Students Intervene in Event Called “The Progressive Case For Israel”

Israel is not a liberal democracy. There is no progressive case for Israel.

On Tuesday, November 19th Palestine activists intervened in an event called “The Progressive Case for Israel” held at Harvard Law School. We distributed flyers at the door detailing how there is no room for zionism in a progressive moral framework.

During the Q&A we asked uncomfortable questions, challenging speaker Halie Soifer to explain how she can oppose Trump’s border wall in the U.S. while supporting the apartheid wall in Israel. Soifer deflected, saying she refused to ‘draw false equivalencies’—meanwhile, the moderator had to clarify which wall Soifer referred to in her brief response.

In 2018, Israel approved 10,536 housing units in West Bank settlements and demolished 390 Palestinian homes. We asked: how can progressives struggle against the U.S. housing crisis while supporting the forcible eviction of hundreds of Palestinians? Soifer changed the subject. We challenged Soifer’s support of U.S. aid to Israel—aid that funds war crimes against the people of Gaza. She dodged the question.

How can Soifer justify a claim to progressivism while opposing the BDS movement, which progressive champions from Desmond Tutu to Cornel West deem an absolute necessity to bring about justice for Palestinians? She cannot—there is no progressive case against Palestine.

At one point, Soifer even admitted that her answers to our questions were ‘probably unsatisfactory’. We agreed.

We did not remain silent in the face of zionist liberalism and we never will.

Progressive values and a settler colonial project. Pick one.