Collier describes an exhibition hall filled with booths devoted to Palestine, anti-Zionism and associated activist groups. Environmentalism was still present, but the excitement seemed to be elsewhere. Speakers repeatedly insisted that Palestine was an environmental issue, because obviously everything has to be about Palestine nowadays. Otherwise, organizers think, no one cares.
One particularly revealing episode involved the Green Party Women stand. The women displayed a sign reading "More Trees, Less Hamas," referencing the sexual violence committed by Hamas on October 7. According to Collier, a man confronted them, upset that they had criticized Hamas without also criticizing Israel.
To many Green members, women's rights are apparently subordinate to anti-Israel activism.
And the party has now officially adopted a resolution declaring that Zionism is racism, by a vote of 1,022 to 813. In order to do that they needed to redefine Zionism so that by definition it was racist, making the declaration a ratification of a made-up definition. But truth is not something the party values to begin with.
The hijacking is explicit. Animah Kosai, a co-chair of Greens for Palestine, openly explained her approach: "I don't believe in serving the Green Party ... I actually believe in using the party in order to reach certain goals. And in this case, for Palestine, for anti-imperialism."
At least she's being honest.
This should sound familiar to Americans. The Democratic Socialists of America have openly embraced running candidates on the Democratic ballot line to build political power and advance their own agenda. The idea is to use an established political party's infrastructure to change its direction from within even when its values and the values of the governing party contradict each other.
One detail that Collier noticed is most telling. Despite the conference's obsession with Palestine, Collier found that three events specifically devoted to Palestinian causes, organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, International Centre of Justice for Palestinians and Friends of Al-Aqsa, were held in rooms that appeared more than half-empty.
Hating Israel and Zionism attracts enormous enthusiasm. A resolution declaring Zionism racist mobilizes the membership. Activists celebrate what they regard as a historic victory. But sessions supposedly devoted to helping Palestinians cannot even fill their rooms.
I've argued for years that much of what calls itself the "pro-Palestinian movement" is better understood as an anti-Israel movement. Palestinian welfare is often used to give moral legitimacy to a campaign whose overriding objective is opposition to the Jewish state, and Palestinians are pawns in this larger desire to delegitimize Israel. The most prominent anti-Israel political party seems to bear this out.
The activists don't spend too much time raising money to provide food or medical services to Gazans. Their energy is in tearing Zionism down, not building Palestine up. It just so happens that the latter is the most convenient excuse for the former.
But to claim that these organizations are pro-peace or pro-Palestinian is false. Their motivation is anti-, not pro-.
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