England and Israel – the Jewish Republic in crisis |

On the 7 January 2023 a small protest of left wing and pro-Palestinian parties gathered in Tel Aviv to oppose the Netanyahu coalition government’s plans to weaken the power of the Israeli Supreme Court. A week later the size and scope of this demonstration shifted significantly as tens of thousands gathered in Tel Aviv and other cities.

“Gone were the Palestinian banners. In their place was a sea of blue-and-white Israeli flags”.* This was the beginning of a mass democratic movement supported by millions of Israeli citizens. For good or ill, in victory or defeat, it will transform Israeli politics. 

* Economist. A struggle for the heart of Zionism 29 April 2023.

A mass democratic movement poses fundamental questions about the Jewish Republic whose character has been shaped by its birth, subsequent development and its relationship with the United States and the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and Gaza. At issue are the constitutional laws of a republic that has no agreed written constitution. So far this is not about making Israel more democratic but resisting a right wing government intent on increasing executive power. Behind this is the spectre of the Jewish Republic moving towards fascism.

Every mass democratic movement, whether it seeks a more advanced democratic state or simply defends the existing constitution from authoritarian encroachment and the threat of fascism, contains its own contradictions. Even if the initial aims of the movement are conservative, these will be called into question in the unfolding and intensifying crisis. Mass popular movements coming into confrontation with the state shake up the public mind. They stimulate new thinking about the kind of democracy and society people are living in. It is one thing to see Israeli police meting out violence against Arabs but another to be confronted by it in the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Working class republicanism identifies the Israeli working class as having a central role in deciding the democratic future of Israel. This is because the working class is the only class in Israeli society whose strength and influence is tied up building democratic organisations and uniting all sections of the working class. The Israeli working class has a massive potential to lead to the fight for democracy and a fully democratic republic. However, this potential cannot be realised unless the majority of the Israeli working class liberates itself from the poison and division of Zionism. This is not simply about ideology or consciousness but adopting a practical policy or programme and fighting for it.

Loyalism and Zionism

As internationalists in England, we have to support struggles for democracy in Israel and Palestine. There are socialists who think that democratic secular republicanism has no relevance for Israel or Palestine. There are others who think that the Israeli working class is so corrupted by Zionism that it can never become a force for democracy. Any theory about the exceptional nature of the Israeli working class must be opposed. The mass democratic movement in Israel must open our minds to the possibility that the Israeli working class can become a progressive force for change. 

Zionism is not just a problem for the Israeli working class in its fight for democracy and unity but for the British Labour Party whose attachment to Zionism has deepened under Keir Starmer. Labour has never been a democratic (i.e. republican) party in its aims, principles, attitudes and constitution. If it were, it would not support the idea of a Jewish Republic in Israel or an Islamic Republic in Palestine. Labour is a loyalist party (i.e. loyal to the Establishment) which supports and defends the British monarchy and the Jewish Republic.

The election of Jeremy Corbyn, the first republican and pro-Palestinian leader of the Labour Party, brought into question the dominant ideas of Loyalism and Zionism. The subsequent battle between the Corbyn movement and the Labour Party Establishment took place on the terrain of Anti-Semitism and not over democracy. This was a strategic mistake and not just a tactical error. The Corbyn movement tried to defend itself from a mountain of smears and allegations by introducing improved disciplinary procedures. It failed to mount a democratic counter-attack. Democracy was the Achilles heel of the movement. 

Corbyn Labour did not adopt a democratic (i.e. republican) programme for England or the UK or the Labour Party or in its policy towards constitutional monarchy, the Jewish Republic in Israel and the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and Gaza. Had such a policy been developed and fought for, even in defeat it would have left an indelible mark for the future of the working class movement. The tragedy is not simply in the inevitable defeat and fracturing of the Corbyn movement but in doubling down on its ‘democracy-lite’ programmes in the 2017 and 2019 Manifestoes.

Corbyn Labour did not fight to expel or drive out Loyalism and Zionism from the politics of the Labour Party. It did not try to uproot these ideas or cleanse the party of the anti-democratic practices associated with them. The victory of Starmer and his supporters has ensured that Loyalism and Zionism remain at the heart of the Party. This is now being enforced by bureaucratic measures imposed from the top, not least in the exclusion of Corbyn from standing as a Labour MP. It spells the end of a broad church party of Loyalist-Zionists on one side and Republicans and anti-Zionists on the other. 

The democratic movement in Israel threatens to destabilise Labour’s new Loyalist-Zionist consensus. The Labour left is not yet ready to re-examine or recalibrate its attitude to democracy. It has no democratic programme and remains fast asleep and unaware of the danger. The crisis of democracy continues to fester in England. The situation in Israel is more advanced because the crisis of the Jewish republic has taken to the streets and workplaces. The people of Israel are being forced to examine their history, democracy and constitution. In England we must learn from events in Israel and grasp the nettle of republican democracy.

27 August, 2023