A 'Fight of the Century' Over 'Pinkwashing' and Israel

[Little Tich]

Source: The Jewish Daily Forward

The Internet is still recovering from Mayweather vs. Pacquaio, but I’ve been fantasizing about a different “fight of the century” starring two outspoken LGBT agitators: Lucas versus Spade.

I’ve just read two extreme position statements on Israel/Palestine, both from within the LGBT community. One, from the right, was directed at me in an op-ed by gay porn king/Defender of the Jews Michael Lucas. Another, from the left, was directed at the Jewish LGBT group A Wider Bridge, in an interviewfeaturing queer academic and activist Dean Spade.

It would be interesting to get Spade and Lucas in a room together, but they are each boycotting one another, because each believes the other side of this debate to be evil. No exaggeration; Lucas compared me to promoters of the blood libel, and Spade stated several times that Israel is a worse colonial, racist, apartheid state than South Africa.

They do have a lot in common, though. Lucas convinced the New York LGBT Center to ban a group called Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, while Spade convinced the Seattle LGBT Center to ban A Wider Bridge. That should count for something.

Read more: http://forward.com/opinion/israel/308303/a-fight-among-lgbt-activists-over-israel/

[King_David]

1. No surprise QuAIA is disbanding

It wasn’t an easy decision to make,” McCaskell said in the group’s statement. “But we decided that retiring QuAIA allows us all to develop new strategies for supporting the Palestine solidarity movement and to make new links across oppressions in our communities.”
Whatever that means.
But if their pathetic efforts in last year’s World Pride parade helped seal their demise, I am thrilled. When I happened by their float, if you want to call it that, they were near the end of the line and had yet to march at 5 p.m. No more than a dozen people were assembled.
Gay, Jewish activist and lawyer Martin Gladstone, who produced two documentaries at his own expense about QuAIA, figures with (ISIS-led) atrocities like beheadings, the rapes and the genocides of minorities happening before our eyes, QuAIA ended up looking “even more ridiculous” than they already were for viciously attacking “the only gay friendly pluralistic liberal democracy” in the Middle East.

http://m.torontosun.com/2015/02/27/no-surprise-quaia-is-disbanding

[Little Tich]

2. I think the tone of the article is a little bit high-strung.

But I do think a Pride parade should have a message of inclusion, not one of exclusion, and for a group like QAIA that seemingly exists only for its exclusionary message to participate doesn't feel right.

It would be much better if the group was “Queers for Palestine” or something, and was working for Palestinian LGBT rights instead.

[Jefferson23]

3. Excellent, thank you..there are people who deny pinkwashing and claim it is bullshit..very sad.

I appreciate the time the author took to consider the broader concept and clears up
its application ( pinkwashing ) and looks at it in a measured way versus the two
individuals in question...I believe he gets it.

His bio: Jay Michaelson (born 1971) is a writer and LGBT activist in the USA. His work involves spirituality, Judaism, sexuality, and law.[1] He is currently a contributing editor to The Forward,[2] newspaper, and a columnist at the The Daily Beast[3] Michaelson has twice won the New York Society for Professional Journalists award for opinion writing, most recently in 2014.[4] Michaelson is Jewish and openly gay and often works in the intersecting fields of LGBT people and Jewish traditions.[5]

Michaelson has held teaching positions at Chicago Theological Seminary, Boston University, Yale University, and the City College of New York with a focus on religion, law, and ethics. His 1998 Stanford Environmental Law Journal article[6][7] on geoengineering and climate change was described as "seminal" by Salon Magazine[8] and he is regarded as an early advocate of the policy.[9]

Michaelson was listed in the Forward 50 list of influential American Jews in 2009. He founded Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture in 2002 and Nehirim, an LGBT Jewish organization, in 2004. In 2009, his essay entitled "How I'm Losing My Love for Israel" generated substantial controversy in the Jewish world, including responses [10] from Daniel Gordis,[11] and Jonathan Sarna,.[12] Michaelson holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Thought from Hebrew University, and was ordained as a rabbi in 2013.

In 2013, Michaelson wrote a long-form report on the religious exemptions movement,[13] which gained prominence a year later in the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court case. He has been a significant public voice on the issue, appearing on NPR[14] and writing in Reuters[15] and other publications.

remainder: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Michaelson

[King_David]

4. Op-ed: Why LGBT People Around the World Need Israel

Israel acts as an example of a pro-LGBT society in a part of the world where sexual and gender minorities are often persecuted.

http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2014/07/09/op-ed-why-lgbt-people-around-world-need-israel


( source is The Advocate... Not Wikipedia)

[Little Tich]

5. The reader comments are interesting. n/t

[King_David]

6. Very

Kind of like a Gay version of this group.

[Jefferson23]

7. What does that have to do with the OP? Nothing. n/t

[King_David]

8. No , it has everything to do with the OP

Clearly the Jewish state like Jewish culture in the USA is very accepting of LGBT... Nothing to do with "pinkwashing " which is obviously BOGUS.

[Jefferson23]

11. I see exactly who believes its bullshit, no worries. n/t

[King_David]

12. Oh I never worry when I'm correct

Last edited Sat May 16, 2015, 08:47 PM - Edit history (1)

And in this topic I'm an expert...

[oberliner]

9. Pinkwashing is bullshit

It's a completely fabricated piece of hate from the dark corners of the anti-Israel community.

[King_David]

10. Jews are very accepting and tolerant

And progressive in the USA or Israel.

"Pinkwashing" is bogus and a lie.

[oberliner]

13. It is really a vile thing for Israel haters to have invented

Israel is the most gay friendly nation in the region. Whatever folks want to criticize Israel for, that is one thing that ought to be celebrated or at least acknowledged.

But hey, the Israel haters get a lot more mileage out of coming up with this nonsense.

They do the same thing when they attack Israel for helping with the Nepal relief efforts and the like.

Anything positive Israel does, they put "washing" on the end of it and turn it into something nefarious.

[King_David]

14. Exactly

Imagine having to admit Israel is more progressive than anywhere else in the region... Well when it comes to LGBT
( among other things) it is not even debatable and its sticks in some people's throats... Unbelievable!

[azurnoir]

15. Dark corners like NYT and Time Magazine?

Israel and ‘Pinkwashing’

Last year, the Israeli news site Ynet reported that the Tel Aviv tourism board had begun a campaign of around $90 million to brand the city as “an international gay vacation destination.” The promotion, which received support from the Tourism Ministry and Israel’s overseas consulates, includes depictions of young same-sex couples and financing for pro-Israeli movie screenings at lesbian and gay film festivals in the United States. (The government isn’t alone; an Israeli pornography producer even shot a film, “Men of Israel,” on the site of a former Palestinian village.)

This message is being articulated at the highest levels. In May, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Congress that the Middle East was “a region where women are stoned, gays are hanged, Christians are persecuted.”


Pinkwashing not only manipulates the hard-won gains of Israel’s gay community, but it also ignores the existence of Palestinian gay-rights organizations. Homosexuality has been decriminalized in the West Bank since the 1950s, when anti-sodomy laws imposed under British colonial influence were removed from the Jordanian penal code, which Palestinians follow. More important is the emerging Palestinian gay movement with three major organizations: Aswat, Al Qaws and Palestinian Queers for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. These groups are clear that the oppression of Palestinians crosses the boundary of sexuality; as Haneen Maikay, the director of Al Qaws, has said, “When you go through a checkpoint it does not matter what the sexuality of the soldier is.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/23/opinion/pinkwashing-and-israels-use-of-gays-as-a-messaging-tool.html?_r=2&ref=opinion

Is Israel Using Gay Rights to Excuse Its Policy on Palestine?

Next month is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride month, an international season of parades, cultural festivals and street parties celebrating gay rights. But amid all the good cheer, tensions are rising over a controversial issue that is splintering LGBT communities. Around the world, major pride events are being used as battlegrounds to combat what some pro-Palestinian, progay activists are calling pink washing: Israel's promotion of its progressive gay-rights record as a way to cover up ongoing human-rights abuses in the West Bank and Gaza.

The accusations stem from efforts over the past half-decade by the Israeli government to weave the country's gay-friendly policies — including national hate-crime laws, employment protection for LGBT workers and openly gay military service — into its larger national-rebranding strategy, in the hopes of redirecting its global image away from politics, terrorism and the occupied territories. "The Israeli government and its propaganda organs ... insist on advertising and exaggerating its recent record on LGBT rights ... to fend off international condemnation of its violations of the rights of the Palestinian people," says Joseph Massad, associate professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University in New York City.

http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2070415,00.html

[oberliner]

16. No

Those are news sources.

The lie was fabricated in the dark corners of the Israel hating community by Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, a group which has recently disbanded.

Many news sources allow those who believe this nonsense to espouse their misguided views.

[azurnoir]

17. so there is/was no attempt by the Israeli government to "re-brand" Israel

the problem here is that those familiar with this group have seen verbatim some of the tactics used here by 'ProIsrael' posters

[King_David]

18. verbatim ?

Go on...

In this group of 13 people's and 29 readers

Please tell..

[oberliner]

19. Israel tries to promote itself favorably

They try to highlight positive components of their country to attract visitors and investment. Most countries in the world do this.

[azurnoir]

20. yes especially when trying to distract from something else