CommentDown with Israel: The Swiss Young Socialists as an Imperialist and Colonialist Party
Anyone who believes that the Swiss Young Socialists reject imperialism and colonialism is sorely mistaken. On the contrary: they have elevated both to the status of doctrine—at least as far as the Jewish state of Israel is concerned. For although they have no geographical or political ties to it, they demand its abolition in the very best imperialist and colonialist tradition.
From Sacha Wigdorovits
As is well known, stupidity—like anti-Semitism—knows no bounds. That is why neither phenomenon stopped at Moutier in the Jura, where the Swiss Young Socialists (Jusos) adopted a resolution titled “One-State Solution Against Settler Colonialism” at their most recent delegates’ assembly.
The document, which contains numerous distortions of history, half-truths, and falsehoods, calls for the abolition of the State of Israel in favor of the “establishment of a democratic state of diverse cultures throughout the territory of historic Palestine.” This, of course, includes the “right of return for the millions of displaced Palestinians in exile.”
Note: Of those “Palestinians” who, in 1948, either fled or were expelled at the behest of their own leaders due to the war against Israel instigated by the Arab states, an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 are still alive today—not “millions.” But that’s a minor detail. After all, we’re not talking about mathematicians here, but about politicians.
Imperialists and colonialists in socialist guise
The fact that the Jusos want nothing to do with Zionism—which for a long time helped shape socialist projects such as the kibbutz movement—is almost laughable. For it shows just how little they know about the history of the State of Israel.
And the fact that, of all people, the self-proclaimed fighters against colonialism and imperialism would presume to demand the abolition of a foreign country is downright laughable. Because there is no demand more imperialist and colonialist than this very one. (And this, of all places, in Moutier, which for a long time had to fight for its independence from imperialist Bern.)
Call for the Expulsion of 7.7 Million Jews
But ultimately, the resolution passed by the Jusos is no laughing matter. For it calls for nothing less than the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel and, with it, the expulsion of the Jewish population living there. After all, even the Jusos themselves know what the fate of that population would be in the unified state they are calling for. At the very least, some of them must have heard that, following the establishment of the State of Israel, between 800,000 and 900,000 Jews were expelled from Arab countries and forced to flee.
Yet the Jusos seem indifferent to the fate of the 7.7 million Jews who now call Israel home. After all, Jewish lives don’t matter to them anyway. This is evident, among other things, in the fact that the resolution issued by the Jusos makes no mention whatsoever of the massacre carried out by the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas on October 7, 2023. On the contrary, they even indirectly legitimize it. In their resolution, the Jusos explicitly call for a “right to resistance” for the Palestinians. For them, this apparently includes the brutal murder of 1,200 people, ranging from toddlers to elderly women.
The Jusos: Nazis in Disguise
All in all, at least in this regard, the Jusos’ way of thinking is no different from that of the German National Socialists of the 1930s—after all, the only thing missing from their name is the word “national.” Just as for the Nazis, they, too, view Jews (pardon me: “Zionists”) as the scourge of humanity.
The Jusos themselves will, of course, reject this comparison with outrage. But as the philosopher Theodor Adorno aptly observed 75 years ago: “Once the individual has convinced himself that there are people who deserve to be punished, he can give free rein to his deepest aggressive impulses—and still consider himself completely moral in the process.”
There is no more accurate way to describe the Jusos and their aggressive hatred of Jews (“Zionists”). The example of the anti-Israel Juso resolution from Moutier thus illustrates that, alongside Islamist anti-Semitism, the most virulent anti-Semitism today emanates from the political left by virtue of its self-proclaimed “moral perfection.”
Additional articles on this topic have been published at:
Sacha Wigdorovits is president of the Focus on Israel and the Middle East Association, which operates the website www.fokusisrael.ch . He studied history, German language and literature, and social psychology at the University of Zurich and has worked, among other things, as a U.S. correspondent for the SonntagsZeitung, served as editor-in-chief of BLICK, and co-founded the commuter newspaper 20minuten.
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