The Signs Were There

by on

“For years, the debate over Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians has roiled LGBTQ gatherings and parades where Jewish groups wanted to display symbols of the religion. In 2017, organizers of the Chicago Dyke March kicked women out for carrying the Pride flag with a Star of David, citing its resemblance to the Israeli flag. … At the 2016 [Creating Change] conference, in Chicago, the pro-Israel LGBTQ organization A Wider Bridge shut down its event and evacuated guests because of intense protests. … Some LGBTQ Jews … say if they openly identify as anything other than anti-Zionist, they are unwelcome in certain queer spaces.”

Plus this:

“Cohen points out that in Israel, most LGBTQ people live safely with many rights, even if far from full equality, while many queer people in Palestine cannot live openly. She asks why pro-Palestinian queer people don’t specifically condemn queer oppression in Palestine, noting a report of Hamas executing a gay man in Gaza by throwing him off a building.
Gaines, the Washington march organizer, said that discussion of condemning the reported Palestinian brutality against queer people did not come up in planning meetings for the march, which considered itself “fiercely” pro-Palestinian.”

And this:


Also of interest: Why Hamas Atrocities Lead the Left to Hate Israel More:

Shany Mor writes:

Western activists for Palestinians are dedicated to two nearly theological precepts: that Israel is evil, and that no Palestinian action is ever connected to any Palestinian outcome. Each precept is grounded in longstanding—and borderline racist—conceptions of Jews and Arabs.

This cognitive trap expresses itself in how Israel’s opponents in the West speak about the conflict with the Palestinians. Concern that “time is running out” for reaching a two-state solution never leads to calls for the Palestinians to hurry up and accept a negotiated compromise. They ignore that the Palestinians rejected statehood and peace in 2000, 2001, 2008 and 2014. They ignore that Hamas’s belligerence is the cause of Israel’s blockade of Gaza, a defensive measure by a nation under assault.

Hamas’s gruesome attack poses a threat to this worldview, and the only way to resolve it is by heightening Israel’s imagined malevolence. The terrorist atrocities don’t trigger a recoiling from the cause in whose name they were carried out; they lead to an even greater revulsion at the victim.

Chadwick Moore shares a similar take:

6 Comments for “The Signs Were There”

  1. posted by Edward TJ Brown on

    1. It is possible to be opposed to Zionism, and not be anti-Semitic. Yet, being anti-Zionist is frequently used as a dog whistle.

    2. Progressive groups do exist that support the the rights of Palestinians, gay and straight alike, and also the rights of Israelis, gay and straight.

  2. posted by Jorge on

    Also of interest…

    It’d be fascinating to watch online if it weren’t so disgusting.

  3. posted by Edward TJ Brown on

    Hamas does not want peace! They are the rough equivalent of the KKK. They want a Islamic dictatorship that stretches far beyond just Israel.

    Palestinians have two corrupt choices when they vote. Hamas pledged to be slightly less corrupt. And then pushed for a corrupt, rightwing theocracy.

  4. posted by Edward TJ Brown on

    Fine! If you support Palestinian liberation, don’t back Hamas. Back the palestinians and israelis working for the two-state solution. Back the peace makers and civil rights campaigners.

    • posted by William on

      I don’t see any real support any more for the 2-state solution outside of older U.S. liberals. Despite misleading reports, most Palestinians in Gaza appear to support Hamas and its destroy Israel, kill the Jews ideology. In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority promotes rabid Jew hatred and pays bonuses to the families of the Gaza “martyrs.”
      While U.S. liberals, Jewish and otherwise, may still hold the 2-state dream, the left is in the streets chanting that Palestine shall be “from the river to the sea” (i.e., the total elimination of Israel and its Jewish population). The Palestinian Authority was offered a pathway to a 2-state solution many times over the years (in 2000, 2001, 2008 and 2014), and each time the PA rejected it (because the PA leaders knew they’d be assassinated if they moved to accept such an agreement).
      We see what happened after Gaza itself was granted political autonomy with the forced removal, by Israel, of all Jewish residents. It was the intended building block for a 2-state solution, but you can’t surmount the Palestinians’ rejectionist ideology.

  5. posted by Edward TJ Brown on

    Um…
    I know Israelis and Palestinians who back the two state solution.

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