Why do I love the internet? Because thoughtful, learned people around the world can find one another and work to change "laws and stereotypes" that foster hatred. Haneen Maikey is the director of the center for sexual diversity in Palestinian society, he lives in Jerusalem. Jason Ritchie is an anthropologist in Illinois who studies nationalism and sexuality in I/P. Together, in a letter to the Advocate on-line, they destroy the important argument that Israel's more-evolved standards for gay people somehow excuse the Gaza slaughter, or the checkpoints, or the second-class citizenship.
The best writing you will find on this site today (and thanks to Adam Wykle for the tip):
[T]here is not some organized, widespread campaign of violence against gay and lesbian Palestinians. Of course, there are occasional acts of violence, much like there are occasional acts of violence against queers in Western societies; and the social norms and mores about gender and sexuality that give rise to such violence create a climate in which many queer Palestinians cannot live their lives openly and honestly. At the same time, however, there are many openly gay and lesbian Palestinians, and they are not, as James Kirchick implies, an insignificant group of a "few lucky Palestinians" who are seeking asylum in Israel: they are actively engaged in changing the status quo in Palestinian society by promoting respect for sexual and gender diversity.
Those of us who know a thing or two about Israel know that seeking asylum in Israel is not an option anyway for Palestinians, who are specifically ineligible for asylum under Israeli law. It may be true, as Kirchick proudly states, that Israel "legally enshrines the rights of gay people," but it enshrines only some rights for some gay people. Restricted freedom of movement, routine human rights abuses, detentions, checkpoints, and bombing campaigns are among the legally enshrined "rights" of Palestinians, whatever their sexual orientation, in the West Bank and Gaza. And while Palestinians in Israel and Jerusalem are granted some legal rights and their living conditions are significantly better than in the Palestinian Territories, Palestinian citizens of Israel, whatever their sexual orientation, are second-class citizens, who face legally sanctioned and everyday discrimination and racism in all areas of life, from courtrooms and boardrooms to hospitals and universities, from the streets of small villages to the streets of Jerusalem, from the floor of the Knesset to the floors of Tel Aviv’s hippest, gayest clubs.
Israel is not, in other words, "an oasis of liberal tolerance," and Palestine is not "a reactionary religious backwater." Kirchick’s article is built on the weak foundation of these two myths... According to Kirchick, "Palestinian oppression of homosexuality isn’t merely a matter of state policy, it’s one firmly rooted in Palestinian society, where hatred of gays surpasses even that of Jews." If it were true -- and we know it not to be true -- that all Palestinians hate gays (and Jews), and their hatred has nothing to do with laws or stereotypes or other things in the world that can be changed, then there would be no point fighting for change. The truth is that homophobia is a problem among Palestinians, but racist arguments like Kirchick’s that explain it as a sort of sickness that’s "firmly rooted" in Palestinian society do nothing to help those who are trying hard to change it.
Fortunately, though, the important work of queer Palestinian activists will continue, regardless of what James Kirchick does or does not write about them. What we find more problematic is that he fabricates a story of oppressed gay Palestinians, about whom he actually knows very little, to make an argument in support of a brutal military campaign that claimed the lives of more than 1,200 Palestinians, most of them innocent civilians. Kirchick, and anyone else, is free to blindly support Israeli repression of Palestinians, but we would like to suggest that he not do it by recycling unsubstantiated stories and false assumptions about queer Palestinians, whose suffering, like that of most Palestinians, stems more from Israeli policies than it does from "Palestinian homophobia."
In the end, Kirchick’s real point of contention seems to be with those gay and lesbian activists in the West who were brave enough to oppose the Israeli war on Gaza. Their opposition, he argues, was akin to "stand[ing] alongside the enthusiasts of religious fascism."... [W]e would like to issue a call for a kind of queer solidarity based not on racist assumptions about “others” who look different, speak different languages, or live in different places but on a willingness to listen to each other and stand together against violence and repression, even when some among us try to justify it in our name. That, we think, is what’s truly "obscene," and the only just antidote to it is a queer movement made up -- not, as Kirchick argues, of "oppressed" victims who identify with each other’s suffering -- but of courageous queer activists, thinkers, artists, writers, and everyday people who identify with the common dream of a better world for us all.
Thanks to Adam Wykle. Every generalization about humans is ultimately wrong.
Apparently the Zionists have now decided to use gays to promote Israel's wars and occupations, which means they must be truly desperate : Israel plans to use gays to bomb Iran Amal Amireh 04/25/2009 http://www.arabianbusiness.com/552237-iran-uncove... Israel recruits gay community in PR campaign against Iran By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent 20/04/2009 http://www.arabianbusiness.com/552237-iran-uncove... Also the following report should be of interest in that there was some discussion here about whether or not RoozOnline was a reliable source for information: Iranians accuse Dutch of plotting gov't overthrow Martin Morris Saturday, 11 April 2009 http://www.arabianbusiness.com/552237-iran-uncove... EXCERPT: "…..The statement, from an IRGC unit tasked with monitoring cybercrime – and carried in a report by Tehran-based satellite TV news operator, Press TV – said: "One of the Western countries that has provided the opposition with financial aid in recent years is the Netherlands." The IRGC said the Dutch parliament had agreed to a 2005 proposal put forward by Farah Karimi, a Green Left party MP of Iranian origin, to allocate 15 million Euros in funds to finance a "media polarization campaign" in the country. "Coupled with British assistance and secret US funding", the money had ultimately reached websites working against the interests of the Islamic Republic, such as RoozOnline, Zamaneh, Zigzag, and Shahrzad….."
I must say this blog is the leading edge of progressive thought on the I/P conflict – good work….
Haneen Maikey is a she not a he.
Zionism has no use for Palestinian queers, except as useful tools to be brandished to justify Israel’s atrocity du jour. You can't claim to be sincere in arguing for the civil rights of one, small, specific group of (queer) Palestinians, when the entire project to create a Jewish state in a land where non-Jews already live has at its very foundation the denial of civil rights to the preexisting majority population, queer and straight alike. If Zionism had to choose between 1.full civil rights – including GLBT rights – for Palestinians, or 2.The obliteration of all Palestinians – queer and straight alike – off the face of the earth; It would choose option 2 without blinking an eye, because the continuation of a Zionist state demands the denial of option 1.
Hey, maybe the gays can start their own state due to a long history of intolerance and persecution, extend special rights and privileges to gay over straight, ruthlessly cleanse and terrorize non-homosexuals, draw upon the homosexual diaspora nation for material and propaganda support, and use their victim-status as a rationale for their ruthless behavior. Would left-liberals support or oppose such an enterprise? My hunch is that they would give it 110% support for decades on end until the Gay State's behavior became so noxious that the left, including plenty of diaspora gays, started calling for its dismantling because it was giving gays and left-liberals everywhere a bad reputation.
And the Islamic world has no use for the Gay community except for exploitation purposes ala the ISM.
This issue is a diversion. Is the whole world going Republican? Nobody worries about gay rights while they have to worry first about survival and a means to live. The Palestinians are at square one, not square 12.
RE: Jamie Kirchick MY COMMENT: Jamie Kirchik? Isn't he one of Marty "Macho Man" Peretz's butt boys*? * figuratively (metaphorically) speaking, of course! PS. Do any women work at the "New Republic"? "Enquiring minds want to know!"
RE: Jamie Kirchick A RELATED ARTICLE: "Israel recruits gay community in PR campaign against Iran" – By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent, 04/20/09 (EXCERPTS)…The new campaign, to be overseen by the Foreign Ministry, aims to appeal to people who are less concerned with Iran's nuclear aspirations and more fearful of its human rights abuses and mistreatment of minorities, including the gay and lesbian community…. …The campaign plans to recruit the international gay community, which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed in 2007 when he said there were no homosexuals living in his country…. …About NIS 8 million have already been budgeted for the new campaign… …Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman want to broaden the PR campaign on the subject of Iran in the wake of increasing international willingness to negotiate with Tehran over its nuclear program…. ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1079589.html MY COMMENT: Of course, I assume that Mr. Kirchik would say his efforts are merely coincidental! (LOL)
The invention of the "atrocitarian" narrative re treatment of gay and lesbian people in mostly Islamic societies is a very recent phenomenon guided by sensationalist negative branding tactics. When same-sex love was being pathologized by Victorian-era morality, everyone from Oscar Wilde to Andre Gide found their fantasies catered to in largely Muslim societies that weren't as strait laced (this was true of Catholic Mediterranean countries as well, which contrary to their stereotype in Northern climes were far less prudish in these matters–maybe one reason why Nietzsche found Sicily so relaxing ;). The first openly gay male German movie, Fox and his Friends explicitly covers North African sex-tourism in the seventies (around 1:50). Also the two American authors responsible for introducing gay and lesbian sexuality to more people than anyone else in this country both strongly supported Palestinian rights and strongly criticized Zionist racism: Gore Vidal, who was smeared as a loathsome "anti-Semite" for stating the obvious about Neocons more than twenty years ago (long before most others of a sane persuasion had cottoned on to the latter's wackiness), and Patricia Highsmith–Hitchcock filmed her very first novel, and whose path-breaking (and million selling) The Price of Salt is still celebrated–who wrote letters to editors when the first Intifada broke out. She dedicated Ripley Under the Water 'To the dead and the dying among the Intefada and the Kurds, to those who fight oppression in whatever land, and stand up not only to be counted but to be shot.'
A little more history of the ersatz gay liberation PR offensive. The pathetic mentality that's partly behind such posturing can be glimpsed in this recent article:
Guess you should tell that to the guys hanging from a crane in Iran! But then, as Ahmedinejad said in New York two years ago: "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country… In Iran we don't have this phenomenon."
No, Instead the Iranian state pays for them to have a sex change Does Israel do that? I don't think so Let's see what Israel's politicians think about homosexuals? February 20, 2008, Shlomo Benizri, a Knesset member from the Shas party, a member of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert`s ruling coalition, blamed earthquakes that had recently struck the Middle East on the activities of homosexuals. In 1997, President Ezer Weizman compared homosexuality to alcoholism in front of high school students.[7]
the Israeli standard: some rights for some people Interesting to recognize influences from one's past: Vidal And for the first time to consider reading Highsmith, who has never appealed. "…solidarity based not on racist assumptions about “others” who look different, speak different languages, or live in different places but on a willingness to listen to each other and stand together against violence and repression, even when some among us try to justify it in our name." Words to live by. You are included, Ed.
You might want to listen (MP3) to an Iranian gay rights activist before getting on your high horse and getting carried away by your own rhetoric (between minutes 18-53).
You're serious??? The Iranian state actually pays for them to have sex change operations???? Get real! I don't think that's what the majority of gays want.
Blah, blah, blah…imperialist. Blah, blah, blah colonial wars. Blah, blah, blah Islamophobic. The woman says quite clearly that Islam is not a monolith. Further, she states that there is a problem with Islamic fundamendalism. I would definitely say that Iran, Hamas and Hizballah definitely qualify as fundamentalists.
A 'TALKBACK' COMMENT POSTED AT THE "HAARETZ" ARTICLE: Title:Who was the MK who thought earthquakes punished gays? Name:Michael City: UKState: That`s something to inspire the gay world`s love of Israel, having a member of the Knesset who thinks God hates gays adopting children so much that he would punish the US with an earthquake for it. And I also remember that photo of a rabbi, imam and priest all lined up together to condemn a gay pride march through Jerusalem. Three men in skirts, wearing flamboyant hats, lining up to condemn a gay pride march…
HAARETZ ARTICLE: "Shas MK blames gays for recent earthquakes in the region" – By Shahar Ilan, Haaretz Correspondent, and The Associated Press – 02/20/08 (EXCERPT) Shas MK Shlomo Benizri blamed gays Wednesday for the earthquakes that have shaken the region in recent months, telling a Knesset plenum debate on local authorities' earthquake preparedness that government action on homosexuality would do much to prevent the tremors. Benizri said the government should not make do with reinforcing buildings, but should instead pass less legislation that encourages homosexuality and other "perversions like adoptions by lesbian couples." The ultra-Orthodox party MK invoked passages from the Talmud and the Gemarrah to support his claims. "Why do earthquakes happen?" said Benizri. "One of the reasons is the things to which the Knesset gives legitimacy, to sodomy." "A cost-effective way of averting earthquake damage," he added, "would be to stop passing legislation on how to encourage homosexual activity in the State of Israel, which anyways causes earthquakes." ….. ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/956334.html
Hahaha, keep on downplaying how gay people are persecuted in Palestine.
BBC NEWS: "Israeli MP blames quakes on gays" – 02/20/08 (EXCERPT) An Israeli MP has blamed parliament's tolerance of gays for earthquakes that have rocked the Holy Land recently. Shlomo Benizri, of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas Party, said the tremors had been caused by lawmaking that gave "legitimacy to sodomy". Israel decriminalised homosexuality in 1988 and has since passed several laws recognising gay rights. Two earthquakes shook the region last week and a further four struck in November and December… ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7255657.st...
RE: "…negative branding tactics…" MY COMMENT: Thanks sk1. A great article! ARTICLE: "With Islamophobia against Homophobia?" – by Georg Klauda, "Monthly Review", 12/11/07 LINK – http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/klauda121107....