A 2026 Resolution for Anti-Zionists: Think about what you are chanting
A 2026 Resolution for Anti-Zionists: Think about what you are chanting
Add thought to your emotional expressions
It’s easy to chant. It’s harder to mean what you say.
On campuses and in city squares, the Israel–Palestine conflict gets compressed into a few rhymes and a lot of adrenaline. The crowd wants a clean villain and a clean victory. The microphone wants certainty. Social media wants a clip.
Reality wants details.
So here’s my modest 2026 resolution for anti-Zionists (and, frankly, for anyone who turns politics into karaoke): before you chant, add one sentence that makes your meaning testable. If you can’t add that sentence, you don’t have a position—you have a mood.
I’m going to use a simple tool: thinkji—a small pause in print that stands in for the moment your brain should have joined the protest.
My recurring refrain is this: Add one sentence.
Not a dissertation. One sentence. The sentence you keep skipping because it would force you to choose between “human rights” and “my side wins.”
20 chants, 20 missing sentences
1) “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
〔thinkji〕Free how—alongside Israel, or instead of it?
Add one sentence: “Free with equal rights for Jews and Palestinians, and with two states (or one) that protects both peoples.”
2) “Globalize the intifada.”
〔thinkji〕Do you mean globalize protest—or globalize a term remembered for mass violence?
Add one sentence: “I mean nonviolent pressure only—no attacks on civilians, anywhere.”
3) “Intifada, intifada” (and its rhymed variants)
〔thinkji〕What happens the morning after your ‘revolution’?
Add one sentence: “My end-state is a legitimate Palestinian government, no militias, and security guarantees for both sides.”
4) “Resistance by any means necessary.”
〔thinkji〕‘Any means’ includes targeting civilians—are you comfortable owning that?
Add one sentence: “Resistance means political and civil pressure—not killing or kidnapping civilians.”
5) “We don’t want two states, we want ’48.”
〔thinkji〕So… you’re not demanding policy change; you’re demanding a rewind of history.
Add one sentence: “If I oppose two states, I’m proposing a single democratic state with equal rights, not domination by either side.”
6) “Abolish / dismantle / smash the Zionist state.”
〔thinkji〕Are you opposing a government’s policies—or negating a people’s right to national existence?
Add one sentence: “I oppose specific policies (settlements, discrimination, indefinite control), not the existence of Israelis as a people.”
7) “Zionism is racism.”
〔thinkji〕That’s a label, not an argument. What definition are you using?
Add one sentence: “I accept Jewish self-determination in principle, and I oppose any nationalism—including Palestinian—when it denies equal rights.”
8) “Israel is an apartheid state.”
〔thinkji〕Where, exactly, and under which laws?
Add one sentence: “I’m criticizing unequal legal regimes and rights, and I want one standard of civil rights applied to everyone under Israeli control.”
9) “Israel is committing genocide.”
〔thinkji〕Are you making a legal claim about intent—or using ‘genocide’ as a megaphone word?
Add one sentence: “My demand is immediate: protect civilians, expand humanitarian access, investigate war crimes, and pursue a political end-state.”
10) “Israel has no right to exist.”
〔thinkji〕You’ve just declared millions of people illegitimate. Now what?
Add one sentence: “I recognize two peoples with two national claims—my argument is about borders and rights, not erasure.”
11) “Occupation no more!”
〔thinkji〕By what mechanism, and with what security arrangement?
Add one sentence: “End permanent control through a negotiated withdrawal, a credible Palestinian state, and internationally backed security.”
12) “Free Palestine!”
〔thinkji〕Free from what—and free into what?
Add one sentence: “Free from corruption and armed rule, and free into a functional state with courts, elections, and protected minorities.”
13) “No justice, no peace!”
〔thinkji〕Define justice without using the word ‘justice.’
Add one sentence: “Justice means safety for Israelis and sovereignty and rights for Palestinians—not victory narratives.”
14) “Settlers out!”
〔thinkji〕Do you mean West Bank settlements—or ‘Jews out’? Those are not the same thing.
Add one sentence: “I oppose settlement expansion and support negotiated land swaps—I do not support expelling people based on ethnicity.”
15) “The settlements are illegal.”
〔thinkji〕Even if you’re right, ‘illegal’ isn’t a roadmap.
Add one sentence: “Freeze expansion now, dismantle illegal outposts, and negotiate final borders with enforcement, not slogans.”
16) “BDS! BDS!”
〔thinkji〕Targeted pressure or blanket punishment? Policy leverage or identity war?
Add one sentence: “My pressure is policy-specific (e.g., settlement-linked commerce), and my end-state is two states and equal rights.”
17) “No normalization!”
〔thinkji〕So: no dialogue, no coexistence projects, no joint work—until total agreement?
Add one sentence: “I will oppose policies without opposing contact; I support dialogue and joint efforts that reduce violence.”
18) “Israel is a colonial / settler-colonial project.”
〔thinkji〕A template isn’t history. Where do Jewish indigeneity and refugees from MENA fit in your model?
Add one sentence: “I’m naming real harms (displacement, control, inequality) without pretending Jewish history in the land is a foreign meme.”
19) “There is only one solution: resistance.”
〔thinkji〕‘Only one solution’ is what people say when they don’t want to juggle constraints.
Add one sentence: “Solutions are plural: ceasefire, hostage release, demilitarization, reconstruction, governance reform, borders.”
20) “One state (from the river to the sea).”
〔thinkji〕One state can mean democracy—or domination. Which are you proposing?
Add one sentence: “I’m proposing one person, one vote, equal civil rights, protected minorities, and enforceable constitutional guarantees—or I’m not serious.”
The moral of the story (for campus politics)
If you can’t attach a single clarifying sentence to your chant, you’re not doing justice. You’re doing branding.
And if your “anti-Zionism” cannot plainly say yes to Jewish collective safety and political legitimacy in some form—while also saying yes to Palestinian freedom and statehood—then what you’re selling isn’t liberation.
It’s a zero-sum fantasy, dressed up as righteousness.
So take the 2026 resolution:
Chant if you must. But add thought to your emotional expressions.
〔thinkji〕Add one sentence.
