By Gerry Scoppettuolo
Primo Levi, writer and Auschwitz survivor:
“Everyone has their Jews. For the Israelis they are the Palestinians.”
Under the banners of “No Pride in Genocide,” queer Solidarity for the Palestinian Struggle has increased with every report of genocide in Palestine. Countless anti-Zionist pickets, boycotts and rallies opposing Israeli-sponsored public events have been organized in every major urban center across the country. Clashes with the police over gay corporate cooperation with Zionism at Gay Pride Marches in Boston and Philadelphia have resulted in arrests.
In the past two years annual Pride March disruptions have been organized in San Francisco, Orlando, Atlanta., Los Angeles, St. Louis, Washington D.C. and New York. Queer communities overseas have also demonstrated in Brussels, New South Wales, (Australia), Winnipeg, Halifax, Edmonton and Toronto, (Canada) and Germany. The Boston Teachers Union contingent in the Boston Pride March displayed a Palestinian flag. The UNITE/HERE Local 26 contingent passed out flyers and posted an online petition demanding that the Boston corporate Pride organizers refuse sponsorship from Fidelity Investments, owner of the Seaport Hotel in Boston which is trying to bust the Local’s contract campaign there. The Massachusetts Pride at Work/AFL-CIO contingent united with Jewish Voice for Peace receiving cheers from the thousands who lined the march route
Corporate-funded Pride events are deeply unpopular with the activist queer community. In Boston 80 LGBT organizations signed Stonewall Liberation Organization’ petition demanding that the official Pride Boston organizing committee commit to never again accept sponsorship or money from the New England Israeli Consulate, Delta Airlines, Fidelity Investments, or any other Zionist organizations and to keep cops out of Pride. A complete list of demands and a list of the 80 signing groups can be found here.
Last year in Boston the “official” pride march employed Boston Police who assaulted and arrested members of the Stonewall Liberation Organization (SLO) which had briefly and nonviolently interrupted the march to state their demands. A similar action happened during the Philadelphia Pride March the week before. This year queer organizers utilized many types of protest, including one from ACT UP/NYC which took down a flag honoring U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) from Fire Island Pines’ Trailblazers Park, citing Torres’ views on Israel, and replaced it with a flag of trans activist Cecilia Gentili hanging another flag with their iconic “Silence = Death” logo.
More than 3,500 LGBTQIA+ artists have signed on to a letter under the title “Palestine “calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza”. The letter reads,
“Our queer Palestinian siblings have asked us to stand firmly with them in their call for dignity and self-determination,” this includes challenging Israel’s whitewashing, or ‘pinkwashing,’ of its brutal military occupation, by exploiting queer performers and voices to cover up decades of right-wing, violent, and racist policies against Palestinians. Now more than ever, we must be clear: queer people are no friends to Israeli apartheid. We use our voices and our platforms to oppose systemic violence and inequality—against Palestinians, and against all people everywhere.”
Queer community solidarity with the Palestinian cause has been growing globally since the Palestinian LGBTQIA group, alQaws for Sexual and Gender Diversity and Queers in Palestine issued its statement “Reflecting on Our Queerness in Times of Genocide” seeking support. The full statement and a list of the 569 organizational signers can be found at Queers in Palestine including many queer Palestine solidarity groups from the U.S, like the Queer Palestinian Empowerment Network, Los Angeles LGBTQIA for Palestine, Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT), Queer Artists for a Free Palestine, Queer Cinema for Palestine, Vegan Rugby Lesbians, Queer Mutual Aid Lebanon, Queer Palestinian Empowerment Network, Los Angeles LGBTQIA+ 4 Palestine, Queer Artists for a Free Palestine, and Queer Cinema for Palestine. Internet-based Queers for Palestine chapters in Boston, and other chapters in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Germany and doubtless many others exist but are not identified in this cursory research.
Decades of Gay Opposition to Zionism
For over a half century many prominent LGBTQ figures have expressed solidarity with he Palestinian cause. James Baldwin, Leslie Feinberg, Jean Genet, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, Judith Butler and Bell Hooks have all lent their profound influence and organizing ability to the cause.
In a 1970 interview with Ida Lewis, Baldwin stated:
“I am anti-Zionist. I don’t believe they [Jews] have the right, after 3,000 years, to reclaim the land with western bombs and guns on biblical injunction. When I was in Israel it was as though I was in the middle of The Fire Next Time.”
In an 1979 essay for The Nation, Baldwin wrote:
“The state of Israel was not created for the salvation of the Jews; it was created for the salvation of the Western interests. This is what is becoming clear (I must say that it was always clear to me). The Palestinians have been paying for the British colonial policy of ‘divide and rule’ and for Europe’s guilty Christian conscience for more than thirty years.”
French novelist, Jean Genet spent six months 1971 in Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan, and it was there, amongst the Palestinian fedayeen fighters that he found a social order, like that of French inmates, in which to revel and challenge the dominant paradigm.
ACT-UP NY the first, oldest and most militant activist group fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic has called for a ceasefire in the war and also endorsed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
In October 2024, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) suspended the membership of The Aguda, an Israeli LGBTQ advocacy organization. Additionally, ILGA decided to remove The Aguda’s bid to hold a future ILGA conference in Tel Aviv, stating that The Aguda was violating the ILGA constitution. The decision came after more than 70 member organizations of ILGA submitted an emergency motion opposing the Alguda bid on the grounds that it endorsed the Israeli government. The Aguda condemned the decision, highlighting their advocacy work and stating that ILGA should not oppose Israeli government policy by “shunning and excommunicating” Israel’s queer community”.
LGBT Rights for Israeli Citizens (only), Genocide for Palestinians, a Contradiction that cannot last
Israel is not a gay utopia, as even Aguda, Israel’s most esteemed LGBT+ organization documents in its 2024 calendar year report:
“The transgender community in Israel is in a state of emergency and under escalating attack. This is not a coincidental phenomenon, but a result of a well-organized and well-funded anti-trans movement. This movement consists of three primary factions, each using different strategies and working together to shape public opinion in order to restrict the rights of trans people. The three factions are: TERFs and bio-essentialists, far-right and conspiracy groups, and disinformation and conversion therapy groups.”
Aguna does not specify the particular oppression of trans or LGBT as Palestinian citizens of Israel and the Occupied Territories especially as it pertains to political freedom of expression. Israel’s so called Nakba law, passed in 2011 specifies civil penalties for denying the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state or Commemorating Independence Day or the day of the establishment of the state as a day of mourning (section 3b). Thus, sexual orientation and gender identity can be considered protected only if one denies one’s political beliefs based on ancestral and ethnicity or, in queer vernacular, if one goes back in the closet. This is the kind of nationalistic and existential perversion that inspired Israel’s government to post two images from Gaza on its social media account. One shows Israeli soldier Yoav Atzmoni, in battle fatigues, in front of buildings reduced to rubble by Israeli airstrikes. He holds a rainbow flag with a hand-scrawled message: “In the name of love”. In the second he poses beside a tank, grinning as he displays an Israeli flag with rainbow borders. “The first ever Pride flag raised in Gaza,” the caption for both images reads. “In the U.S. this kind of depravity is behind the call to equate anti-Zionism with antisemitism.”
Albert Einstein published a letter in the New York Times in 1948 warning the world of such things exemplified in the origin of the securing the state of Israel by the Irgun and the Stern Gang in 1947-8:
TO THE EDITORS OF NEW YORK TIMES, December 2, 1948 by Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, Sidney Hook, et.al.
Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the “Freedom Party” (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine.
The current visit of Menachem Begin, leader of this party, to the United States is obviously calculated to give the impression of American support for his party in the coming Israeli elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements in the United States. Several Americans of national repute have lent their names to welcome his visit. It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin’s political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents.
Before irreparable damage is done by way of financial contributions, public manifestations in Begin’s behalf, and the creation in Palestine of the impression that a large segment of America supports Fascist elements in Israel, the American public must be informed as to the record and objectives of Mr. Begin and his movement.
The public avowals of Begin’s party are no guide whatever to its actual character. Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the Fascist state. It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future.
Attack on an Arab Village
A shocking example was their behavior in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. This village, off the main roads and surrounded by Jewish lands, had taken no part in the war, and had even fought off Arab bands who wanted to use the village as their base. On April 9 (THE NEW YORK TIMES), terrorist bands attacked this peaceful village, which was not a military objective in the fighting, killed most of its inhabitants (240 men, women, and children) and kept a few of them alive to parade as captives through the streets of Jerusalem. Most of the Jewish community was horrified at the deed, and the Jewish Agency sent a telegram of apology to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan. But the terrorists, far from being ashamed of their act, were proud of this massacre, publicized it widely, and invited all the foreign correspondents present in the country to view the heaped corpses and the general havoc at Deir Yassin.
The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party.Within the Jewish community they have preached an admixture of ultranationalism, religious mysticism, and racial superiority. Like other Fascist parties they have been used to break strikes, and have themselves pressed for the destruction of free trade unions. In their stead they have proposed corporate unions on the Italian Fascist model.
During the last years of sporadic anti-British violence, the IZL and Stern groups inaugurated a reign of terror in the Palestine Jewish community. Teachers were beaten up for speaking against them, adults were shot for not letting their children join them. By gangster methods, beatings, window-smashing, and wide-spread robberies, the terrorists intimidated the population and exacted a heavy tribute.
The people of the Freedom Party have had no part in the constructive achievements in Palestine. They have reclaimed no land, built no settlements, and only detracted from the Jewish defense activity. Their much-publicized immigration endeavors were minute, and devoted mainly to bringing in Fascist compatriots.
Discrepancies Seen
The discrepancies between the bold claims now being made by Begin and his party, and their record of past performance in Palestine bear the imprint of no ordinary political party. This is the unmistakable stamp of a Fascist party for whom terrorism (against Jews, Arabs, and British alike), and misrepresentation are means, and a “Leader State” is the goal.
In the light of the foregoing considerations, it is imperative that the truth about Mr. Begin and his movement be made known in this country. It is all the more tragic that the top leadership of American Zionism has refused to campaign against Begin’s efforts, or even to expose to its own constituents the dangers to Israel from support to Begin.
The undersigned therefore take this means of publicly presenting a few salient facts concerning Begin and his party; and of urging all concerned not to support this latest manifestation of fascism.
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