Instrument against Palestine solidarity | The fight against the right, which itself became right

Demonstration for Palestine in Berlin. In the federal capital you often get accusations of anti-Semitism simply because of your identity. Photo: dpa/Annette Riedl At the end of 2024, the German-Palestinian Ramsy Kilani was expelled from the left. Many of the allegations made against him have little to do with his positions.

Ramsy Kilani still seems a little stunned when asked about his experiences with the Left party. In 2025, the 35-year-old German-Palestinian was expelled from the organization “for behavior that was harmful to the party.” This was preceded by a campaign by bourgeois media, but also by parts of the Left Party itself, which accused him of anti-Semitism because of his positions on the Gaza war.

He wasn't interested in membership, explains Kilani in an interview with "nd". "I was always just a grassroots member and am primarily active in social movements." He never wanted to represent the party and continued to call for its election even after his exclusion. But he was very horrified by the way some of his comrades acted against him.

The starting point for the exclusion process was that Kilani fundamentally contradicted the interpretation prevailing in Germany after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. He rejected the theory that the attack was anti-Semitic and that it was a pogrom. Instead, he referred to the occupation violence that has been perpetrated against the Palestinians for decades. “A pogrom is clearly defined,” explains Kilani. »These are riots that are carried out with the toleration of a state power against an oppressed ethnic minority. It is obvious that this was not the case for the attack on October 7th.

Because the Israeli interpretation of the Hamas attack as a "pogrom" aimed from the outset to equate the Palestinians with the Nazis and thereby justify the complete destruction of Gaza, Kilani saw it as his task to contradict the portrayal in the German media. As images of Israeli children kidnapped by Hamas were shown, he referred to the IDF's systematic torture of Palestinian children. When a kidnapped Israeli woman was presented as a civilian and a victim of sexual violence, he questioned the entire report by pointing out that she was not a civilian but a soldier involved in the occupation regime. He also implicitly questioned whether the accusation of sexual violence was true. For months, Kilani waged a battle against the Israeli war narrative on social media. And as is almost always the case on social media, a lot of things got mixed up: individual statements sparked outrage, but Kilani countered. Based on statements made in this context, he was accused of trivializing and glorifying Palestinian violence.

"It has become part of German nationalism to be pseudo-self-critical."

Kilani denies this in conversation. »I have always made it clear that I reject attacks on civilians, hostage-taking and sexual violence – no matter who is responsible for them. But right-wingers and “anti-Germans” have taken sentences from my posts out of context and distorted them. In some cases, media outlets like the 'Tagesspiegel' also falsified quotes." He experienced this as a character assassination that was intended to deny him his socialist convictions.

That wasn't really a surprise to him. As a person with a Palestinian background, you grow up in Germany with suspicions, he says. "You often get accused of anti-Semitism simply because of your identity - if you just say that you have Palestinian roots." The motion for exclusion, which was submitted in autumn 2024 by former Left chairman Martin Schirdewan and the long-time Berlin state chairman Katina Schubert, ultimately listed over 30 pages of statements that the German-Palestinian had posted on social media since the outbreak of the Gaza war. Contexts and clarifications from Kilani were largely missing. Against this background and thanks to the corresponding reporting in the Berlin newspapers, the verdict on him was quickly reached.

But what about his refusal to condemn Hamas as a terrorist organization? As a left-wing socialist, he explains, he has little sympathy for the political ideas of the largest Palestinian organization. But it must be noted that international law speaks of a right of resistance in the event of a military occupation. And of course he also believes that the founding of the state of Israel was a form of colonialism. “If the Left party leadership sees it differently, they have to have a political debate about it,” he says. “But that was actually the most disappointing thing for me: neither the applicants nor the party leaders sought to talk to me.”

If you delve deeper into the debate with him, you realize that Kilani's Middle East positions do not differ significantly from those of ex-Mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau or New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Kilani believes the two-state solution is ethno-nationalist, supports a single secular state in which Jews and Palestinians can live together on equal terms, and supports the BDS campaign as a way to exert international pressure on Israel. He considers anti-Semitism, like other forms of racism, to be a problem, but he rejects the claim that anti-Zionism and left-wing criticism of the state of Israel are anti-Semitic in motivation.

When asked whether he doesn't regret some of the statements made against him in retrospect, Kilani responds cautiously. He certainly should have taken into account that individual sentences could be taken out of context and sound like a trivialization of violence. "But in general I stand by the fact that I contradicted Israeli propaganda," he says. »So many false reports have been taken over by the German media unchecked - for example the reports about the beheaded Israeli babies. The fact that I described such news as war propaganda also had to do with the fact that I knew about the situation on the ground. In contrast to many German leftists.«

In fact, that's probably the most bizarre thing about the Kilani case: Although The Left advocates empathy towards the victims of war and displacement, this aspect played no role in his case. Because Kilani is directly affected by the violence of the Middle East war. In 2014, his father and five of his half-siblings were killed by Israeli attacks on civilian infrastructure in Gaza. "All but the youngest had German citizenship." Nevertheless, the federal government never commented on the incident. And there was little sense of solidarity with this suffering on the left either. The fact that Kilani, due to his own family history, judges Israel differently than German leftists whose grandparents helped organize the industrial extermination of European Jews did not play a role in the party expulsion process.

The left-wing socialist Kilani sums up that a lot of things about the German Middle East debate are very wrong. »The adoption of Israeli positions serves as an instrument to renounce Nazi history. It has become part of German nationalism to be pseudo-self-critical," he says, "and not just since October 7th." Palestine solidarity has been attacked for years with accusations that have more to do with Germany and its crimes than with the Palestinians. This all came to a head with the BDS resolution in 2019. The Bundestag resolution, which generally assessed any call for a boycott of Israel as anti-Semitic and whose core message has now also found its way into the Berlin exploratory agreement, was aimed at pushing Palestinian perspectives out of the public space. Activists and intellectuals who support the campaign are practically no longer able to appear in cultural institutions and universities.

Accordingly, Kilani is also disappointed with the latest developments on the Berlin left. In the campaign that the major bourgeois media are waging against the party, even those party officials who were involved in his expulsion from the party are now being accused of anti-Semitism, he says and shakes his head. "In fact, everyone on the left should have understood by now that you can't stop such campaigns by accepting false accusations." By repressing its own membership, the party is rolling out the carpet for further attacks on itself. In the end, according to Kilani, it is about being able to clear away other left-wing positions, for example on the question of socialization. In fact, based on the exploratory agreement, the Greens and the SPD now have it in their hands to blackmail or divide the Left at any time with accusations of anti-Semitism.

He reiterates that he is still in solidarity with those attacked. "The real anti-Semites are on the right: in the AfD, which is currently being strengthened by the racist and anti-left agitation, and among those who equate Israel and Zionism with Judaism." Palestine solidarity activists know best that this assumption is wrong, he adds. “We have always worked closely with left-wing Jewish groups.”

Kilani was made an Islamist by the major media - but nothing could be more wrong. The German-Palestinian is a left-wing internationalist. When the Iranian regime killed thousands in protests in January 2026, he was among the first to demonstrate in Berlin. "We are for the self-liberation of the Iranian people," he declared at the time. He has little to do with the “campist” left, i.e. those who support all governments that fight the USA. He believes that leftists everywhere in the world must stand on the side of the oppressed. In the end, it is difficult to understand that there was no room for this attitude on the left.

With allegations of anti-Semitism, Labor's right-wing party removed its leader

The campaign against Jeremy Corbyn was systematically organized. Photo: IMAGO/Vincenzo Nuzzolese Soon after the left-wing MP Jeremy Corbyn relatively unexpectedly won the membership vote for the leadership of the British Labor Party in 2015, a campaign began to force the new membership that had rallied behind Corbyn out of the party and to overthrow the leader. The old Labor establishment soon began accusing Corbyn's group of anti-Semitism. In doing so, she took advantage of the fact that the party leftist had supported many internationalist causes in his political career, including demands of the Palestine movement.

After attempts to stop the shift to the left in the party with other accusations were largely unsuccessful, the debate within the party became increasingly ignited by accusations of anti-Semitism. The old Labor establishment claimed that anti-Semitic incidents would increase under Corbyn. In fact, registered cases rose enormously in 2018 - after Labor, at the urging of the party right, adopted the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism in the same year, under which any fundamental criticism of Israel can be assessed as anti-Semitic.

Jewish members of the Labor Party were six times more likely to face disciplinary action for anti-Semitism than non-Jewish members.

The US journalist Kevin Hirten reconstructed these disputes in the worthwhile investigative research “The Labor Files” (broadcast on Al Jazeera Investigates in 2022). In his view, there is every indication that the conflict was ultimately about the new economic policy course and Corbyn's activation of the membership base - both changes that fundamentally questioned the power of the old leadership. In fact, it has now been proven by other sources that the campaign against Jeremy Corbyn was systematically organized. The central figure was, by his own admission, the Labor politician Morgan McSweeney, who was to become chief of staff under Prime Minister Keir Starmer in 2024.

To deceive, McSweeney initially posed as a supporter of Corbyn and founded the group “Labour Together”. As he later explained, his aim was to “delegitimize and destroy Corbyn by all possible means (…) and bring the party right back to power.” Largely financed by entrepreneur Trevor Chinn, “Labour Together” ensured that allegations of anti-Semitism within Labor were repeatedly discussed in the media. Arguing that “those who deny that this (anti-Semitism) is a problem are part of the problem,” the group even managed to expel Corbyn from the party entirely in 2020.

McSweeney's closest ally was the later British ambassador to the USA, Peter Mandelson. The lobbyist, who worked for the US surveillance company Palantir, among others, had already been a minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. In 2017, he said he was “working every day to end (Corbyn’s) leadership.” In 2025, Mandelson himself fell when it was revealed that he was close friends with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and had received money from him.

The left-wing Jewish network “Jewish Voice for Labor” (later “Jewish Voice for Liberation”) investigated the allegations of anti-Semitism within the party again in 2023. The network found that Jewish members of the Labor Party were six times more likely to be prosecuted for anti-Semitic comments than non-Jewish members. The reason? Anti-Zionist statements, such as those espoused by many Jewish leftists, were the main reason for disciplinary proceedings within the party. Accordingly, Jewish leftists were particularly often viewed as “anti-Semites” by Labor.

The extreme right in the USA used the fight against anti-Semitism as a tool to break university autonomy

Immediately before the Trump administration began its attacks on academic freedom at US universities in early 2025 and forced the latter to adapt their curricula, the right-wing extremist “Heritage Foundation” published the strategy paper “Project Esther” in October 2024. In it, the foundation, which is considered a think tank for right-wing political change in the USA, advocated an offensive against the Palestinian solidarity movement, which was primarily anchored among students. "America's virulently anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-American 'pro-Palestine movement'" is part of the "global Hamas network," according to the paper.

“Project Esther,” which begins with a long passage from the Old Testament and thus also expresses a commitment to the religious right in the USA, not only promoted a mobilization against the Palestine solidarity movement, but also linked the allegations with attacks against the progressive wing of the Democrats in Congress – i.e. the representatives around Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The strategy paper states that through Palestine solidarity, "Jews, Israelis and all proud Americans are pushed into the role of implacable oppressors, while the Palestinians - whether Arabs or Muslims - are assigned the role of victims." And further: "This interpretation of history comes directly from Karl Marx's 'Communist Manifesto,' but can also be traced back to Soviet agitprop and can be found in Adolf Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' again."

»Project Esther and Project 2025 pursued a common goal: the dismantling of liberal-democratic institutions.«

Other passages in the document, which largely appear to be conspiracy theory, could also have been written by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. The “Heritage Foundation” speaks of a “terrorist support network” that includes, among others, the “Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC), the American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), the Jewish Voice for Justice and the Samidun group.” This network has been "active for years" and not only supports Hamas, but also "pursues the goal of eliminating capitalism and democracy." Thus, “the Hamas support network represents a threat not only to American Jewry, but to America itself.”

A report in the New York Times in mid-2025 came to the conclusion that Trump's offensive against US universities had essentially followed the guidelines of "Project Esther". Jonathan Jacoby of the non-governmental organization “Nexus Project,” which is dedicated to combating anti-Semitism in North America, expressed the view that the anti-Palestinian campaign “despite its name (…) was not a strategy to combat increasing anti-Jewish prejudice, discrimination or violence.” Rather, it was a plan to "use the accusation of anti-Semitism as a weapon to advance the goals of its ideological predecessor at the Heritage Foundation: Project 2025." According to Jacoby, “Project Esther” and “Project 2025” pursue a common goal: “the dismantling of liberal-democratic institutions in favor of reactionary, authoritarian rule.”

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