Why I’m a Proud Queer for Palestine
On the hypocrisy of Netanyahu's queer concern and why the U.S. is responsible for Palestinian genocide
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would shake his head at this title. During Netenyahu’s speech to Congress last year, he took time for an interesting aside. The accused war criminal declared that “Gays for Gaza” were like “chickens for KFC.”
Netanyahu’s statement acknowledges deplorable treatment of queer people in Gaza, but the Prime Minister’s concern for us “chickens” is hypocritical given the anti-queer statements of many Israeli politicians supporting his government.
Netanyahu’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich labeled himself “a proud homophobe,” while also denigrating Pride parades as “worse than bestiality.” Other Israeli parliamentarians in the governing coalition have made similar comments. Yitzhak Pindrus: “I must prevent gay pride and prevent this movement.” Almog Cohen: “[T]he pride parade is a completely animalistic parade of unbridled and unrestrained sex partying while harassing boys and minors...”
Israeli policies are similarly anti-queer. In 2020, the far-right deputy mayor of Jerusalem removed a Pride flag from the U.S. embassy. Same-sex marriages are not performed in Israel and 56% of Israelis oppose same-sex marriage. There may be worse to come if politicians in the ruling coalition get their way. Orit Strook argued that doctors should be able to refuse to treat gay patients. Avi Moaz compared gay people to Nazis and wants to resurrect the banned, barbaric practice of conversion therapy. With a cursory reading of what the far-right coalition says in public, “Gays for Israel” sounds like “Chickens for KFC.”
Pinkwashing: Using queer rights as propaganda
Despite all this, the Israeli government has presented an image of Israel as a queer-friendly paradise, a process known as “pinkwashing.” ACT UP historian and Jewish Voice for Peace member Sarah Schulman defines pinkwashing as “the cynical use of queer people's hard-won gains by the Israeli government in an attempt to rebrand themselves as progressive, while continuing to violate international law and the human rights of Palestinians.” She argues the “goal of pinkwashing is to justify Israel's policies of occupation and separation by promoting the image of a lone oasis of progress surrounded by violent, homophobic Arabs…”
Queer Palestinians do indeed exist, but they find no paradise in Israel.
They are unable to claim refugee status in Israel if they fear persecution or mistreatment in Gaza or the West Bank. Instead, they are given temporary asylum and work permits, to facilitate them leaving for another country. There is no rainbow “escape hatch” that will let queer Palestinians flee Israeli occupation. Israeli intelligence agencies regularly blackmail queer Palestinians to work as informers. One Israeli soldier admitted “in the training course, you actually learn and memorize different words for ‘homo’ in Arabic.”
Queer Gazans exist as well. They have shared messages on Queering the Map while under wholesale Israeli bombardment. One from the Nuseirat refugee camp read, “In solidarity with all my Palestinian brothers and sisters, you are all loved. Free Palestine.” Another from Khan Younis: “Pls know despite what the media says there are gay Palestinians. We are here, we are queer. Free Palestine.” To reiterate, the treatment of queer people in Gaza is in no way justification for the Israeli occupation. Israel’s bombs do not discriminate regarding a person’s gender identity or sexuality. The people who posted these messages are in as much danger of ending up as one of the Lancet-estimated 186,000 corpses in Gaza as any homophobic fundamentalist.
LGBTQ+ solidarity movements fighting for justice
There have been queer activists in this country who have raised their voices. ACT UP picketed Outright International for failing to advocate for queer Palestinians. Two queer Jews found themselves escorted out of the White House Pride party last year for speaking up for Palestine. Locally, members of Michigan Ceasefire Pride packed city council and county commission meetings to demand the passage of ceasefire resolutions — successfully in Ferndale; less successfully in Hazel Park and wider Oakland County. Michigan Ceasefire Pride enlisted other local organizations to speak out for Palestinian rights, including Stonewall Sports Detroit, Inclusive Justice Michigan, Grand Rapids Pride Center and Forever Pride Action of Rochester Hills.
These activists stand in a proud tradition. In the ‘60s and ‘70s, members of the Gay Liberation Front protested the war in Vietnam as out queer people. On January 23, 1991, ACT UP held its Day of Desperation action during the Gulf War. The previous night, ACT UP demonstrators interrupted Dan Rather on CBS to chant “AIDS is news; fight AIDS not Arabs.” Taking over New York’s Grand Central Station, protesters raised the banner "Money For AIDS, Not For War." We should revive these slogans, given the Trump administration’s plans to close the Office of Infectious Diseases & HIV Policy and eliminate foreign HIV prevention programs. All this while the U.S. prepares another discounted arms sale to Israel of $8.56 billion on top of the $17.9 billion given in military aid since October 2023.
Our responsibility as American LGBTQ+ citizens
Because of the $300 billion in aid the U.S. has granted to Israel to date, every American citizen is complicit, if not responsible, for Israel’s many crimes against international law. These include: the decades long settlement program, the separation wall, apartheid against Israeli Arabs and Palestinians in the West Bank and most recently, what both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch conclude is a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Queer citizens of this country have an added obligation because the war against Palestine is, in part, being fought in our names.
Of the many shocking images that have come out of the Israeli siege of Gaza, one remains stuck in my mind. It's a picture of an Israeli soldier holding up a Pride flag with “In the Name of Love” handwritten on it. Behind him are the ruins of a Gazan city, reduced to rubble by Israeli munitions.
Seeing a symbol of liberation abused to cover for war crimes and crimes against humanity is heartbreaking. To paraphrase Howard Zinn, there’s no Pride flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.
Like this soldier, queers for Palestine are also motivated by great love. Not love of apartheid and ethnic cleansing, but by love of peace and justice.
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