Highsmith described herself as a social democrat.[56] She believed in American democratic ideals and in "the promise" of U.S. history, but was also highly critical of the reality of the country's 20th-century culture and foreign policy. Beginning in 1963, she resided exclusively in Europe.[7] She retained her United States citizenship, despite the tax penalties, of which she complained bitterly while living for many years in France and Switzerland.
Highsmith was a resolute atheist.[62] Although she considered herself a liberal, and in her school years had gotten along with black students,[63] in later years she believed that black people were responsible for the welfare crisis in America.[64]: 19 She disliked Koreans because "they ate dogs".[56]
Highsmith supported Palestinian self-determination.[64] As a member of Amnesty International, she felt duty-bound to express publicly her opposition to the displacement of Palestinians.[64]: 429 Highsmith prohibited her books from being published in Israel after the election of Menachem Begin as prime minister in 1977.[64]: 431 She dedicated her 1983 novel People Who Knock on the Door to the Palestinian people:
To the courage of the Palestinian people and their leaders in the struggle to regain a part of their homeland. This book has nothing to do with their problem.
The inscription was dropped from the U.S. edition with permission from her agent but without consent from Highsmith.[64]: 418 Highsmith contributed financially to the Jewish Committee on the Middle East, an organization that represented American Jews who supported Palestinian self-determination.[64]: 430 She wrote in an August 1993 letter to Marijane Meaker: "USA could save 11 million per day if they would cut the dough to Israel. The Jewish vote is 1%."[65]
Although Highsmith was an active supporter of Palestinian rights, according to Carol screenwriter Phyllis Nagy, her expression of this "often teetered into outright antisemitism."[66] Highsmith was an avowed antisemite; she described herself as a "Jew hater" and described The Holocaust as "the semicaust".[67] When she was living in Switzerland in the 1980s, she used nearly 40 aliases when writing to government bodies and newspapers deploring the state of Israel and the "influence" of the Jews.[68]
