DSA is firmly committed to Palestinian liberation. We are unwavering in our anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist values, and dedicated to building cross-movement solidarity and mass support to end Israel apartheid. DSA as an organization, as well as its members and leaders, stand firmly with the Palestinian people.
After careful consideration, the National Political Committee has unanimously voted to rescind our decision to decharter the BDS and Palestine Solidarity Working Group. We recognize that our original decision to transition BDS work to DSA’s International Committee without a plan to ensure Palestine organizing continued uninterrupted across DSA was a misstep that carried with it drastic consequences, all of which will take time, work, and healing to overcome.
Effective immediately, the working group will have NPC member Justin C as their liaison, who will work with its members to forge a path ahead. As liaison, he will be available to the working group to answer questions and help provide resources and guidance. Justin will also liaise with the International Committee and will strive to continue building collaboration and communication between both groups. We trust that he will give these positions the attention and care they deserve.
Justin will also work with us and the working group to help guide a process that, in time, will hopefully begin to build both a harmonious relationship and trust between the NPC and the BDS and Palestine Solidarity Working Group. We know that this will not be easy, we know that we as the NPC have a lot of work to do, and we are committed to making a good-faith effort to move forward with that work.
We want to apologize for the role we played in the tumultuous week our organization has had. A great many of our members are hurting, and we will need to work to repair that hurt and harm. As leaders, we pledge to seek mutual understanding, work to gain your trust, and we will do our best to model a culture of healthy engagement that we know is possible in DSA. We have a world to win, and we must be ready to weather any storm and build a resilient DSA. We can only do this, together.
Your National Political Committee
Edit: their website is back up: https://palestine.dsausa.org/
Idk the context so I might be way off base (please correct me with article or w/e if so)
but this strikes me as something thought to be “tidier” in terms of org structure than malicious. Like a tunnel visioned leadership that isn’t actively communicating with these working groups in advance, but knows this could technically fall under IC territory, not appreciating how this affects the people actually working on it. I’m just glad they reversed it with an apology, hopefully they do right by them and give them more of a seat at the table if/when they want to move forward with restructuring.
Just speculating, but I wonder how much of this was a way of purging certain members of the Palestine WG that the NPC didn't like personally.
If you ask me, the whole thing shows that there's not enough democratic control of the NPC.
They still barred everyone from the BDS WG from running - that part wasn't reversed.
So yes. This was always a petty lib thing where they were crying about the BDS WG calling them racist.
Maybe, but I generally tend to veer toward assuming ignorance over malice.