A couple weeks back the Arava Institute for ecology in Israel did a feel-good-we-can-all-get-along online event featuring Pete Seeger, the American icon. The Arava Institute is partnered with the Jewish National Fund, which controls a lot of land in Israel and discriminates against would-be residents who aren’t Jewish.
Let’s not forget that we got rid of such discriminatory covenants in American real estate a long time ago; and the NYT said that his residual anger over anti-Jewish covenants 50 years on played a role in Mayor Bloomberg’s heroic stance on the Islamic center in downtown Manhattan. Well, Palestinians have to live with this discrimination every day, and they hate it.
Also, the JNF has spearheaded the repeated demolition of a Bedouin village in the Negev, making the desert bloom for Jews.
Now JNF has another idea of messaging to liberal Americans; they’re reaching out to gay people, featuring Israel’s proud record on gay rights to cover racial discrimination. Ali Abunimah calls these efforts “greenwashing” and “gaywashing.”
A wine and cheese in New York on December 9 will celebrate JNF’s new LGBT committee. Spaces are going fast, they say; you can meet Israel’s consul-general in New York, a former leader of Israel’s branding campaign. The event will be at the law office of Jordana Gutman– who is also hooked up with a neoconservative campaign to show that Muslims turn their children into suicide bombers for reasons that have nothing to do with occupation.
I’m reminded that in his debate with Noam Sheizaf on Israel’s image, former Israeli consul for media, David Saranga, kept emphasizing the LGBT angle. Here’s the JNF release:
JNF launches gay membership group: Early next month, the Jewish National Fund will open a new chapter in its fund-raising history by reaching out specifically to gay New Yorkers.
The century-old organization, which is most famous for foresting Israel, and which has become more involved in recent years in environmentalism and water issues, has started an affinity member group out of its New York office aimed at the LGBT community.
The new group will hold its first event Dec. 9 at a private law office, featuring an intimate talk and a wine-and-cheese ceremony with Israel’s acting consul general in New York, Ido Aharoni. Chaired by real-estate lawyer Jordana Gutman, the new JNF committee is seeking to raise $15,000 to cover a scholarship for a member of the LGBT community to attend the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Israel, which brings together Jewish and Arab college students to work on the region’s environmental challenges.
“The goal is to provide a gateway for the LGBT community into JNF and to provide targeted programming,” Shira Berenson, the JNF staff member overseeing the new committee, told The Fundermentalist. “The board is really excited about this. We think it is really incredible and we are embracing this new committee. JNF is for Israel for everyone.”
Gutman, who had not previously been involved in JNF, said she hopes the initiative will lead to more inclusion for the gay community. While JNF and other organizations have not necessarily been exclusionary, she added, the social settings they present are primarily for heterosexuals, which can lead to a feeling of exclusion for members of the gay community.
“For such an old, established institution to be moving toward being so open of alternative lifestyles is nice,” she said. “It sends a positive message.”
