Recent attacks on Palestinian cultural centers have targeted those seeking to re-imagine and redefine Palestinian identity. The Israeli media has been more than happy to exploit the conflict.

While an academic work on LGBTQ Palestinians, Sa’ed Atshan’s “Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique,” is also deeply personal account of coming of age between homophobia and Israel’s occupation.

Haneen Maikey, the director of alQaws, speaks to the Palestinian LGBTQ community who held a historic protest in Haifa on July 29, 2020. “Your persecution only fuels us to create larger, louder spaces for queer life in Palestine.”

Amith Gupta writes, “The use of LGBT discourse to pinkwash Israeli state violence–and A Wider Bridge’s slanderous allegations against those who do not comply–are simply one part of an ugly trend to turn pride events from a commemoration of the sacrifices of marginalized peoples into an effort to sanitize their marginalization.”