Steve Salaita

Palestine Solidarity in the Age of Reaction

Should people involved with the Palestine solidarity movement in North America, traditionally leftist in orientation, seek alliances with the political right?

The question in the subheading appears straightforward, but it presents semantic problems. The notion of leftwing and rightwing is unstable and both words change spatially and temporally. A “liberal” in the United States isn’t necessarily the same as a “liberal” in the Middle East. For that matter, a “liberal” in the United States isn’t necessarily the same as another “liberal” in the United States, depending on who uses or hears the term.

Palestine and the Politics of Purity

Accusing anti-Zionists of “purity politics” is a lazy rhetorical evasion.

“Purity politics.” We’ve been hearing the term—along with its cognate, “purist”—since at least the 2000 presidential race, when frantic liberals repeatedly applied it to supporters of Green Party candidate Ralph Nader. “Your purity politics are going to cost Al Gore the election,” Democratic Party loyalists liked to say.

The term can also impugn anyone who rejects (or merely criticizes) a politician affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America [DSA]. “You purists are allergic to power,” DSA loyalists like to say.

Palestine and the Making of a New New World

The liberation of Palestine is, above all, a world-building project.

For decades, Palestinians and fellow travelers have warned about the dangers of unchecked Zionist repression. Without meaningful opposition, we pointed out, their shenanigans would result in the complete breakdown of a civil liberties regime that was never up to the task of its own promises.

Care and Carefulness in Today’s United States

A short reflection on what the line “be careful” means in today’s dark political environment.

I recently traveled to the United States from Egypt. It was a strange time to visit the country of my birth. Many people are (rightly) in some kind of distress, whether it’s because of the brutal ICE regime, extreme repression of speech and activism, ascendant neo-Nazism, economic precarity, the ongoing genocide in Palestine, or a general sense of impending catastrophe.

The Meaning of Honesty in Academe

A transcript of the 2025 James Baldwin Memorial Lecture at UMass-Amherst, delivered on April 16.

I’ll begin with a comment that may or may not resonate: the United States is going to hell.

Is this comment an observable fact or is it merely a perception? If observable, then based on what metrics? If perception, then what are the conditions that might lend it credence?

No Resurrection: The Life and Death of the Modern University

A transcript of comments delivered at Villanova University on April 14, 2025.

My first academic job was at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. I was extremely lucky to have landed that job. I was fresh out of graduate school and had mailed off around 150 applications between September and December. It was 2003. These things were still done in hard copy back then.

Arab Americans, Ignore the Haters: Rejecting Kamala Harris was the Right Thing to Do

Arab Americans are facing vicious pushback for refusing to abandon Palestine, but people interested in a better world should follow our lead instead of mourning the neoliberal order.

The depth and scope of racism now directed at Arab Americans is staggering. Many liberals are looking for somebody to blame for Kamala Harris’s dismal showing in the recent election and have found the perfect scapegoat in Arab Americans (along with Muslim Americans more broadly, anti-Zionists of all backgrounds, and, unbelievably, the Palestinians currently suffering a genocide).

Your Crisis of Faith is not My Concern (There’s a Genocide Going on)

Understanding the Zionist mentality means acknowledging a kind of logic beyond the emotional capacity of functional human beings.

All the cruelty livestreamed onto our electronic devices has undone the old political order. There are no more liberal Zionists, lowkey Zionists, cultural Zionists, soft Zionists, progressive Zionists, apathetic Zionists, ambivalent Zionists, non-Zionists, or post-Zionists. Now only two categories matter: Zionist and anti-Zionist.

I might go so far as to argue that not identifying as anti-Zionist is itself a form of Zionism, which I suppose is another way of saying that ignorance of or indifference to Gaza is unacceptable.

Let America Be Your Periphery

Republicans and Democrats are both hellbent on exterminating Palestinians. At best they’re merely indifferent to the extermination. Let’s not allow them to also kill our imagination.

Like everyone else concerned with Palestinian life, I’ve been thinking a lot about what can be done to stop the current genocide. The very notion feels ridiculous given that ruling classes across the world are invested in Palestine’s destruction. That’s no reason to stop, though; it’s actually a fantastic incentive to keep going. Long odds are the upshot of any good politics.

Some Lessons about Zionism and Anti-Zionism from an Ongoing Genocide

If you knew anything of Zionism, then Israel’s current bloodlust is no surprise.

Ostensible supporters of Palestine who dissembled or backed down after October 7 in deference to the Zionist entity deserve to suffer endless shame. Not because they made an error of judgment; not because they got suckered by a propaganda campaign; not because they ignored more skeptical colleagues; not even because in their haste to disassociate from Palestinian resistance they validated the rationale for genocide. They should be shamed for knowing so little about Zionism.