but in many cases, are now aligned with students from Arab and North African backgrounds. Some of the latter cohort are informed by Islamist perspectives, and have no inhibitions in expressing racist and religious-based bigotry towards Jews as well as political anti-Zionist perspectives. Anti-Zionism and antisemitism are increasingly converging.

Another influential factor is that Jewish student politics has shifted in recent decades towards greater engagement with progressive movements. Most Jewish students used to either be politically non-committed or alternatively lean to political conservatism, and largely ignored the anti-Israel views expressed by some radical Left groups. But today, many younger Jews are attracted to progressive causes such as climate change, and support for the rights of First Nation Australians and refugees. Jewish millennials want to actively integrate their Jewish values (i.e. their commitment to concepts such as tzedakah and tikkun olam) and their broader social justice activities. But they often hit a roadblock because some progressive groups, informed by intersectionality and so-called hierarchies of oppression, explicitly exclude "Zionists" from their ranks.

So, what is to be done? Firstly, young progressive Jews need to keep talking with political progressives. Of course, it is hard to dialogue with BDS zealots who are only interested in seeing one side of the conflict, and who believe that the national and human rights of Palestinians can only be enabled by eroding the same rights for Israelis. But it is important to remember that in Australia pro-BDS students and academics are a very small minority based mainly in specific university faculties. Most people on campus do not hold hardline anti-Israel views. To be sure, political doors in some campuses may feel shut to Jewish students, but I am confident that other political doors can be opened.

Australians as a whole tend to reject extremism. There will always be fair-minded potential allies in academia and student associations who want to hear both sides of the equation, and at the very least will act to ensure that both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel viewpoints are respectfully heard.

Secondly, Jews need to present a firm two state alternative to the BDS viewpoint that recognises the legitimate national rights of both peoples. The two states for two peoples perspective uses terms and language that are the antithesis of the BDS discourse: no to both West Bank settlements and a coerced return of 1948 Palestinian refugees to Green Line Israel; mutual compromise versus ethnocentrism; supporting moderates and opposing extremists on both sides; advancing dialogue between Jews and Arabs to develop strategies for peace and reconciliation; and achieving a win-win outcome based on achieving partial justice for both sides.

Thirdly, the overtly discriminatory language and assumptions underlying the BDS anti-Zionist agenda needs to be exposed. Most progressives do not essentialise or demonise whole nations. They do not argue that all Australians are racists or all Iranians are misogynists. Rather, they provide nuanced assessments that carefully distinguish between the actions of specific governments or political leaders, and the beliefs and behaviour of the ordinary population.

Similarly, it is not unreasonable for supporters of Palestinians to criticise specific actions of Israeli governments that harm Palestinians even if some Jews may feel these criticisms are unbalanced. But it is unreasonable and indeed discriminatory to argue that all Israeli Jewish academics or artists or tennis players (and often all Zionists around the world) are aligned with and collectively responsible for these actions.

Finally, there is an urgent need to educate grassroots progressive groups about the real meaning, history and politics of Zionism. Most Jews see Zionism as a national liberation movement that was led by oppressed refugees from both Europe and Arab world, and certainly not as a tool of a western colonialist conspiracy, which is a view held in some progressive circles. We need to make that case to younger generations who have never heard of Ben Gurion or Weizmann, let alone Borochov. We also need to remind progressives of the overwhelmingly collectivist roots of the State of Israel as reflected in the co-operative institutions – the kibbutzim, moshavim and Histadrut - that dominated the state of Israel for its first three decades.

Illustration: Avi Katz