Democratic Socialists of America founding member leaves over its 'morally bankrupt' response to Hamas attack

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Democratic Socialists of America founding member Maurice Isserman announced Monday he is leaving the organization for its response to Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israeli civilians.

Isserman, who is still described on the socialists’ website as a founding member of DSA penned a piece for The Nation headlined, "Why I Just Quit DSA."

"I left to protest the DSA leadership’s politically and morally bankrupt response to the horrific Hamas October 7 anti-Jewish pogrom that took the lives of 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and saw over 200 hostages carried off to Gaza, both groups of victims including children and infants," he wrote.

"Its statement on October 7 made no mention—let alone offering any criticism—of Hamas, declaring instead, ‘Today’s events are a direct result of Israel’s apartheid regime—a regime that receives billions in funding from the United States,’" he continued.

A founding member of the Democratic Socialists of America condemned the organization and cut ties with it over its response to Hamas attacks on Israeli citizens. (DSA photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images, Hamas photo Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

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NYC-DSA also co-sponsored a pro-Palestinian rally in New York City the day after the massacre where demonstrators burned and stomped on an Israeli flag and taunted Israel supporters with an image of a swastika. Several progressives, including lawmakers, subsequently condemned or renounced their membership with DSA.

Isserman called out specific chapters of the national organization, ranging from one that praised the "Palestinian resistance" for having "launched an unprecedented anti-colonial struggle," to another for having "circulated a ‘toolkit’ for responding to the events of October 7 produced by DSA’s National BDS & Palestine Solidarity Working Group, including a list of demands," one of which was "Decolonization—from the river to the sea." 

Isserman, who is a professor at Hamilton College, said the toolkit advocated "confrontation by any means necessary" including "armed struggle." 

"As for those killed on October 7," Isserman wrote, "the authors explained matter-of-factly, ‘Settlers are not ‘civilians’ in the sense of international law, because they are military assets used to ensure continued control over stolen Palestinian land.’"

A spokesperson from the national DSA organization told Fox News Digital, "This is factually incorrect the toolkit adopted and published officially by our national organization contains none of those phrases or language." 

The toolkit shared in a link by Isserman leads to a Google document titled, "National BDS & Palestine Solidarity Working Group October 2023, Palestine Organizing Toolkit." The document includes the language, "Settlers are not ‘civilians’ in the sense of international law, because they are military assets used to ensure continued control over stolen Palestinian land."

Demonstrators attend an "emergency rally for Gaza" outside of the Israeli Consulate in New York City, New York on Monday, October 9, 2023. (Jennifer Mitchell for Fox News Digital)

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While Isserman noted there were many "eloquent responses to DSA’s all-but-explicit endorsement of Hamas’s horrifying atrocities," he shared a specific quote from Jewish comedian Sarah Silverman.

"The DSA of which I was a proud lifetime member, has lost me forever… Over 1,000 slaughtered as of now. Girls raped over the bodies of their friends. These are kids, babies, children, teens, elderly, many of whom like my family march in the streets nightly protesting Netanyahu and the occupation THAT’S WHO HAMAS MURDERED you F----. knowing Israel@will retaliate- do you get that they don’t give a F--- about Palestinian lives?????," Silverman posted on Instagram. 

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The Nation updated the article after publication that changed one of Isserman's quotes. 

"So why am I quitting DSA? There are many reasons," Isserman originally wrote. "But in the end, the most important comes down to the Sarah Silverman Rule #1 for Judging One’s Political Associates. An organization that believes that slaughtered Jewish civilians, including children and infants, are ‘military assets’ who deserved their fate has forfeited the right to call itself democratic socialist. It has, as Sarah says ‘lost me forever.’"

The updated quote now states, "So why am I quitting DSA? There are many reasons. But in the end, the most important comes down to the Sarah Silverman Rule #1 for Judging One’s Political Associates. An organization that can’t take a stand condemning a right-wing terrorist group that set out to murder as many Jewish civilians, including children and infants, as it can lay its hands on, has forfeited the right to call itself democratic socialist. It has, as Sarah says "lost me forever."

The article was updated to include comment from the Democratic Socialists of America national group and to reflect an updated quote from Isserman. 

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