The Lenape Indian tribe that once inhabited Manhattan called the mainland “Turtle Island,” even though it is a continent, not an island. Democratic socialists now refer to America as “Turtle Island” as a way of delegitimizing America and its non-Indian inhabitants, and paving the way for America’s “decolonization.” For example, the Twin Cities chapter of Democratic Socialists of America has called for “rematriation of land” from its current owners in both America — “Turtle Island” — and Israel. It did so in calling for the eradication of Israel “From the River, to the Sea” (Israel consists of most of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea).

As the Center of the American Experiment notes, “To the Twin Cities DSA, both Minnesota and Israel are ‘stolen land’ that needs to be ‘decolonized.’” Three city council members in Minneapolis are members of the Twin Cities DSA, including two who are also elected Democratic politicians.

It has also become common on college campuses to refer to the United States as “Turtle Island” to lend support to movements that seek to reclaim America and Israel from their current inhabitants. For example, student groups whose members comprise much of Columbia University’s student body recently formed an anti-Israel, anti-American group called Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which seeks to abolish capitalism, police, and prisons, and decolonize “Turtle Island” and Israel. It also peddles the anti-semitic conspiracy theory that America’s police are trained mostly by Israel’s IDF, which is complete nonsense.