Overview
- Longtime figures Dietmar Bartsch, Gregor Gysi and Bodo Ramelow used a Tagesspiegel guest essay to reject activists in Die Linke who call themselves antizionist and who, they wrote, want Israel erased.
- They said party resolutions must support both Palestinians and Israelis and must not target either side, framing their standard as universal human rights.
- The party’s executive board has submitted a motion to the June federal congress that condemns all antisemitism, anti‑Muslim racism and the use of the Middle East conflict to inflame domestic politics.
- The leadership push follows a Lower Saxony motion that attacked “today’s real existing Zionism” and accused Israel of genocide and apartheid, which drew sharp rebukes including from Josef Schuster of the Central Council of Jews.
- Brandenburg’s antisemitism commissioner Andreas Büttner left Die Linke in mid‑March over the Lower Saxony text, highlighting the reputational stakes the party faces as it sets boundaries ahead of the congress.