Palestine Solidarity Movement Test

The Palestine Solidarity Movement is a broad international network of campaigns, student groups, unions, activists, and civil-society organizations that support Palestinian rights. Although it has no single governing body or universally accepted platform, many of its most visible organizations share a common language of freedom, justice, equality, decolonization, and liberation.

The movement has roots in decades of activism against displacement, military occupation, settlement, and discrimination. Since the Palestinian-led call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions in 2005, BDS campaigns have become a central part of international Palestine solidarity activism. More recent campaigns have also focused on arms transfers, institutional investments, and university ties to Israel.

Three demands recur across much of the movement: ending Israel's occupation and colonization of land occupied in 1967, securing full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel, and recognizing the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return. Many activists connect these demands to a broader rejection of Zionism as the political basis of a Jewish state.

The movement commonly describes Israel as a settler-colonial project and its rule over Palestinians as apartheid. Within this framework, the Nakba is understood not only as the mass displacement associated with Israel's creation in 1948, but as an ongoing process of dispossession. Activists therefore often reject 'both sides' language as obscuring an unequal relationship of power and domination.

Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions are intended to create economic, political, academic, and cultural pressure until Palestinian rights demands are met. Campaigns may target governments, corporations, universities, cultural institutions, or other bodies regarded as complicit in Israeli policy. Supporters compare this strategy to international pressure used against apartheid South Africa.

Anti-normalization is another influential principle. From this perspective, partnerships with Zionist institutions can falsely present Israelis and Palestinians as equal participants in a mutual conflict while leaving domination intact. This produces disagreement over dialogue, coexistence initiatives, academic exchange, and cooperation with progressive organizations that support Zionism.

Direct action is prominent within the movement. Tactics have included marches, sit-ins, occupations, encampments, event disruptions, and campaigns targeting arms companies or institutional investments. Some activists also defend a Palestinian right to armed resistance against occupation, although the legitimacy of particular tactics - especially attacks on civilians - remains a major point of dispute.

Palestine solidarity is often situated within a wider struggle against imperialism, racism, and colonialism. This framework connects Palestinian liberation to other progressive causes and treats U.S. and Western military, diplomatic, and economic support for Israel as structurally important. Agreement with the movement can therefore involve views about Western power, social movements, protest, and decolonization as well as views about Israel and Palestine themselves.

This test cannot provide a definitive or clinical assessment of your political opinions. It is an informational quiz designed to estimate agreement with themes associated with the Palestine Solidarity Movement. For more information about any of our online tests and quizzes, please consult our Terms of Service.

References

• BDS Movement. (n.d.). What is BDS? Retrieved September 3, 2026, from https://bdsmovement.net/what-bds
• BDS Movement. (2022, October 29). The BDS movement's anti-normalization guidelines. https://bdsmovement.net/news/bds-movement-anti-normalization-guidelines
• Palestine Solidarity Campaign. (n.d.). Our aims. Retrieved September 3, 2026, from https://palestinecampaign.org/about/aims/
• Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. (2014a, July 8). PACBI guidelines for the international academic boycott of Israel. https://bdsmovement.net/pacbi/academic-boycott-guidelines
• Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. (2014b, July 15). PACBI guidelines for the international cultural boycott of Israel. https://bdsmovement.net/pacbi/cultural-boycott-guidelines
• Palestinian civil society organizations. (2005, July 9). Palestinian civil society calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights. BDS Movement. https://bdsmovement.net/bds-call