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.
