The following motion was submitted to the 18th federal congress of the German socialist youth organization Linksjugend ['solid]—the youth wing of the German party Die Linke—by the Berlin delegation of the organization. The motion was adopted: 127 votes in favour (69.78%), 45 against (24.73%), and 10 abstentions (5.50%), with 182 valid votes cast.

Since then, the organization has been attacked by the pro-Israel German media, by leading politicians from the Left Party, including the co-chairpersons Ines Schwerdtner and Jan van Aken, by seventeen Left parliamentarians in a letter to the party leadership published by the bourgeois press and even by the Israeli ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor.

With over 12,000 members, the Linksjugend ['solid] is the second-largest organization on the German left, the largest being its own mother party. Its resolution, which passed by an overwhelming majority, could mark a significant shift within the Left Party and within the broader German left in general.

Resolution of the Youth Wing of the German Left Party: We Must Never Again Remain Silent in the Face of a Genocide

The displacement and destruction of the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli state continues and has intensified in the last months. At the same time, the resistance against colonialism, apartheid, and genocide and the protests in support of the struggle of the Palestinian people against occupation have gained traction. Only recently, the Left Party too, as part of a coalition, organized the biggest protest in solidarity with the Palestinian people to date. We too have been moved by all of this to self-critically question our previous ideas. We now consider our resolution “Self-determination, security, justice and peace for all in the Middle East” from February 2024 to have been insufficient. A self-critical revision of the position we have hitherto upheld regarding the Israeli state policy towards the Palestinian people is long overdue.

As a left-wing youth organization, we have failed in the face of a genocide. We have failed:

1. to recognize the colonial and racist character of the Israeli state project, which has expressed itself from its origins to its present in the form of the conquest of new territories and the displacement of its inhabitants.
2. to name unequivocally and to condemn the crimes of the Israeli state, from the apartheid system to the genocide in Gaza.
3. to recognize the legitimacy of the demands of the Palestinian people and its allies for completely equal individual and national rights and the unrestricted right of return.
4. to do everything in our power to contribute to the realization of these demands.

As Linksjugend ['solid] we acknowledge this historical failure and call on our party to do the same.

Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people is an integral part of the undemocratic status quo that is upheld by imperialist powers such as the United States of America and Germany throughout the region. Germany’s participation in the genocide in Gaza—in the form of weapons exports, diplomatic support for Israel and criminalization of Palestine solidarity—is motivated by imperial interests in the region and not by historical feelings of guilt or by a love of human rights or democracy. Likewise, the liberation of Palestine must be viewed as a part of a broader democratic and socialist revolution that expels imperialism and capitalism from the region and establishes complete legal equality and self-determination. It is our responsibility as socialists in Germany to support the revolutionary democratic and socialist movements in the region and to prevent the German state from overthrowing the revolution and repressing democratic and socialist tendencies with the help of its regional allies.

From now on we consider the realisation of the tasks stated above to be our duty as a socialist and international youth organization. Every spokesperson of our organization as well as every member of the organization in a parliament or in a representative body is bound to openly and clearly defend this line. We acknowledge the groundwork laid by members who were active in Palestine solidarity work and who had to push for change against great resistance at every step of the way. We thank all our partners, especially Palestinian comrades, who exerted pressure on us so that we might finally adopt a clear position. We invite them to support us in creating a new organizational practice that is truly committed to Palestine solidarity, anti-imperialism and anti-racism. So that we may never again remain silent in the face of a genocide.