By Marta Ilyich
In a photo that has made the rounds in the media in recent months a single man can be seen holding up a rainbow flag. The same phrase is written on it in three different languages: English, Hebrew, and Arabic. The phrase is, “In the name of love.”
In Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut, via his stand-in character, described what he saw in the aftermath of the U.S./British bombing of Dresden in World War II. He likened it to the surface of the moon: no buildings left standing, no vegetation, no survivors, only rubble. This describes perfectly the patch of earth on which the smiling man in the photograph made a profanity of a banner of queer liberation.
This ghoul, named Yoav Atzmoni, is a soldier in the military apparatus of the Zionist political entity occupying Palestine. He was standing in the rubble of Gaza as he and his fellows were turning the world’s largest open-air prison into a graveyard. There is no conceivable explanation for how this could be done in the service of love.
The term ‘pinkwashing’ describes the practice by which oppressive forces such as corporations and the police affect and appropriate the imagery and rhetoric of queer liberation. An example would be a gay police contingent marching in a Pride parade, or corporations reworking their corporate logo in rainbow colors for the month of June. These are cynical gestures of performative ‘allyship’ in which the enemies of queer liberation feign support for their own ends.
The political zionist entity in Palestine has long portrayed itself as a bastion of gay rights and a destination for gay tourism. The claim is that it is an island of enlightened tolerance amidst a sea of barbarians that would overwhelm the occupied space controlled by “Israeli” forces in Palestine, murdering all queer people therein. The occupiers would have us believe that their genocide will deliver queer liberation. They would not have us ask how many of the corpses lying beneath the rubble or in mass graves belonged to queer Palestinians.
A systemic bombing campaign of widespread killing and destruction makes as few exceptions for queer Palestianians as it does for zionist prisoners held in these lands. With every U.S. manufactured bomb that explodes, the lie of liberation is laid bare. Meanwhile, the fascist Netanyahu regime is rolling back queer rights protections such as adoption and surrogacy. The right wing ultranationalist Noam coalition which helped seat Netanyahu is working to ban Pride celebrations outright. The occupying bourgeoisie is willing to rake in money from queer tourism while queer rights are being ground into dust and queer Palestinians are blown up, buried in rubble, burned, shot, and starved in Gaza. Zionist media touts the notion of Palestinian LGBT+’ asylum seekers even as the occupiers stem all asylum and bring their boot down on the oppressed peoples they claim to champion.
Zionists expressing concern for queer rights is as detestable as Lockheed-Martin’s so-called “PRIDE Business Resource Group” making weapons that murder without discrimination in Palestine. It is of similar nature to municipalities like D.C. that paint ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER” on a small piece of street while their police continue to murder Black people unimpeded. It is hypocrisy wrapped in the aesthetic of liberation, like the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Trans revolutionary Leslie Feinberg noted, “The British Mandate brought anti-sodomy laws to Palestine, a legacy the Israeli occupation kept.” Indeed, European empires exported anti-sodomy laws everywhere their blood-drenched flags flew, bringing queer oppression to its subjugated nations. Yet, with a straight face they argue that colonial rule today serves as a force for liberation even as rights won by popular movements are strangled within these empires and their genocidal eyes turn to transgender and non- binary people.
Rainbow-washing the slaughter in Palestine is just another lie forged by the empire and used to distract from the stench of corpses left in its wake. Poor, working class, and oppressed people must understand the lie in any flowery words spoken by or for the zionist entity in Palestine. We must understand these lies as a rainbow-hued smokescreen for the murderous juggernaut that is zionism. “Israel,” the U.S. empire that props it up, and the capitalist class which they serve care nothing for the well being of oppressed people. The bourgeoisie is not an agent for the liberation of the oppressed: not on U.S. streets, not in occupied Palestine, not anywhere. It is a machine for generating and hoarding wealth. It is, simply put, the enemy.
Queer liberation in Palestine demands the liberation of all of Palestine. We can not pretend that the oppression of one people liberates another. On the contrary, the liberation of one oppressed people is found in the liberation of others. The old queer slogan “WE ARE EVERYWHERE” tells us that within every population, we exist. Therefore we must understand that just as there is no liberation for poor and working people without queer liberation, there is no queer liberation without the liberation of poor people and workers. There is no queer liberation without Black liberation. There is no queer liberation without liberation for migrants. In this moment, bombs drop on Gaza. Palestinian babies starve and die of dehydration. Aid trucks are turned back or destroyed. Hospitals and medical facilities are destroyed. Therefore, we need to understand more than ever that there is no queer liberation without the liberation of Palestine.
FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE!
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