US Lawmakers Linked to Democratic Socialists of America Silent on Organization’s Public Hamas Endorsement

A caucus affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a left-wing political organization that counts members of the US Congress among its ranks, has issued a public endorsement of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. 

The Red Star Caucus, a self-described “Marxist revolutionary” faction of the DSA, published an article on Friday glorifying the actions of Hamas, an Islamist organization that launched the war in Gaza on Oct. 7 by slaughtering more than 1,200 people throughout southern Israel. The caucus argued that lending support to the terrorist group is necessary to secure “Palestinian liberation.”

“To support a resistance without Hamas is to support something which does not exist. It is to support no resistance at all,” the group wrote. “And in turn, to spend our time on criticism of Hamas as an organization validates the widespread opinion that Hamas is an existential danger (too extreme for even the communists!) and lends credence to Israel’s justification of its onslaught. When we hear every anti-Palestinian group call for the destruction of Hamas, do we lend our voices to those calls, or stand with Palestine and its resistance?”

The group added that support for Hamas’ genocidal ambitions against Israel are necessary to secure a socialist future. 

“We must recognize what our struggle for socialism entails, and who our allies are. Those allies will be the resistance movements which actually exist, the opponents of capitalism and imperialism around the world!” the Red Star Caucus added. 

The Democratic Socialists of America, one of the country’s premier leftist political advocacy organizations, has mobilized in recent years to elect anti-Israel members to Congress. Influential lawmakers such as US Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Greg Casar (D-TX), and Cori Bush (D-MO) are all current members of the socialist organization. Others such as Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Summer Lee (D-PA) are former members.

None of these lawmakers responded to The Algemeiner‘s request for comment on the Red Star Caucus’s endorsement of Hamas.

However, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), a staunch supporter of Israel, slammed the Red Star Caucus as “antisemitic” on X/Twitter. 

“DSA Members are defending a genocidal terrorist organization that has murdered, maimed, burned, butchered, raped, tortured, and abducted thousands of Jews in Israel,” Torres wrote. “Yet we are being gaslit into believing that there’s nothing antisemitic about the DSA and its comrades on the extreme left.”

In the months following Oct. 7, Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Bush, Bowman, and Lee have launched a relentless barrage of blistering attacks against Israel, accusing the Jewish state of committing “genocide” and “apartheid” against Palestinians in Gaza. They have also pushed for the Biden administration to block arms shipments to Israel as it continues its military campaign against Hamas. 

The DSA has ramped up its anti-Israel rhetoric during the Gaza war. On Oct. 7, the organization issued a statement saying that Hamas’ massacre was “a direct result of Israel’s apartheid regime.” The organization also encouraged its followers to attend an Oct. 8 “All Out for Palestine” event in Manhattan.

In January, the DSA issued a statement calling for an “end to diplomatic and military support of Israel.” Then in April, the organization’s international committee, DSA IC, issued a missive defending Iran’s right to “self-defense” against Israel.

Iran, which Western intelligence agencies have labeled the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, is the chief international sponsor of Hamas, providing the terrorist group with funding, weapons, and training. DSA’s statement in April came after Israel launched a small, calibrated military strike on Iran after the Iranian regime launched a missile and drone salvo against the Jewish state — an unprecedented direct attack against the Israeli homeland.

“DSA IC reiterates our firm opposition to providing any military or diplomatic assistance to the Zionist project,” the organization wrote. “Despite Western attempts to paint Iran as the aggressor, DSA IC recognizes that Iran has long been targeted by the US and its allies for its efforts to establish national self-determination and champion Palestinian liberation.”