q-team
don’t buy into the exceptionalism
Queer solidarity with Palestine stems from opposition to all violent and oppressive settler colonial states that appropriate gay rights to further their expansionist agendas. We see how the state and its institutions can be presented as progressive, liberal and democratic; yet continuing to dispossess, dominate and control the parts of the population it deems threatening to its own existence.
gay tourism
In 2010 the marketing budget for attracting gay tourists to Tel Aviv is to increase ten times over. In promoting tourism in Israel, the occupier state is represented as a “Westernized, liberal oasis in the Middle East” where “liberated gay men can enjoy the nightlife at one of Tel Aviv’s gay bars” (quoted from The Advocate, 2007). Who exactly is ‘liberated’ in Tel Aviv? Israel isn’t exactly an oasis for Palestinians. Through racist claims like “Israel’s progressive policies continue to shine like a gay jewel in the Middle Eastern rough” (again, The Advocate, 2008), military aggression and occupation find another avenue to be justified through: that of ‘gay liberation’. We reject gay rights being used as state propaganda.
world pride
The World Pride parade was scheduled for Jerusalem in August 2006, but was canceled because the Israeli government couldn’t provide security – there weren’t enough soldiers as it coincided with the Israel-Lebanon war. The event was going to be used for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs to hide the government’s war crimes behind a rainbow flag. The slogan of the World Pride Parade was ‘Love Without Borders’. A queer politic without borders should denounce occupation and military aggression, racially-defined citizenship; and most especially the apartheid wall!
gay rights vs. human rights
To an extent, Israel “legally enshrines the rights of gay people,” but it enshrines only some rights for some gay people. Palestinians living in Israel – whatever their sexual orientation – face state sanctioned, everyday discrimination and racial profiling in all areas of life, from courtrooms, to hospitals, to universities, to the streets in Tel-Aviv lined with the hippest, gayest clubs. Hundreds of Palestinian queers live illegally in Israel without access to employment or health care, under constant threat of deportation. For Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, their legally enshrined ‘rights’ from the state of Israel include restricted freedom of movement, routine human rights abuses, detentions, checkpoints, and bombing campaigns.
in solidarity with palestine
To an extent, Israel “legally enshrines the rights of gay people,” but it enshrines only some rights for some gay people. Palestinians living in Israel – whatever their sexual orientation – face state sanctioned, everyday discrimination and racial profiling in all areas of life, from courtrooms, to hospitals, to universities, to the streets in Tel-Aviv lined with the hippest, gayest clubs. Hundreds of Palestinian queers live illegally in Israel without access to employment or health care, under constant threat of deportation. For Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, their legally enshrined ‘rights’ from the state of Israel include restricted freedom of movement, routine human rights abuses, detentions, checkpoints, and bombing campaigns.
There is a vibrant, organized community of queer Palestinians with whom we can stand in solidarity, just as we work to stand in solidarity with anti-colonial struggles everywhere. We recognize that homophobia exists in Israel, Palestine, and across all borders. Queer Palestinians face the additional challenge of living under occupation, subject to Israeli state violence and control. Israel’s apartheid system extends gay rights only to some, based on race.
qteam is a radical queer collective that aims to address the intersections of oppressions and consciously unsubscribe from the corporate versions of queerness that devalue diverse queer realities. (March 2010). www.qteam.org •