Palestine Archives - Steve Salaita

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.

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.

Palestine Never Goes Away

Those who want to forget Palestine, can’t. Those who say they forgot Palestine, haven’t.

I’ve never thought of my devotion to Palestine’s liberation as contingent on any kind of productivity. It’s there whether or not I write about the occupation, whether or not I attend a conference, whether or not I argue with trolls on the internet, whether or not I read Electronic Intifada, whether or not I donate to Red Crescent, whether or not I do archival history, whether or not I buy revolutionary paraphernalia. It doesn’t matter if I visit Palestine, avoid Palestine, ignore Palestine, or visualize Palestine.