I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Michael Lucas, gay Israeli tourism promoter and adult entertainment industry entrepreneur, for threatening to organize a donor boycott of the New York LGBT Center for allocating space to Siege Busters for their fundraiser during Israeli Apartheid Week this past March. Lucas' indiscriminate use of the charge of anti-Semitism, leveled against a mixed-group of Jewish, not-Jewish, secular, queer and not-queer activists raising money to fund a flotilla to Gaza, resulted in the cancellation of the Siege Busters event. The accusation of anti-Semitism, now apparently equivalent to anti-Zionism, has been rendered a rather fast and loose charge, deployed primarily, it now seems, to squash democratic debate about the Israel-Palestine conflict. This rather sorry development undermines the force of decrying anti-Semitism not routed through direct protest against the Israeli state, of which there still exists plenty.
The good news is that New York's queer communities have finally joined those in Toronto, San Francisco, Madrid, Tel Aviv and Berlin, queer communities mired in intense debate over the Israel-Palestine conflict. What is particularly remarkable about the spread of this debate in LGBTQ communities globally is that so few understand what is queer about the Middle East conflict in general and the Israeli occupation of Palestine in particular. Lucas's tirade came on the heels of the U.S. Palestinian Queer Activist tour, organized by writer and professor Sarah Schulman. The last stop of this six-city delegation was hosted in overflow capacity space at the Audre Lorde Project and co-sponsored by other LGBT POC groups, including fellow residents of 147 24th Street: Queers for Economic Justice (QEJ), the Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP), and FIERCE!. The Feb. 16 event featured alQwas for Sexual and Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society and ASWAT Palestinian Gay Women, and reflected ALP's nearly 10-year relationship with these activists, as well as ALP's support of Palestinian self-determination. What the touring activists made clear was the near-impossibility of mounting a queer movement without addressing the Israeli occupation of Palestine. This is to assert something rather obvious that commentators such as Lillian Faderman, Phyllis Chesler and Lucas seem unable to comprehend: the occupation is a queer issue. The occupation prevents queer organizing for Palestinian queers negotiating checkpoints, constrained mobility and unequal citizenship status. It makes networks and liaisons between Israeli queers and Palestinian queers rife with power imbalances and missionary savior mentalities. Further, the occupation itself is anti-queer, even as it uses a select group of privileged queers to "pinkwash" Israel as a democratic, progressive state. Never mind that Tel Aviv alone gets propped up as a gay mecca while the rest of Israel tags along; that even within these narrow terms of queer culture, Beirut easily rivals Tel Aviv; and that, for example, queer "bear" tourism to the Levant defies easy divisions between Israel and the rest.
While Lucas feels free to charge others with anti-Semitism, his own Islamophobia seemed not to perturb his supporters. His tedious and misinformed anti-Muslim statements are on record ("They have not contributed to civilization in any way... What do they produce? Carpets."). But the Center defaulted to an implicit assumption underlying Lucas' protest, that groups concerned with non-center or "regional" geopolitics have no legitimate place debating these issues under the rubric of queer community. Yet it is becoming increasingly clear how LGBT politics is already implicated in the struggle over the means and meaning of the occupation. Feminist queer theorist Judith Butler and filmmaker John Greyson spoke to a standing-room-only audience at Judson Memorial Church about the intersections of queer organizing and anti-occupation activism. These intellectual efforts are subtended by events such as the formation of Queers for an Open LGBT Center, as well as the NY Queers Against Israeli Apartheid; the latter also marched for the first time in the NYC gay pride parade in June. Most importantly, the standard pinkwashing claim that Israel is the sole recognizer of LGBT rights can no longer stand, even as rhetoric after Omar Barghouti, in an interview on GriTV with Laura Flanders and Sarah Schulman, publicly affirmed the presence of Palestinian Queers for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions within the boycott movement, stating that the quest for Palestinian self-determination must also entail a revisions of Palestinian civil society altogether. Against these demonstrations of the legitimacy and value of queer Palestinian and anti-occupation politics, Lucas betrayed his own understanding of entrenched power. During the Center's town-hall style meeting, where LGBT figureheads such as Sarah Schulman, Urvashi Vaid, Lisa Duggan and Pauline Park explained why the Center needed to allow free speech on this issue, Lucas exclaimed, "Where would you be without [my] money?" Not the least of the effects of this unsubtle threat to pull funding from the Center is to control what can and cannot be said, even in the context of an "open" meeting.
Calls for free speech and equal access for all groups sound democratic on the face of it, but they leave unquestioned the default political positions of those running the Center; worse, it does not address the exclusionary logic of inclusion itself. If inclusion is granted without changing the terms upon which an exclusion was originally articulated, the granting of space is tokenistic at best. Even though Queers for an Open Center and NY Queers Against Israeli Apartheid continue to meet in the form of sit-in protests in the lobby at the Center, such activities will not promote the presence of many Palestinian, Arab-American and Muslim queers. For these groups and individuals, the Center has now become not only a site of exclusion but also a grievous insult, especially on the cusp of the Palestinian bid for U.N. state recognition, to the decades-long struggle for Palestinian self-determination. Free speech, then, as a way of saying "include everyone," might cover over the possibility that not everyone is equal within the space of that free speech, not everyone can speak, and perhaps not everyone wants to be included. The goal of unquestioned inclusion further recentralizes the Center as the dominant site where LGBT politics and culture are to be negotiated, while the work of organizations that are indeed more radical, more grassroots and less partial to conservative donor funding goes unacknowledged.
As the joint statement released by ALP, SRLP, QEJ, and FIERCE! -- the progressive LGBTQ organizations housed in the same building , at 147 24th Street -- details, their longer history of involvement suggests all sorts of struggles with the Center regarding acceptance of trans folks, homeless queers and other marginal community members. As they write:
By canceling the IAW event, you risk alienating many members who frequent your Center by sending a strong message to our communities and allies that the issues with which we struggle such as racial justice, anti-imperialism, immigration, economic justice, disability justice and militarization are not genuinely welcome to be discussed at the NYC LGBT Community Center.
We could, then, read this decision to cancel Siege Buster's meeting space, and the subsequent inability of the Center leadership to take responsibility for their default partisan support of their pro-Zionist factions, as an extension of the conservative impulses, tendencies and decisions that have led to the proliferation of queer organizing outside and beyond the Center.
Leftist Jewish queers should of course protest the denial of space to groups wishing to challenge Israeli state practices. Yet for many Palestinian queers, gaining access to a LGBT Center that has positioned itself as indifferent to their concerns is a minor point in the agenda for political transformation. There is an incredible wealth of progressive queer organizing in this city that never did and never will originate or coalesce in the Center. Although I understand the deep historical and emotional attachments that many have to the radical vision the Center once represented, my simple point is that the Center cannot -- even more than it will not -- hold. These days, my political heart and soul are with the folks at 147 24th Street.
Elah Feder: The Problem With Fighting Anti-Semitism
Engy Abdelkader: Islamophobic Bullying in Our Schools
How does the author define the Q?
why aren't these siege busters complaining about the expulsion of 450,000 palestinians from Kuwait after the Gulf war?
how about the real apartheid of countries like Lebanon, syria, jordan, saudi arabia, and egypt against palestinians. Most palestinians living in squalor as non or second class citizens in the refugee camps of Lebanon or any other arab country were born there, THEY DON"T KNOW ANY OTHER COUNTRY AS THEIR HOME. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/no-way-home-the-tragedy-of-the-palestinian-diaspora-1806790.html
Remarkably that Israeli-Arab conflict is being discussed everywhere but in Arab countries. Is that something to do with how regimes and ideologues in Arab countries treat members of LBGT community? About a year ago Haaretz reported "Gay Palestinian seeks residency in Israel on humanitarian grounds" can you imagine it being reversed to "Gay Israeli seeks residency in PNA on humanitarian grounds"? How long he will last? Longer than two Israelis in Ramallah in 2000?
The question of the West Bank occupation is a totally separate question from the thesis -- the article engaged in a bait-and-switch. It also never ceases to amaze me that leftists, who should be internationalists because our issue is class, not borders, constantly get hyped up about national sovereignty being the priority in only one circumstance -- when the claimants pursuing sovereignty are anti-American. I never see the left getting exercised about national sovereignty when the human rights violators are American allies. No, in those instances the only things that matter are human and worker rights, because those are the main goals of leftists. Until the American left resolves this contradiction, it will remain powerless. Are you friends of workers, women, gays, minorities in equal measure under all circumstances -- or are you just haters of America? Don't get me wrong -- there's plenty to hate about our government, our economic institutitions, and our human rights violations, along with those of the repressive governments and institutions our government and economic institutions support. My challenge to the left is about consistency.
Leftist physicians, heal
http://www.amptoons.com/blog/2004/05/21/gays-attacked-at-palestinian-rights-demonstration/
It's always fun to hear their concern for Iranians, Kurds, Armenians, Apartheid Israelis, bunnies, trees and butterflies...
Every Israeli apologist here is just irritated that one of their favorite ridiculous talking points is getting shot down. PERIOD
We should be able to oppose the human rights of Jews the very same way we can oppose civil rights for queer people, and we should be able to do so without being accused of hating them!
Am I right or am I right?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Why is it any of your business if your neighbor wants to marry his or her same sex partner?
How do you reconcile that statement with your support of the Palestinians, whose society has little respect for the civil rights of women, gays, and other minorities?
Just last week the palestinians restated that their new state would be jew-free (or if you prefer to twist what they said, that it would be a segregated state where jews would be kept separate from arabs - sound like apartheid anyone, cuz it is) and we know very well what they will do to gay and lesbian palestinians because they already do it.
Gay and lesbian palestinians risk their lives every day to get into israel where they are safe from murder by their own families, condoned by the government.
Shame on you all.
http://awarecommunities.org/intro/palestinian-gays-diversity-and-community/
http://gaymiddleeast.blogspot.com/2006/08/sad-state-for-gay-palestinians.html
http://www.globalgayz.com/country/Palestine/view/PSE/gay-palestine-and-israel-stories-from-the-land-of-milk-and-agony-israeli-and-palestinian-gays
The other two actual support her view and undercut yours. The first gives reason to believe that the problem for gay Palestinians is the occupation and the reaction to it. Gay Palestinians, particularly ones who have been to Israel, are suspected as collaborators.
The third link goes even further and seems directly to be supporting Puar's side. A gay couple has to hide on both sides of the border because of the occupation. At the end someone says straightforwardly that the gay communities feels a commonality with the Palestinians because of their common status.
Those links do not make your point for you.
If the "occupation" were to end tomorrow and the border closed, LGBT Palestinians would be worse off, not better, as they would not have even the possibility of escape to the more accepting environment in Israel. The problems they have in Palestinian territories are societal and cultural, similar to that seen in most other Arab states, and not due to the "occupation."
And did you even read the articles that you posted about the situation for LGBT Palestinians? The first two clearly paint a more nuanced view than you are evincing. For example "Even within Israel and the Occupied Territories, the legal rights, social circumstances, and economic opportunities of Palestinians vary drastically across the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel." In other words, the situation is very different for different queer Palestinians, there is no easy generalization that applies.
And of course you failed to acknowledge that the Israeli police often recruit gay Palestinian men to be collaborators in the occupation and to spy on their neighbors. Blackmailing gays isn't exactly the path to Palestinian queer liberation, is it? In fact, it creates many more problems... and I suspect this is intentional on Israel's part.. to turn various Palestinians against one another.
Finally your claim that gay and lesbian Palestinians are all fleeing to Israel in droves is desperate bunk. A handful do flee to Israel, however under racist Israeli law NO Palestinian whatsoever may be granted refugee status. Hence, they are forced to constantly live on the run, bribe the police, or give in to blackmail and agree to collaborate. Some liberation!
Commentary: 'PLO Ambassador: No Jews in New Palestinian State' (http://bit.ly/rgzJ9b)
Ha'aretz: 'PLO official: Palestinians, Israelis must be totally separated' (http://bit.ly/pmIvMD)
Jerusalem Post: 'Abbas vows: No room for Israelis in Palestinian state' (http://bit.ly/quvJg2) // Quote from Abbas: "We have frankly said, and always will say: If there is an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, we won’t agree to the presence of one Israeli in it."
"Q: So, you think it would be necessary to first transfer and remove every Jew—
Areikat: Absolutely. No, I’m not saying to transfer every Jew, I’m saying transfer Jews who, after an agreement with Israel, fall under the jurisdiction of a Palestinian state.
Q: Any Jew who is inside the borders of Palestine will have to leave?
Areikat: Absolutely."
http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/48834/qa-maen-areikat/
He repeated the statements recently, but after his PR firm told him it didn't sound PC, he backpedaled. But as you see, he made these statements a year ago as well.
Yeah, if you get cancer in Gaza, NO CHEMO FOR YOU!!!
You should be ashamed of your defense of such treatment.
The Israel/Palestine issue is important, but its not directly an LGBT issue—except for the fact that gays in Israel have it MUCH better than in the territories or any other corner of the Arab world. Ive read of so many queer Palestinians fleeing to Israel. Have yet to hear of any LGBT defecting to Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, etc.
Nonsense. Civil right is an entirely internal matter. The problems facing LGBT people in the Palestinian territories is ~100% a result of their leadership. If Hamas/Fatah decided tomorrow that homosexuality was acceptable, the problem would be solved. If anything, Israel is a positive example for the Palestinians regarding gay rights.
This is yet another attempt (and a weak one at that) to engender sympathy for the Palestinians by blaming everything on Israel. Although more discerning readers will notice that a nation of Palestine founded on the principles of the current regime would be a pretty repressive society.
In that comment you seem to be confusing Liberalism and Coloniallism. Maybe some Liberals thought that when they supported the VietNam war, but then reality got in the way.
Is there any other situation in which you support continuing occupation on the basis of not approving of a group's social mores? Should we stay in Afghanistan until woman have equality? Or is this a principle that works only for justifying Israel?