Israel’s Labor party sent a letter to the Socialist International (SI) organization on Tuesday, stating that the party would immediately leave the organization.
The SI is the worldwide organization of social democratic, socialist and labour parties that currently brings together 140 political parties and organizations from around the globe.
The Labor party letter came in response to the SI adopting a resolution that “calls all governments and civil society organizations to activate boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against the Israeli occupation, all the occupation institutions, and the illegal Israeli settlements including the total embargo on all forms of military trade and cooperation with Israel as long as it continues its policies of occupation and Apartheid against the Palestinian people.”
Member of Knesset Ḥilik Bar, who serves as the Labor party’s international secretary, called the decision hypocritical and said that his party’s decision to suspend its membership was immediate and would become permanent if the decision isn’t canceled. He asked the organization to stop including any reference to the Israeli Labor party or its members in any of its membership information, publications, speeches or events.
“Needless to say, the Declaration on the Palestinian Question is biased, blind to facts or reality, and partially antisemitic,” Bar wrote. “The Declaration further weakens the alleged legitimacy of the organization you lead. The language and arguments of the Declaration makes it clear that until its cancellation – there is no real dialogue to have with you, or with your organization on this issue.”
Bar, who heads the Knesset’s two-state lobby, said the declaration would distance rather than encourage the partition of the country between Israelis and Palestinians.
“In the declaration, you reiterate your ‘solidarity with the progressive forces in Israel,’” Bar wrote. “As the international secretary of the Israeli Labor party, as a leader in the party, and on behalf of the Labor party leadership, the largest progressive party in the Israeli parliament, let me assure you that until the full and formal cancellation of this poor one-sided and miserable declaration, your ‘solidarity’ is not desirable by us.”
Given the history of Israel’s Labor party and its policies toward Palestinians, Mizraḥi Jews, political opponents and others, its a bit comical for MK Bar to regard the party as a “progressive force” within Israeli society. But he clearly understands that BDS primarily weakens Israel’s westernized ruling class and strengthens the nation’s more traditional and nationalist sectors. It also negates the two-state process as a solution to our conflict that Israeli elites view as their only chance to save their vision for what the country should be – an outpost of Western civilization (with some superficial Jewish decorations) in the Middle East.
