Palestine gay flag
Be clear. Between friends, in the workplace, and most importantly in your organizing, challenge pinkwashing wherever it emerges. This month, an image of an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier raising the rainbow flag in Gaza went viral.
Refuse free trips to Israel and pressure public figures, including queer celebritiesnot to take them. In the State of Palestine, there is no specific, stand-alone civil rights legislation that protects LGBTQ flag from discrimination or harassment.
[citation needed] Additionally, there have been relatively few murders of LGBTQ (or allegedly LGBTQ) people in Palestine, and the victim's sexuality was the primary motive in a case in Aprilnoted below. When palestine, interrogate the Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism behind it.
But, if Israel does indeed oppress Palestinians, then its gay bars and pride parades are worth it. These are the uninterested and uninformed. As activists and organizers committed to Palestinian liberation, we have a responsibility to recognize and stand against it in our communities.
Join them in rejecting pinkwashing and building a world free from all structures of domination. For this last piece, PR firms looked to the gays. Call out pinkwashing when you see it: Be clear. Julio Rosas, a journalist, reported Saturday a unique LGBT-Palestinian hybrid flag appeared at a pro-Palestine demonstration in Brooklyn.
To him, this marked progress. Pinkwashing is a deliberate and well-resourced Israeli public relations strategy — one that emerged decisively out of Israeli state-sponsored firms in the early s. These are Zionist Jews and Christians.
The Palestinian organization Al Qawsbased in Israeli-occupied Jerusalem, advocates through grassroots activism for liberation both within Palestinian society and for itfrom an anti-colonial, queer feminist frame. Rami Kablawi breaks down how Israel weaponizes Pride to oppress Palestinians, and how you can help resist it.
But the photo obscures nuance, context and history. In a pinkwashed Israel, homophobia only takes place on the other side of the wall. Throughout history, from Montgomery to South Africa, ordinary people have come together to build economic power that challenges and helps overturn systems of injustice.
These orgs may also have direct relationships with Israeli consulates and embassies, or gay and platform Israeli cultural ambassadors at their events. For that reason the wall, and all the violence it entails, is both necessary and just. What does that look like?
Pinkwashing both erases and co-opts the voices of queer Palestinians, who Israel criminalizes when they call for an end to colonialism but tokenizes to befit a narrative of Israeli tolerance they firmly reject. Get educated, and educate your community about the struggle for Palestinian freedom.
In Gaza a photo
They understand the intersecting violence of zionist colonialism and homophobic patriarchy best — and they struggle for freedom from both. Today, Palestinians have called upon us to participate in a global boycott movement to end Israeli apartheid.
To many in the Palestine solidarity movement, it was a textbook example of pinkwashing.