Looking to learn more about the history of the Palestinian liberation struggle with like-minded comrades? Been skeptical about whether socialist theory has anything to offer to the movement? Come join the DSA SF's Palestine Solidarity and Anti-Imperialist Working Group where we attempt to work through these questions and more.

This event will be the 1st of 3 sessions in this series and we will start off by reading excerpts from Rashid Khalidi's The Hundred Years' War on Palestine as well as from Palestine: A Socialist Introduction. The idea is to ground ourselves in historical realities that we will then interpret later in this series using socialist theoretical frameworks laid out in Lenin's Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism and The Right of Nations to Self Determination

If you will be joining virtually, please use this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83941217163?pwd=WVdPd291QVRINnFEZFZYQlc1UVNMUT09

We shall be reading the following excerpts from two texts:

1. Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, Chapter 1 - Roots of the Nakba (p. 18-25)

Place particular emphasis on these sections:

• What is Zionism? (p. 18-19)
• The roots of modern-day Zionism (p. 19-20)
• Zionism and imperialism (p. 21-22)
• "The iron wall of English bayonets" (p. 22-23)
• "I would not accept Arabs in my trade union" (p. 23-24)
• "The iron wall of Jewish bayonets" (p. 24-25)

2. The Hundred Years' War on Palestine

• pp. 34 - 47: League of Nations Mandate, formation of Jewish agency, demographic shifts in 1930s, Arab revolt.
• pp. 70 - 80: Aftermath of Nakba. How and why America became involved in the conflict.

Further reading:

• The rest of Chapter 1 from Palestine: A Social Introduction
• From The Hundred Years' War on Palestine:
  • pp. 24 - 25: Balfour Declaration (statement + explanation)
  • pp. 58 - 62: This section helps reinforce
  • pp. 70 - 80. Talks about aftermath of Nakba and America's replacement of Britain as dominant external power.
  • pp. 90 - 95: Suez crisis, how it can be seen as an aftershock of 1948, and how the displacement of Palestinians has destabilized much of the Middle East.