A demonstrator holds a sign reading “International Terrorist” and a portrait of U.S. President Joe Biden during a protest rally for reproductive justice, in defense of trans and queer rights, and for a ceasefire in Gaza on the eve of the Democratic National Convention on August 18 in Chicago, Illinois. Photo by Matthew Hatcher/AFP via Getty Images

Patrick McWilliams protests outside the Democratic National Convention, calling on the U.S. to stop funding Israel. “We’re making sure we’re out there, wherever the people are, peacefully protesting against genocide and demanding that Democrats do the right thing,” says McWilliams, a volunteer coordinator with the ANSWER Coalition-Chicago, an antiwar mobilization organization that’s helping organize the DNC protests.

For a moment I can almost imagine the two of us together denouncing Israel’s disastrous, far-right government – ​​a government that recovers the bodies of dead hostages instead of securing their release while leaving Gaza in rubble. Then I ask McWilliams what the ANSWER Coalition thinks about Hamas’ actions on October 7. He says the group has no position. But that’s not true.

Recent Videos ANSWER-Chicago’s Instagram post features signs bearing the group’s name, reading “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and chants of “Intifada Revolution.”

I have no doubt that many people are there in good faith. The problem is that some of the loudest voices outside the DNC – and key groups involved in the anti-Israel protests since October 7, such as the ANSWER Coalition – spread misinformation and conspiracies. They defend and deny egregious human rights abuses around the world. This makes it difficult to take their accusations against Israel seriously, and impossible for people like me – who believe in self-determination for both Palestinians and Israelis – to join a broad, peace-promoting coalition.

Until the morning of October 7, I didn’t know much about the ANSWER Coalition or the Party for Socialism and Liberation. While I was frantically messaging my family and friends in Israel, I saw former classmates and close friends posting Instagram graphics. Justifying the depravity of HamasSome of these former friends were organized in the PSL, which occasionally protests together with ANSWER.

The ANSWER Coalition, together with the PSL and other groups, organized the March at the DNC 2024whose main demand this week is to stand by Palestine and end US aid to Israel, even though its domestic platform includes more money for schools, abortion access and LGBTQIA+ rights. The protest so far does not appear to have attracted the tens of thousands expected, but speakers say more than 250 groups appeared.

While their domestic policies often align with democratic values, the PSL and the ANSWER coalition have been known to spread false claims and defend foreign dictators internationally. The PSL claims that Russia had legitimate reasons for the invasion of Ukraine, Cuban political oppression is a mythChina has nothing done to the Uighurs and Hamas not carried out sexual violence against Israelis. In the past, the ANSWER Coalition supports North Korea’s Kim Jong-il and Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic.

Most recently, these “anti-imperial” left-wing groups defended Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, whom US officials said stole the country’s recent elections. At a protest against Venezuela in Atlanta this week, an activist wore a red PSL shirt said The US would label anyone who “wants to use the wealth of its resources to improve people’s lives” as a dictator. Activists in a parallel PSL protest In San Francisco, the ANSWER Coalition held signs reading “Stop the US coup against democracy in Venezuela.”

Of course, it does not matter that a quarter of the Venezuelan population have fled the country in recent years because of Maduro’s Nepotism and violence. It does not matter that Russia fabricated a pretext for the invasion of Ukraine, that the Uighur “re-education” Warehouse Are well documented and that Hamas’ sexual violence indisputable.

Current membership numbers are not readily available, and neither ANSWER nor PSL immediately responded to inquiries via social media, email and phone. But in 2022, the PSL will claims to have “an organized presence in over 100 cities and towns,” and the ANSWER Coalition Lists Branches in at least 14 major cities. Publicly available financial information suggests that the Financial sponsorthe Progress Unity Fund, has raised about $6 million in donations since 2001.

The PSL and ANSWER are not the only actors in the pro-Palestinian movement. But from October 7 to today, they have helped organize many notable anti-Israel protests. Within a week of October 7, ANSWER sponsored at least 14 protests, and by the end of the month, PSL had sponsored at least 43 protests, including in Boise, Idaho, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Anchorage, Alaska. Both groups remain active, organization Marches To Washington Direct current And Leading protests outside of campuses like Columbia University.

There is nothing wrong with sharp criticism the Israeli right or advocating for peace, justice and self-determination for the Palestinians – I have I made it myself in the past. But the credibility of these groups on these issues is damaged by their celebration of atrocities. Unfortunately, the Left’s support for human rights violations is a decades-old phenomenon, dating back at least to the invasion of Hungary by the Soviet Union in 1956. That invasion was supported at the time by leftists who were known as “Tank,” an indication of their support for the USSR Tank marched into Budapest to crush the Hungarian revolution.

For tankies and groups like the PSL and the ANSWER Coalition, American and Western imperialism is the original sin responsible for all subsequent evils. This view ignores non-Western imperialism, such as Russia in Ukraine or Iran’s in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. It can also dehumanise the people in whose name the anti-imperialist left claims to speak.

Shortly after reading an article I wrote about October 7th when one of my former friends who is organized in the PSL sent me a text message saying, “After generations of oppression, we cannot reasonably assume that when people rise up they will be completely under control.”

This text confuses Hamas – a fascist, radical Islamic group that terrorizes Palestinians – with the people of Palestine. And it portrays Palestinians as incapable of being “fully controlled,” in other words, incapable of taming their impulses or exercising moral agency. Sound familiar? That’s what colonizers have long said about the peoples they conquered.

Some of the main protest groups outside the DNC have become embroiled in conspiracies this week, drawing more attention to themselves than to the real suffering of Palestinians. Unfortunately, the hypocrisy of claiming to fight for justice while supporting well-documented dictators and atrocities undermines what could have been a common goal of finding peace and overthrowing leaders like Netanyahu. This excuse of well-documented atrocities is a shredder for the credibility of the anti-imperialist left, both as a moral and strategic mistake.

This should also be a lesson to those who claim to support Israel: Just as anti-imperial protesters torpedo their credibility when they distort reality, so too do pro-Israel voices when they distort or deny the suffering of the Palestinians.

I agree with the protesters in Chicago on many points: Yes to access to abortion. Yes to equal rights for LGBTQ+. No to Donald Trump. No to Benjamin Netanyahu.

But fighting against the right alongside these left-wing authoritarians would be like demonstrating for climate protection with white racists. No thanks.