At its August 2025 biennial convention in Chicago, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) adopted a powerful resolution, “For a Fighting Anti-Zionist DSA“. The resolution, which the 1200 delegates passed by 56 to 44 percent, has been recognized as a significant step forward for the organization. It makes “organizing in solidarity with the Palestinian cause a priority until Palestine is free” and recognizes the Palestinian people’s right to resistance and self-determination, with Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.
The resolution stipulates that candidates for office, seeking national DSA endorsement or a DSA chapter endorsement, must “support the BDS movement, refrain from any and all affiliation with the Israeli government or Zionist lobby groups, and pledge to oppose legislation that harms Palestinians and support legislation that supports Palestinian liberation.” The resolution also requires that previously endorsed candidates holding office, who fail to uphold these expectations, must have their endorsements revoked. Much the same applies to DSA members themselves. Members face expulsion for making statements such as, “Israel has a right to defend itself,” or for knowingly providing financial aid to Israel.
The rationale for DSA’s anti-zionist resolution is clear. Zionism is a form of racism. Therefore, zionist members should be no more tolerated by a socialist organization than membership in the KKK, or any other manifestation of racism by a member. And yet, at the DSA chapter level, the Los Angeles chapter in particular, where I am a member, the struggle against liberal zionism continues.
When an article describing the new resolution was posted on a DSA-LA Signal chat, in August 2025, the response was largely negative. One person wrote that the resolution is “truly terrible” and should have been voted down. Another complained that the resolution might unfairly preclude people from making donations to synagogues that send collected money to Israel, and lamented, “like there just aren’t synagogues in la that don’t give money to israel.”
Another post expressed worry that Bat Mitzvah photos with Israeli flags in the background could violate national DSA’s anti-zionist resolution.
These and other oppositional posts received multiple positive emojis from other DSA-LA members. By contrast a post that called for honoring DSA’s commitment to BDS, and another which pointed to the Star of David on the Israeli flag as a hate symbol (for examples from around the world, see here, here, here, here, he
One might suppose that this recent discord is just an anomaly. But DSA-LA has a history of missteps when it comes to zionism. The most striking examples were the chapter’s multiple endorsements of Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman. Following DSA-LA’s first endorsement of Raman in 2019, she also sought the endorsement of “Democrats for Israel Los Angeles” (DFI). DFI withheld its endorsement for her first four-year term in 2020, but endorsed her second successful electoral run in 2024, as did DSA-LA again. DFI’s change of heart may have come about as a result of Raman’s services to zionism. She voted to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which conflates antisemitism with anti-zionism, despite public opposition from the L.A. Chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace. Raman also co-authored a resolution to support an anti-Palestinian school district resolution, which was later used to help defeat a pro-BDS teachers union policy resolution.
DSA-LA was aware of Nithya Raman’s DFI endorsement as well as her pro-zionist activities, but the chapter voted to reconfirm its second endorsement anyway, albeit with a perfunctory letter of censure. Remarkably, in her 2023 DSA-LA “Incumbent Candidate Questionnaire”, Nithya Raman reaffirmed her support for the racist IHRA definition of antisemitism. She declined a pledge to reject funds from organizations that profit off of Palestinian occupation and refused to promise to decline “education trips” to Israel sponsored by pro-Zionist organizations. During an interview with DSA-LA members she even verbally declined to identify herself as a socialist. Yet, the chapter endorsed her without questioning those responses.
Another endorsed candidate for local office gave mostly satisfactory answers on a similar DSA-LA questionnaire, but also wrote, “The Likkud Government of Israel and Hamas are both responsible for war crimes; Likkud for its asymmetrical warfare, domicide, and ethnic cleansing, and Hamas for its sickening willingness to use its own people as pawns in a greater geopolitical game,” thus creating a false symmetry and blaming Palestinians in part for their own genocide. This response should have been probed prior to endorsement but was not.
As the genocide progressed in 2023 and 2024, DSA-LA appropriately undertook actions in support of a ceasefire, but some were compromised. In a DSA-LA organized demonstration at a local congressional office, DSA-LA leaders led with the chant, “from the river to the sea,…”, except that the usual rejoinder, “Palestine will be free” was replaced by “everyone will be free.” This was presumably done to appease zionists who complained that the standard chant is “antisemitic.”
To its credit, DSA-LA formed a Palestine Solidarity Working Group in December 2023, which continues its activism to the present day. But soon after its formation, it was proposed that the working group request a meeting with the chapter’s Electoral Politics Committee for the purpose of discussing ways in which that committee could better flag and respond to pro-zionist statements by candidates for office seeking DSA-LA endorsement. However, this proposal was rejected. While DSA-LA has broadly supported Palestinian human rights, publicly called for a ceasefire and an end to the genocide, it has been unwilling to engage in its own “zionist house cleaning.”
When the DSA was founded in 1982, its leader, Michael Harrington, supported Israel, and described zionism as a “national liberation movement.” The national organization has since progressed well beyond its beginnings. At the national level, DSA has taken important steps to disengage from its zionist foundations, but the degree to which the policies identified in its new resolution, “For a Fighting Anti-Zionist DSA” will filter down to the chapter level remains an open question.
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