Introduction

On October 7, 2023, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and others launched an armed attack on Israel, which resulted in more than a thousand deaths and the taking of over two hundred hostages. Since then, Israel has bombed and invaded Gaza, killing, at the time of writing, at least 27,000 people, most of them civilians. This situation is ongoing as of this anthology’s press time in February 2024.

In October, too many leftists refused to condemn, legitimized, or even celebrated the October 7 massacre. Today, leftists are organizing around trying to stop the bombing and prevent more Palestinian deaths. But many have also doubled down on their initial support of the slaughter of Israelis. In many cities, key organizers of large pro-Palestine marches are among those who have supported violence against civilians. Instances of antisemitism have sometimes been tolerated in pro-Palestine mobilizations, and extreme antisemitism flourishes in online Left spaces.

Leftists who have dissented have been largely ignored. Some have been bullied into silence while others are afraid to speak out for fear of harassment. Some have been told that the time is not right for raising concerns, or that calling out problems on the Left damages solidarity. Condemnations of violence are met with responses such as “What did y’all think decolonization meant? vibes? papers? essays?” One widely shared Medium post more recently demanded that leftists “stop ‘condemning antisemitism’ amidst Zionist genocide,” arguing that any attention paid to antisemitism, even if it comes from extreme right actors jumping on the Palestine bandwagon, objectively empowers “Zionism.” If October 7 and its aftermath was a crucial test for the global Left, it feels like it might have already failed.

The right, including the right wing of the Zionist movement, as well as anti-Muslim racists everywhere, have capitalized on the failures of the Left, cynically offering a false haven to Jews feeling under attack or to feminists repulsed by those who casually deny sexual violence committed in October. We reject attacks on Palestine activists made in order to defend Israeli nationalism and militarism; we reject the repression and criminalization of protest. But we do think there is an urgent need for a Left critique of where our movements have gone wrong. 

This collection, therefore, brings together short pieces, written in October, November and December of 2023, from leftists—socialists, social democrats, anarchists, Marxists, feminists, anti-fascists, and others—who oppose Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, but also oppose apologetic narratives on the Left about the massacre specifically, and Hamas more generally. It brings together perspectives from different locations on the Left—the writers come from different traditions of leftism, while some no longer feel at home on the Left—and different locations globally. Some of the texts are deeply personal, articulating emotional responses to the Left’s positions, while others are more analytic, seeking to understand the Left’s missteps and chart a way out.

Some of the questions addressed are: What does the Left mean when it uses contested terms such as “resistance,” “occupation,” “settler colonialist,” “genocide,” and “indigenous”? Does it understand Hamas as a reactionary, theocratic, or even fascist force—or is it seen as part of the axis of resistance or even the global Left? How does the Left understand the agency of Palestinians and Muslims? How has the Left ended up in alliances with the far right? Does the western Left reproduce colonial or U.S.-centric models of thought, even as it condemns coloniality? Does it have space for Jews who feel some affinity with Israel, even in a non-statist way? What are the limits of a “national liberation” or “anti-imperialist” framework, and can we envisage a consistently anti-nationalist response to Israel/Palestine? What resources for hope can be found in the Left’s history as it confronts today’s challenges? And what can we do to start to rebuild a genuinely internationalist and anti-fascist Left?

Contact: leftresponds@gmail.com