Pinkwashers occupy the pinkwatchers

Jayson Littman

Writes a friend:

Here’s a little pinkwashing tidbit. I met with Haneen Maikey, director of Palestinian queer, anti-Occupation group al Qaws yesterday. They launched a new version of their “pinkwatchingisrael.com” website that afternoon.

I accidentally typed in pinkwatching.com – and it immediately redirected me to “outforisrael.org.” A little Googling found out it’s a project of Jayson Littman as part of PresenTense in New York, a Jewish ‘social entrepreneurship’ fellowship dedicated to the “centrality of state of Israel to the Jewish people.” One of the fellowship’s main goals is to “support grassroots or high-level efforts to connect youth to Israel and provide alternative strategies to overcome the BDS offensives carried out on campuses and across social networks.”

Littman’s bio on the website is below, along with some other relevant links to his writings. Littman is most well-known for organizing gay Jewish parties throughout the city through his party planning group “He’bro.” He’s written a bunch against boycott, and the Out! for Israel initiative is obviously in line with a bunch of other “hip,” often gay, pro-Israel initiatives; but buying pinkwatching.com just seems weird.

Littman’s website launches on June 20 with the other PresenTense fellows.

Jayson Littman, Out! for Israel bio at PresenTense:

Jayson Littman is the founder of He’bro (www.myhebro.com), a nightlife and entertainment group that produces and promotes events for the cultural gay Jew living in New York City. Through his involvement in both the gay and Jewish communities, Jayson’s mission is to bridge the identity of gay Jewish life in New York City. Jayson has led and organized LGBT Taglit-Birthright trips and is a founding steering committee member of Out@JNF, the LGBT networking group at the Jewish National Fund. A public speaker and writer on gay Jewish topics, Jayson currently writes for the Huffington Post and Heeb on topics pertaining to the gay Jewish community.

Jayson was born and raised in the Washington Heights section of New York City and currently resides on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Jayson’s venture: Out! for Israel is a pro-Israel voice in the LGBTQ community. We speak out to support Israel because it is the only nation in the Middle East that provides legal protection to LGBTQ people and other minorities. We respond to misinformation campaigns by educating the LGBTQ community about Israel’s diverse, pluralistic and free society. We are an apolitical and independent organization that believes that Israel, like any other nation in the world, has a legitimate right to exist and defend its citizens.