Judith Butler says Democratic victories offer no guarantee of change for anti-Zionists
Speaking at Boston University, Butler argued that last week’s Democratic election gains would not necessarily ease what she described as repression of anti-Zionist views.
By Ayanda Boateng ·
Jewish academic Judith Butler cautioned Thursday against expecting sweeping Democratic victories in last week’s midterm elections to bring rapid improvements for supporters of anti-Zionism. Addressing a Boston University symposium, Butler said people expressing those views faced potential consequences for their education, employment, professional status, freedom of movement and privacy.
Butler delivered the keynote at a conference on Jewish anti-Zionism held alongside the launch of “Jewish Anti-Zionism: A Historical Anthology,” edited by Shaul Magid and Zev Mishell. Butler linked the debate over anti-Zionism to academic freedom and argued that the presence of many centrist Zionists among Democrats limited expectations for change following the party’s electoral success.
The remarks came as Democrats have grown more critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, with several anti-Zionist politicians winning congressional elections last week. Butler nevertheless described anti-Zionism as an ideology facing persecution and alleged that the US government had classified opponents of fascism and Zionism as domestic terrorists.
Anti-Zionist views also have a substantial presence in academic settings. A 2025 Columbia University report found that its Middle East studies faculty lacked members who were not explicitly anti-Zionist. Butler, a gender theorist and outspoken opponent of Zionism, has previously described Hamas and Hezbollah as progressive social movements.
In the speech, Butler characterized Zionism as inherently directed toward eliminating Palestinians and as genocidal, while rejecting a link between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. Butler also argued that racism within Zionism conflicted with Jewish values and accused Israelis of taking pleasure in violence and killing in Gaza.
Butler presented Palestinian displacement as a continuing Nakba, the Arabic word for catastrophe used by Palestinians to describe Israel’s founding in 1948. Arguing that each new displacement strengthened Palestinian claims to return, Butler said those claims extended beyond people affected in 1948. “The Nakba has never stopped happening,” Butler said.
Butler also criticized approaches to Jewish anti-Zionism that placed Jews at the center of the discussion and rejected a binational settlement without prior decolonization. Butler advocated a self-governing Palestine with an Arab majority and full rights for Jewish residents, arguing that an established population should have a say over accepting new immigrants.
In a separate address, Magid said the history of Jewish opposition to Zionism had been deliberately obscured and described the anthology as an effort to recover it. He argued that the Hamas assault on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent Gaza war had brought previously buried anti-Zionist ideas back into discussion.
Magid also questioned whether Jews could practically maintain a position of non-Zionism, meaning they took no stance on Israel. He said Zionism had become so pervasive in Jewish thinking that participation in an engaged Jewish life inevitably involved forming some view of it.
