Straight Talk on ‘Pinkwashing’ Israel and the Flotilla
by: Ralph Seliger on July 4th, 2011 | 13 Comments »
Marchers for Gay Pride in Jerusalem (Reuters/Ronen Zvulun)
A mysterious video painting the organizers of the latest Gaza flotilla as anti-gay was exposed as a hoax last week, in the latest instance of what pro-Palestinian activists call “pinkwashing.”
The term refers to efforts by the Israeli government and its allies to highlight the rights afforded to the gay community in Israel — and the plight of gays in Arab countries and the Palestinian territories — to distract from or justify the continued occupation of the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza. …
This video appeared on YouTube purporting to show an American gay rights activist explaining his rejection by — and disillusionment with — the organizers of the latest Gaza flotilla. It was promptly promoted on social media by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and an intern in Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
But several bloggers investigated and determined that the man in the video is in fact a Tel Aviv actor. …
[See NY Times "Lede" blog on this subject.]
…. Hoax though it is, the video presents an opportunity to learn more about the messy collision of the politics of gay rights and the Israel-Palestine conflict. For an Israeli perspective, I spoke to Hagai El-Ad, executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and former head of a LGBT community center in Jerusalem, where he also organized the first annual pride parade in 2002.
…. The government’s so-called pinkwashing narrative makes Israel out to be a pretty advanced place when it comes to LGBT rights. Is that accurate?
It is accurate. And it’s a great source of pride for the gay community in this country. I find it a bit cynical that the government conveniently skips over the fact that actually many of these rights have been won through years of difficult struggle by individuals and human rights groups. But the gay rights community in Israel has many reasons to be proud of achieving much of what we’ve been fighting for over the years.
What’s the history of pinkwashing as a P.R. tactic?
It’s part of a broader Ministry of Foreign Affairs strategy that has been branded as quote-unquote Israel Beyond the Conflict. This means trying not to have a conversation about the occupation, about the rights of Arab Israelis, but to have a different conversation about other issues in Israel. In no other arena has that been used in a more cynical way than in the context of LGBT rights.
The pinkwashing effort is part of an agenda that isn’t addressing the core issues, isn’t really changing the policies that are creating outrage domestically and around the world. Instead it’s trying to deal with the problem with public relations, which I think is a misguided attempt that is bound to fail. Anyone that believes in continuing down this road can see for themselves where Israel is in terms of its international image. I think it’s very clear the only way to really deal with the growing negative image is to actually address the issues and the policies themselves.
How bad is the LGBT rights situation in Gaza and the West Bank?
The situation in Gaza is certainly much worse than it is in the West Bank. There is no argument with regard to the factual situation. No one is claiming that the gay rights situation in Israel is anything but very good — it’s not perfect, but it is very good. And no one is claiming that the situation in West Bank or in Gaza is anywhere close to where it should be. The argument is about the cynical attempt to use the hard-won rights of one community in Israel — that should be celebrated — to hide or even justify human rights violations of someone else.
There are no legal protections for gay rights in the West Bank or in Gaza. People are suffering from various levels of intimidation and persecution. The vast majority of gays and lesbians are forced to live in the closet. Some people try to flee — and on that account, actually, Israel is much less accepting than it should be in helping LGBT Palestinians. It is a very unfortunate situation. I think it’s also fair to mention that, in a similar way to the fact that there are no gay rights in the occupied territories, there is also no freedom of speech in the territories. And in that case it is solely Israel’s responsibility for the fact that basically every demonstration against the occupation in the West Bank is illegal. On the broader question of disrespect for human rights in the occupied territories, in many cases the responsibility lies with the Hamas government or the Palestinian Authority — as is documented by Palestinian rights organizations — and in many cases it’s the responsibility of the government of Israel, such as the blockade of Gaza, the lack of freedom of speech and movement, and other things.
… For this entire Salon article, click here.
Personally, I have other questions on the flotilla:
Yes, most Israelis have been frustrated by a decade of bloody attacks from territories they’ve withdrawn from into the delusion that there’s only a military solution to the problem of Gaza. Still, is it unreasonable or illegal for Israel to check the cargoes being shipped into a violent anti-Israel bastion to make sure there are no munitions or military-related materials? I think not.
I believe that the blockade of Gaza’s civilian population was too restrictive, with elements of gratuitous cruelty, but I also believe that some Gazans have had the odd habit of biting the hand that feeds them. This siege was never total, or else we’d hear of mass deaths from starvation. And now, with the Egyptian border opened up, and Israel having already eased its blockade, it has been significantly lifted. (See this Meretz USA Blog post on the degree to which the blockade has been eased.)
If the flotilla activists were more logical and consistent in intervening on behalf of peace, wouldn’t they also bring the message to the Hamas authorities in Gaza that it’s high time that they recognized Israel and fully endorsed a two-state solution? At the very least, shouldn’t Hamas announce that it no longer advocates blind hatred and even the mass murder of Jews, as suggested by its founding Charter?
Ralph, just a pig fly by my window. A column of yours that doesn’t piss me off. But you’ll catch shit from your fellow travelers.
As a lesbian there’s something that strikes me as reactionary in this article. So I looked up some stuff on the web and found a blog piece by Wendy Somerson Called Pinkwashing- Queer Won’t Hide Israel’s Dirty Laundry on Tikkun’s Blog, She writes:
“A 2009 poll by the newspaper Haaretz indicated that 46% of Israelis believed homosexuality to be a perversion. Furthermore, the lack of separation between religion and state means that official spokespeople for the Israeli government, such as Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai, can claim in an official capacity and with little reprisal that gays have a “normative defect” and are “sick.” In fact, the same year as the iPride conference, Yishai called for the cancellation of the pride parade in Tel Aviv, and called homosexuality an “abomination.” And In July, 2010, Deputy Mayor Yitzhak Pindrus of Jerusalem applied to hold a “donkey parade” alongside the city’s annual Gay Pride Parade. Pindrus wanted to greet parade participants with donkeys to represent the “bestial” nature of the pride march. When the police rejected his request, he arranged for his group of protesters to hold cardboard cut-outs of donkeys at the parade instead.”
So things aren’t so rosy in Israel for Queers after all. Additionally, if I, a butch lesbian, wanted to go pray at the kotel, as a butch lesbian, I would be spit on, and possibly attested, as other women are… not a pretty scene,
But what I truly want to say is occupation is a queer issue and so are human rights abuses. We don’t exist in a vacuum. If one group is oppressed so are we all.
Lastly, I found your remarks about the severity of the blockade and the depth of suffering it caused rather flippant. Much suffering was caused without” mass starvation” being caused and the need for humanitarian aid is well documented.
Bill and Naomi represent polar opposite views that both this article and my own writings argue against. To Bill, Israel can do no wrong; but to Naomi, Israel can do nothing right.
I suppose that Naomi doesn’t have to believe this leading Israeli LGBT activist and civil rights advocate interviewed in this article, but what he describes is a complicated reality: he acknowledges that Israel engages in “pinkwashing” (which he opposes), that the cause of equal rights for LGBT people in Israel has made enormous strides (through their own hard efforts), and that the situation is not perfect but far more advanced than in the Palestinian territories.
Naomi, the fact is that in Gaza. Your dead meat.
As a lesbian growing up in an Orthodox home in NYC I was thrown out at the age of 15 and left to my own devices- where I was nearly dead meat, after having been raped and abused by them. Abusive Jews were more my enemy than anyone else in this world, sry Bill.
So, Naomi, unfortunately you came from an ignorant and abusive Jewish family. Now we all understand why you are very upset with Israel. Classical case of projection, I would say!
So at least we know what side your on.
Perhaps the atmosphere in Gaza will be more to your liking.
Ralph- I am at work so I can only briefly respond, I again repeat that the cause of queers is not isolated from the HUMAN rights of others and doesn’t exist in a vacuum. So that like the cause , say of Mumia Abul Jamal here in the United States is seen as a queer cause by many queers because it is a human rights issue- so is the issue of human rights abuses in the Occupation.
To compare the situation of Israel and Gaza, a place that has been under siege for years, seems to me pretty unfair as well- but that is only my first glance response.
Finally, pointing out that things in Israel aren’t as rosy as you describe them is hardly saying that they can “do nothing right” Ralph- nu? It is bring up another article which points to issues that say there are issues in Israel’s LGBT community. Wendy Somerson seems to have researched her article as well.
Bill-you have no idea which “side I am on” but you do know which side I survived.
I don’t know in what way you or Ms. Somerson are better qualified to comment on LGBT issues in Israel than Hagai El-Ad, executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and former head of an LGBT community center in Jerusalem. I also don’t know what you are complaining about. Mr. El-Ad explicitly deplores the use of pinkwashing to deflect from the human rights issues created by the occupation and the lack of full equality for Arab citizens of Israel.
Could it be that you simply don’t want to acknowledge that LGBT rights are more advanced in Israel than in Palestine (where they don’t really exist, especially not in Gaza)? This is what I mean when I say that you apparently believe that Israel can do nothing right.
El-Ad is quite clear that he fights for all human rights. He entirely agrees with you on this score. How can you not see this?
Again I am at work so I have these very brief comments
I think that Somerson researched her article and I trust that.
I am wondering why we are comparing the situation of Gay rights between the two? Of all the things people suddenly care about they care about queers?
And what does this have to do with a humanitarian aide flotilla trying to alleviate some HUMAN RIGHTS violations and suffering? I just think it is a red herring.
I hate being used this way.
Do you want me to say that Israel is great for queers while stomping on the backs of Palestinians? Yeah for us. Its my dream come true as a queer.
Look, Naomi, you have a problem with Jews. I get that. But don’t couch it in some sort of human rights bullshit. Its an existential conflict and you take the side of Islamic fundamentalists Fine, but don’t come at it has a jew anymore. your not.
Look Bill,
I get it your a right wing ideologue and a bit of a troll but what you are not is an arbiter of who is Jewish and who is not. Funny how it is, with some Jews, that it is so easy among us to say who is and who is “not one of us.” It is clear though that I am not expressing a Jewishness that you approve of, for which I am thankful and think myself in good standing with my Jewish heros.
I come at whatever I come at as a Jew, a queer and as a survivor.
I, for the record, don’t rescind your Jewishness. I am stuck with you.
Gay Geshuint a heit