To Truly Support Palestine, We Must Break Free from Liberal Identity Politics and Build Working-Class Solidarity
Introduction
Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza has led to a resurgence of pro-Palestine activism in the United States, largely centered around college campuses. The question of how to effectively mobilize support for Palestine from within the U.S. is a crucial one. At the center of this question lies the issue of how to challenge the seemingly unbreakable U.S. support for Israel. The dominant approach within the American Left is to align the Palestinian cause with the liberal side of the political divide, attempting to capitalize on the polarization that is growing across American society. However, the Left’s strategy of modeling the Palestinian struggle on the examples of liberal social causes such as racial justice, indigenous rights, and Ukrainian nationalism is a recipe for disaster. Instead, we must root our efforts in a broader, class-based analysis. To succeed, the Palestine Solidarity Movement needs to center itself on the struggles of the American working class and its growing dissatisfaction with U.S. imperialism.
The Strategy of the American Left: A Dead End
Since the 1960s, the American Left has been dominated by what has been called the “New Left” — a formation that emerged in contrast to the class-based politics of Marxism. The New Left, inspired by Critical Theorists like Herbert Marcuse, abandoned socialism in favor of divisive cultural issues. The New Left instead sought to build coalitions around identity-based grievances, centering the youth, intellectuals, and minority groups, while moving away from the working class as the central revolutionary agent.
The Palestinian Solidarity Movement in the U.S. today has largely fallen into this ideological trap. Left activists attempt to frame the Palestinian struggle in terms of liberal discourses around white supremacy and settler-colonialism, while eschewing broad class-based organizing. Left activists believe that they can win support for Palestine by analogizing the Palestinian struggle to that of African Americans, Native Americans, and Ukrainians, which will allow them to build alliances with liberal social causes such as Black Lives Matter (BLM), Landback, and Ukrainian nationalism.
While there may appear to be similarities between these groups, the American Left’s attempt to address the plight of the Palestinians through analogizing them to other groups runs the risk of misdiagnosing the problem. By focusing on identity and cultural grievances, the Left overlooks the material reality of Zionism as a tool of Western imperialism that benefits the capitalist class at the expense of the American people. U.S. support for Israel is not just about white supremacy or settler-colonialism per se — it’s about maintaining the geopolitical interests of American capital in the Middle East. Therefore, the solution to Zionism lies in building broad working-class solidarity against imperialism, not in mimicking the grievance-based identity politics of liberalism.
The Flawed Models of Liberal Social Movements
The attempt to draw parallels between the Palestinian struggle and that of African-Americans, Native-Americans, and Ukrainian nationalists is politically misguided for two reasons. First, this approach relies on building arguments by analogy, which has the tendenacy to obscure differences between cases. This leaves us unable to understand the unique reality of Palestine on its own terms. Second, drawing parallels between Palestine and other liberal identity groups invites opportunities for Zionist co-optation.
Racial Justice
The Left views the struggle of black people in the United States as akin to Palestinians under Israeli occupation, framing the issue as one of white supremacy and racism. One example of this is Jewish Voice for Peace’s “Deadly Exchange” campaign, which highlights the relationship between U.S. and Israeli law enforcement, comparing police violence against blacks in the U.S. to that of Palestinians under military occupation in the West Bank. Although the black urban underclass in the U.S. faces significant challenges with police brutality and mass incarceration, this analogy falls apart upon scrutiny. Unlike the Palestinians, black people in the U.S. are not under military occupation, nor are they denied citizenship. Following the victories of the Civil Rights Movement, black people no longer suffer from legal segregation. Although mass incarceration disproportionately impacts black people, it also targets the poor urban underclass of all races. Moreover, the Left’s exclusive focus on racial disparities has produced no meaningful change in policing or economic conditions for black workers. The only real victories of liberal social movements like BLM have been to increase diverse representation in the media and to secure the 2020 election for Joe Biden (who ironically was one of the key architects of mass incarceration).
The focus on anti-racism also gives Zionists the opportunity to frame Israeli Jews as perpetual victims of anti-Semitic discrimination, a narrative that mirrors liberal identity politics. This discourse situates Jews as a “marginalized group” in need of protection – a rhetorical strategy designed to deflect attention from Israeli apartheid. Zionists also attempt to promote black political figures to the Israeli bandwagon. By positioning Israeli “suffering” as analogous to the historical and ongoing discrimination against black people, Zionists co-opt the language of anti-racism to deflect criticisms of Israeli policies toward Palestinians.
Indigenous Rights
Similarly, the Left’s analogy between Native Americans and Palestinians is fraught with difficulty. While historical colonialism did devastate the indigenous peoples of the Americas, the popular discourse on the Left today of “settler-colonialism” implies that all non-Indigenous Americans are “settlers” living on stolen land that must be returned to Native peoples. By this logic, the American working class has no revolutionary potential, and the U.S. itself must be Balkanized – broken up into hundreds of small tribal nations so that land can be given back to the original inhabitants before European colonization. Although it is truly justifiable to support self-determination for Indigenous people, the notion that American workers are “settlers” must be rejected, and framing them as such only alienates the very people who should be mobilized to fight U.S. imperialism.
Moreover, the language of “settler-colonialism” and “Landback” are hardly a threat to the capitalist class. The Landback movement is funded by companies like Amazon – a global capitalist enterprise — which hardly makes it a vehicle for true anti-imperialism. And the liberal argument for Indigenous rights ironically strengthens Israeli propaganda by allowing Zionists to portray Jews as an indigenous people "returning" to their ancestral homeland. In this narrative, the creation of Israel was itself a form of "Landback" — a reclamation of Jewish land after 2,000 years of displacement. This allows Zionists to co-opt the language of “settler-colonialism,” creating a misleading narrative that aligns with liberal discourses around Indigenous rights and obscures the reality of Israeli apartheid.
Ukrainian Nationalism
The most egregious problem, however, is the Left’s attempt to draw parallels between Palestine and Ukraine. Leftists equate Palestinian resistance with Ukrainian nationalism, portraying Israel as analogous to Russia. According to this argument, Russia is an occupying force controlling Ukraine in much the same manner as Israel occupies Palestine. This analysis is not only wrong, but it is a gift to imperialist propaganda. NATO expansion into Ukraine, just like Israeli expansion, is driven by Western imperialism. In 2014, the U.S. orchestrated a coup to overthrow the Ukrainian government and install a Western-friendly puppet regime, creating a foothold for the U.S. on Russia’s doorstep. Since then, the U.S. has funneled weapons into Ukraine, often arming extremist and neo-Nazi groups. The West’s goal is to use Ukraine as a proxy to destabilize Russia, overthrow President Vladimir Putin, and exploit the country's vast natural resources. In this context, Russia cannot be viewed as an occupier but rather as a nation defending itself against Western imperialist encroachment.
Additionally, Russia stands out on the world stage as one of the few powerful states supporting anti-imperialist struggles globally, particularly in the Middle East. Russia has consistently backed Syria’s legitimate government against U.S.-backed efforts to topple it. Russia has also stood by Iran, opposing Washington's crippling sanctions that aim to economically isolate the country. This support extends to Palestine, where Russia has historically opposed Israel’s occupation and expressed support for Palestinian self-determination. Russia’s support for these anti-imperialist struggles is crucial because it represents a counterforce to the unipolar dominance of the U.S. By aligning with Syria, Iran, and other anti-imperialist countries, Russia challenges the West’s interventionist policies and provides tangible support to those resisting U.S. hegemony in the Middle East. For Palestinian resistance, this support signals a significant ally who is willing to stand up to U.S. policies and defend sovereignty and self-determination across the region.
Therefore, by attempting to align the Palestine Solidarity Movement with Ukraine, the American Left is inadvertently alienating a powerful ally — Russia — capable of opposing U.S. imperialism on a global scale. Instead of viewing Russia as an occupier, the Left should recognize it as a key supporter of anti-imperialist and national liberation struggles that align with Palestinian resistance to Zionist colonization. By supporting Ukraine, the American Left not only tacitly endorses the U.S. Empire but also undercuts the potential for a stronger, globally connected anti-imperialist front, one that could stand in solidarity with Palestine and other countries struggling against Western intervention.
Class Struggle, Not Identity Politics
If the Palestine movement in the U.S. continues to tie itself to these failed strategies, it will remain marginalized and ineffective. The polarization of American society into liberal and conservative camps, amplified by identity politics, serves only to divide the working class and maintain corporate domination. The ruling elite — both Democrat and Republican — benefit from this division, as it keeps the masses distracted from the real issues of class and imperialism.
The solution lies in embracing a Marxist analysis of Zionism. The U.S. backing of Israel cannot be understood by the liberal frameworks of white supremacy or settler-colonialism. Instead, we must recognize that the American/Israeli “special relationship” is about ensuring the continuity of U.S. hegemony in the Middle East by maintaining Israel as a client state and military outpost. This arrangement serves the interests of American capitalists, particularly the military-industrial complex and financial elites.
What the Palestine movement needs to do is appeal directly to the American working class by highlighting how U.S. support for Israel harms workers. While billions of dollars are sent to prop up the Israeli apartheid regime, Americans face economic hardship, crumbling infrastructure, inadequate healthcare, and stagnant wages. Every dollar spent on Israeli occupation is a dollar that could be spent improving the lives of American workers. The working class must understand that U.S. imperialism abroad directly contributes to their impoverishment at home.
The Emerging Multipolar World
Finally, we must recognize the shift towards a multipolar world. The decline of U.S. unipolar dominance opens the door for a new global order, one in which countries like China, Russia, Iran, and others challenge Western imperialism. Supporting the rise of this multipolar world is essential to the liberation of Palestine. Aligning with the axis of resistance nations that oppose U.S. and Israeli aggression provides a real path toward Palestinian liberation.
The Palestine solidarity movement in the U.S. must shift its focus. We cannot afford to keep treating Palestine as a boutique social justice issue for campus activists. Instead, we must build a broad-based working-class movement that cuts across lines of identity and polarization. We must fight imperialism at its root—by uniting workers and opposing capitalism.
Palestine will not be freed through liberal identity politics.
It will be freed through revolutionary class struggle.
