Marx and the Question of Palestine

Abstract

May 15th is recognized by Palestinians around the world as Nakba Day (Nakba meaning ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic), marking the anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel on the same date in 1948, and the escalation of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Within 2 years (1947-1949), 15,000 Palestinians were killed, 40% of the Palestinian population became refugees, and Zionist forces had taken over 78% of historic Palestine. In 2025, 77 years later, we are witnessing the mass genocide of the Palestinian people and the destruction of Palestinian land by the Zionist state and their allies - the United States being one of the most prominent. In this paper, the history and current state of the Palestinian genocide and the pro-Palestinian movement will interact with Karl Marx’s theories on superstructure and infrastructure, class struggle, and class consciousness. Positioning Zionists as the oppressive, ruling class and Palestinians as the oppressed will explain the influence of class struggle and economic infrastructure on the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the pro-Palestinian movement that has followed.