Not Anonymous

In case you weren't aware, Israel is in turmoil. The good way, as in, people are taking to the streets, rather than to our guns.

Three weeks ago, a protest regarding the cost of living (mainly the price of rent) was started by a young grad student who set up a tent in one of the businest boulevards in Tel-Aviv. And well, the rest is history.

roga has a picspam that will show you the magnitude of this, well, surge.

There have been quite a few big marches and demonstrations, and tonight there were simultaneous demos all over the country.

150,000 people marched in Tel-Aviv alone.

I didn't go to that one. I went to the one close to home, the one in my town. We were 300+ people shouting slogans about social and economic justice.

My town is very fiscally conservative, like most of wealthy suburbia, so I felt it was important to show a presence in places where it is very much not obvious that there will be a turnout.

So there I was, shouting along and holding up the symbolic tent.

Times they are a-changing?

I can only hope the idea of social justice, welfare and economic justice will spill out towards actually touching the Occupation and how the majority of our issues come from the fact that cheap housing is built in the territories, that the jumbo budget of the army should be allocated towards education, welfare and public health.

I don't have faith, but I do have history, I rely on it being repeated.

My speech (which, no matter what people say, has never been absolutely free) has been curtailed in a frightening way.

I cannot tell you which companies not to buy from, because I could get sued and fined (but not confined) for it.

The "anti-Boycott" law which passed last week in the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament stipulates that it is a civil wrong (not a criminal offence) to call for a boycott on Israeli made, well, anything.

It is meant to protect Settlement made goods from the West Bank from financial loss.

In effect, it punishes people from doing the most non-violent action possible, asking people to be conciousness consumers.

I am not telling you to boycott, because that would open me up for law suits that could sue me for more money that I've got, due to hypothetical financial loss.

If ever there was a time for you to learn about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction campaign and movement, it is now.

But, well, I can't tell you what you should do regarding that.

I didn't think I'd write about my Pride angst, just because it's June. I pretty much write about my ambivalence of being an Israeli Queer, that the (Tel-Aviv) community is used to portray Israel as the land flowing with Free Love and Milky Substance.

I hate that.

RM of Letters from Titan wrote a great post titled The Ghost of Pride Past (and Future), in which she talks about the change the New York City Pride parade from an angry protest march to a corporate extravaganza in which various companies show how Gay Friendly they are.

This is the same change I have been told happened in Israel, but in a shorter amount of time and only in Tel-Aviv. Only. The first Pride march (not a parade yet!) was 1998, which was a culmination of a lot of protest activities that mostly ended up with police confrontation - the year 1998 was a big one when it came to queer visibility in Israel, what with Dana International winning the Eurovision and the Wigstock Riots, which was partly sponsored an LGBT AIDS support and advocacy group known as ב.ל.ה דואגת (B.L.A. Doeget = Bella Cares), which has since become a part of Israel AIDS Task Force. The riots erupted because police came to break up the event because it was violating Shabbat.
...Yeah.

When I was a teenager, I didn't go to Pride. I didn't think I needed to, as I was oblivious to the reality of queer lives. When I was a teenager I was pretty oblivious to a lot of things.
I had "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and that was good enough for me - though apparently that has also changed into a corset fashion show.

But since my teenage years, things have changed. It took only a decade or so for Pride to become the radical march it was above, to the corporate funded pink-washing (Facebook Page) event it now is.

Last year, I marched in a politically charged Pride march, which was critical of the fact that Pride has become a mostly gay male event, sponsored by gay celebrities and use gay culture and gay tourism to cover the fact that Israel is a racist, sexist and homophobic state - the murderer from August 2009 is still at large, just so you know, most likely he never will be. But I joined the Municipal Pride Party - all in all, I walked for about five hours and didn't get scorched by the June Tel-Aviv sun.

Last year, the first Pride marches of Be'er Shevah (the biggest city in the Negev desert) and Rishon L'Zion (one of the largest cities south of Tel-Aviv) were initiated, with a whole lot of resistance from the city municipalities.

In Haifa, the largest northern city, they've had Pride for eight years, every year is a struggle to get funds and support from the municipality and the larger LGBT organisations. Every year they are forced to march the side-streets so as not to disturb "the residents".

Do I even need to mention Jerusalem? In which people's humanity is debated and if fact taken away when we're called "Animals" who commit "sin"?
I marched with my sister last year and will most likely do so again this year.

So this year, despite my it going against my instincts, I'll be marching in the Tel-Aviv Municipal Pride Party, in which I and many others feel marginalised and excluded.
Worry not, there will be a political/critical march as well, and I'll be there too.

I wish I could say I was feeling split by this, but honestly, I just feel as though the majority of the LGBT community is either politically apathetic and those who are political are ineffective.
Mainly, and more often than not, the feeling of frustration accompanies me when I am out and about.

The Nakba (Arabic for "Disaster" or "Calamity") began in 1948, when the Jewish people created a homeland (our Independence) on a land we could have shared, maybe, with the Arabs (Muslim, Christian and Jewish) who lived here for generations before European Jewry got into the nationalistic fervour that swept the continent in the mid-19th century.

A law from our Parliament tells us it is illegal to use public funds to commemorate the Nakba, as it undermines the legitimacy of the existence of Israel.
Seeing as Israel has no problem denying nationalistic aspirations to the Palestinians, the hypocrisy, not to mention the perversity of the democratic idea that is supposed to enable minority voices and narratives to speak and be heard.

But we've always been good at silencing those who punch holes in the cohesive story of our nation building. As though a story needs to be factual in order to be real.

On the 14th of May (my birthday) David Ben-Gurion declared the Jewish state in the Land of Israel. The 15th is the Nakba day and in Israel, the IDF is preparing to deal with marches that will take place in the West Bank to commemorate, there is fear the actions will spill over into Israel and that Palestinians with Israel citizenship will make a statement of their own.
The IDF is preparing for violence, though god help us if no violence comes.
The IDF doesn't know how to deal with nonviolence.

All this, was an exposition to the fact that it is commonly said that the Occupation of the West and Gaza began in 1967 and "ended" with the Oslo Accords in 1994.

Well, let it not be said the Nakba and the Occupation aren't intertwined.

Being the Trouble Maker that I am, let me tell you, with some facts brought to light this morning on the national News, just how intertwined they are.

It would appear, that between 1967 and 1994 140,000 Palestinians lost their residency due to a covert procedure used on Palestinians who traveled abroad.
I have to admit, I feel queasy.
According to the article:

From the occupation of the West Bank until the signing of the Oslo Accords, Palestinians who wished to travel abroad via Jordan were ordered to leave their ID cards at the Allenby Bridge border crossing.

They exchanged their ID cards for a card allowing them to cross. The card was valid for three years and could be renewed three times, each time adding another year.

If a Palestinian did not return within six months of the card's expiration, thier documents would be sent to the regional census supervisor. Residents who failed to return on time were registered as NLRs - no longer residents. The document makes no mention of any warning or information that the Palestinians received about the process.

You know, I'm not always keen on using Apartheid to describe the Occupation, as I consider the situations different, the reasons behind the segregation (which are not the same either), but I think in this instance it is justified, especially considering that this practice is apparantly still going on in East Jerusalem, which gives a really tragic and ironic spin on the whole "United City" propaganda:

Today, a similar procedure is still in place for residents of East Jerusalem who hold Israeli ID cards; they lose their right to return if they have been abroad for seven years.

Palestinians who found themselves "no longer residents" include students who graduated from foreign universities, businessmen and laborers who left for work in the Gulf. Over the years, many of them have started families, so the number of these Palestinians and their descendants is probably in the hundreds of thousands, even if some have died.

I cannot think of anything that can justify this procedure on a human level, never mind an ethical one (are they even the same?). This kind of demographic control and expulsion is reminiscent of regimes so dark, I can hardly swallow the notion that I am a benefactor of this racial and national crime.

Fucking hell.

Israel is a problematic country.

Anyone who reads this journal knows how I feel about my little hell-hole.

Anyone who reads this journal knows how I feel about Israel being used as a paragon of liberalism because we have deigned to allow queers to have certain rights that enable some of us to live lives without as much fear as we once did.

So, you know, when I read that the Berlin Pride Parade will be honouring the Tel-Aviv municipality sans any signs of Israel i.e. flags, national symbols, etc. I call foul hypocrisy!

Especially when the excuse is branding things Israel excels at.
Yeah, pinkwashing.

Thus, there will be no Israeli flags and the emphasis will be on Tel Aviv as a global city – pluralistic and liberal, which accepts members of the gay community no matter where they're from. Moreover, visitors to the festival will receive information about Tel Aviv which will include a map that highlights LGBT entertainment centers.

Yeah, there's no racial hierarchy in Israeli queer culture. There's no misogyny towards lesbians or homophobia towards gay men, no equating being a gay man with being "feminine" thus inferior, no equating gay women with needing a "good fuck" in order to be corrected. There's no bi invisibility and of course there's no Transphobia, no siree bob, there is not.

And of course, it's not like there was an unsolved double homicide and terror attack less than two years ago.

A source within the tourism industry told Ynet that "in the past it has been proven that the correct and smart way to 'export' Israel, especially these days, is through emphasizing brands it excels in, without using anything that symbolizes the state of Israel. Unfortunately, the Israeli flag or Star of David can cause antagonism among many."

This is me gagging.

Only this year, 2011, does a local bar (as in, it is ten minutes away from where I live and most anyone in my town) have an LGBT focused night. Why is my culture being "exported" in order to make the racist, bigoted, religiously coercive and over all oppressive country look better because it allows the queers to party!

This kind of fetishising of gay culture has gone on long enough, damn it!

ETA: Edited to fix some implications of Oppression Olympics.

In case somebody didn't know, a Lavender Marriage is term coined some time in the 1920's to describe the marriage of a gay woman to a gay man (gay being the cover all of any sexuality that isn't straight; gay, lesbian, bisexual).

For myself, I first heard the term when I got interested in Queer American History and discovered that a bunch of actors from around the 20's (and quite possibly to this day) practice this type of marriage in order to, well, appear normal.

Not surprising, considering the deviancy of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and queers in general.

This morning I opened my morning News Tab and read an article regarding a phenomena I already knew existed, but still, I'm saddened to read about it.

Israeli Rabbis launch initiative to marry gay men to lesbian women. Of the little interview materials that appear in the article, the word that jumps out more often than not is, surprise, normal.

[...]Etti and Roni, both religious, were married five years ago. Though they were honest with each other about their sexual orientations from their first meeting, to the outside world, they portray themselves as a normal heterosexual couple.
[...]
"It's incredible," [Etti and Roni] wrote. "Six years ago, we didn't think we would ever be this happy. We thought everything was black, that we'd lost our chance of a normal life.
[...]
Etti said her family still doesn't know she's a lesbian. She had one "serious" lesbian relationship, but "realized it was more important to me to raise children and live in a normal family."
[...]
[U]pholding the religious prohibition on homosexual sex was "very important" to them, as was their desire for "more or less normal parenthood," and both factors had influenced their decision
[...]
They are careful to keep up normal appearances before the children and the outside world, even sleeping in the same room, though they don't sleep together. Their children were born through artificial insemination.
[...]

All emphasis is mine, bold, underline and italics. Six times the word "normal" appears in that article, all as an adjective, a descriptor for a better life lived.
Never mind that in order to live this so-called "normal" life they lie to their children.

And you know something, the fact that the the Rabbis who enable these arrangements have the gall to say they're helping religious gays out of acknowledgment of their homosexuality rather than try and sweep it under the carpet makes me want to tear my hair out!

Really?! Requiring people to live lies, to raise children in a family that is based on a lie and keeping up appearances for the sake of, and I quote the article, "they want to establish a home, whether for the sake of becoming parents or for the social recognition". Again, emphasis mine. Becoming parents is easier when you're a relationship that is recognised by the religious-state institution, yes, I agree - still, the amount of same-sex parents is at an all time boom and the sperm used for artificial insemination in the former case of Orthodox Lavender Marriages is the same "spilled seed" that's used by single mothers, men with a low sperm count and same-sex couples (generally women).
But really.

It's the shame of being so-called "abnormal".

The shame and the fear of being social pariahs in a heteronormative heterosexist and homophobic society, all of which are compounded by the religious strictures of Orthodox Judaism, which in Israel has a specific pro-natalistic ideology (a secular nationalistic attitude as well, I might add) regarding the "Demographic Threat", so really, the political agenda of trying to "Straighten" the religious gays, who are already imbued with shame regarding their sexuality seeing as it doesn't mesh with the duties of religious life (especially for women) it's not hard to see how these Rabbis (looking out for the good of these poor suffering homosexuals) sell them this shit of lied and normality.

And you're damn right I'm judging them! To agree to this charade of life, despite social acceptance and the appearance of normality, one is signing up to a life of lies beginning with yourself - because a Rabbi gives you leave to "lapse" every once in a while, stating it's between you and the Creator... well, I'm sure the sacred institution of marriage isn't marred one little bit, when all it's there for is for the sake appearances.

At the time of the publishing of this article, this initiative has gotten 11 cuoples married, 2 of them are in the process of divorce.

I think one of the issues people (many religious people as well) is that religious law is something interpreted by human beings, that is, the so-called word of G-d, is something that needs to be conveyed via human scholars, none of whom actually know what the hell G-d may think about all this, should he exist one iota outside of our imagination.
What we have, as a religious society, is text.
Texts are written and re-written by people, none of whom are without bias! You really think the Orthodoxy of today, resembles in any way the Orthodoxy of 100 years ago?
Yeah, not so much.

Obviously, on a personal level, I don't agree with the position of keeping faith in a religious path that rejects a part of who you are, or requires that one deny their identity in the name of ethically questionable rules and laws. However, seeing as this is a path that many find that they need in order to live a Good Life, HoD (the first Religious Gay Org in Israel) published ten points of consideration for the Orthodox community.

I, for one, would just like to see society stop dumping all the phobias and anxiety on queers who, at times, don't have the fucking luxury of being "normal". Whatever the fuck that is.

That's the hope at the very least.

That's the potential of Mubarak being ousted, sure he said he wasn't going to "run" for office again, but that's such a disingenuous claim and one meant to curb the momentum of the movement and action happening in Egypt at the moment, that I feel only Western nations and persons of, shall we say, interest are willing to play that game.

At least, I hope.

Per usual, and I know it's not the most okay thing when commentating about a different country, but meh, I'm as parochial as the next gal, so yeah I am thinking about how Egypt changing is going to affect Israel.

Mainly, I'm hoping the change kicks our collective ass into gear.

One of the biggest concerns, so much so that it borders on paranoia, is what the next government in Egypt will do about the peace agreement and to a lesser extent, the peace process.

Well, I'm not political expert, I just live here, but here's what I think will happen:

Not much.

For one thing. Egypt will hopefully be busy rebuilding itself in an image that suits its 80 million people and won't be too concerned at this time with Israel, unless Israel decides to invade Sinai - in which case all bets are off, but that's another matter entirely.

You see, in a lovely blog post titled A Guide: How not to say stupid stuff about Egypt one of the sections writes:

“Mubarak kept the peace treaty”:

That's one of the stupid things people have said, yes really. And the retaliation is that:

So, what do you think, if the Egyptian people choose another government, they will go to war with Israel? Maybe they will demand a few more things from Israel in how they negotiate with the Palestinians. Maybe Gazans will get better treatment? Maybe the balance of power will not be tipped over to Israel? Egypt protests: Israel fears unrest may threaten peace treaty. Hmm, so we should support the oppression of 80 million Egyptians for a false stabilization?

Emphasis mine.
972 Magazine is a wonderful example of English language independent leftist journalism in Israel, if you want a different perspective on the goings on in Israel and Palestine from the Israeli-Jewish pov you should check it out.
Yesterday a very savvy article was posted regarding this whole instability thing and how bad it is for peace:

No, Egyptian uprising won’t hurt the peace process
(Simply because there is no such thing)
[...]
The truth is there is no peace process, and it’s not because of the Palestinians, the Syrians, the Iranians, the reform movement or the coaching staff of the Minnesota Vikings. There is simply no point in talks with Israel right now. The Israeli government refuses to commit to evacuating settlements, refuses to discuss borders or even open maps and refuses to talk to Syria.
[...]

Honestly, this whole "stability" thing isn't working very well - especially because it requires the subjugation of a hell of a lot of people.

And there is no telling or way to predict what can happen when liberty is actually an option - because if there's one thing the average Israeli doesn't understand, in my experience, is that liberty and freedom also means compromise and letting go of privilege.

What does all this have to do with Egypt? Well, you see, Both Israel the Palestinian Authority, Israel's great ally in keeping the West Bank under control is worried that all these shenanigans will enable an actual uprising from the Palestinian people, because ever since the Palestine Papers, Israel and the PA are claiming Al-Jazeerah is out to get them, despite being lauded then for brave journalism, not the Qatari network is just causing problems in the Middle East. They just couldn't have left well enough alone.
Or something.

When I read the article linked above and the News that Hamas curbed a solidarity demonstration in Gaza because they're were worried the uprising will spill into their little cocoon of terror, because the people of Gaza are sick and tired of Hamas and the Israeli blockade.

So, yeah, why shouldn't Egypt be a democracy? There's no reason it can't, there's nothing but our fear of change and the fear that if we think rather than obey, then we will be stranded in a sea on uncertainty.
However, when the choice is between tyranny and uncertainty, I know what I'd chose and that's what the people of Egypt are demanding.

Mubarak Dégage!

As I write this: And Holy Shit Yemen!!!

And while the Arab world decides it kind has an idea what this liberty thing means, Israeli tyranny continued to creep as The Knesset Commitee to investigate the funds of Left Winf NGO's is approved, let the witch hunt begin.

Last night Al-Jazeera published what are now called the Palestine papers.

These documents don't so much show death of the Peace process, but its evisceration - all the guts and none of the glory.

As Israeli blogger Noam Sheizaf wrote for 972 Magazine regarding the Palestine Papers, even we who were suspicious of the whole "we offered a bunch and they rejected it", the documents are shocking.

Reading the about the leak last night shocked me, not because I was surprised (though I was), but because this completely changes the playing field regarding the relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (Gaza is still under siege and as far as I can tell not being taken into account due to Hamas).

I don't feel I have much to add when it comes to in depth analysis. I've read a few bloggers who say they haven't lost hope in the two state solution and really, ideally, I'd like there to be two co-existing sovereign nations living side by side, but the asymmetry of this so-called co-existence can't ignored, especially not on light of these leaked documents in which Israel used it's considerable strength to be the "no partner" Israel has accused the Palestinian Authority of being since Camp David in 2000.

To this I'd like to say:
Ehud Barak, you dirty stinking liar.
Tsipy Livni, you dirty stinking liar.
Ehud Olmert, you dirty stinking liar.
Bibi Netanyahu, you dirty stinking liar.
Avigdor Liberman, you batshit insane fascist.

The last one was for kicks.

As my dad said the whole affair is sad.

For the Palestinians this is a blow that I'm not sure the Authority can endure. The kowtowing and corruption, who knew... well, yeah.
I'll repeat:
Mahmoud Abbas, you dirty stinking liar.
Saeb Ereakat, you dirty stinking liar.

I was actually convinced I'd wake up to an uprising in the West Bank, but the Palestinian Authority's police force are good at suppressing that sort of thing.

I've recently been called an optisemistic person - meaning, I'm a pessimist under a guise of optimism, I laugh while a tell you the bad news. A tad psychotic, but hey, whatever gets me through the day, right?

This me, laughing while I give you the news.

Those damn dirty liars. Ha ha.

So yeah.

Friends, this will not end well.

But you know, who gives a fuck about a bunch of Leftists. After all we're all just a bunch of Queer, sissy, whores of Arafat Arab terrorists.

2011 is going to be interesting. I'm done sitting back.

I started writing this last night, but I pretty much fell asleep at the key board. Such is the day of working both part-time jobs on the same day and then going straight to a Hannukah supper.

Happy Hannukah y'all!

Hey, it's been a while since I linksapmmed you regarding the Zeitgeist of Israeli News media.

Though thinking about it now, it can't really be that interesting to you, because I find myself not all that interested myself. I mean, do you really want to know that in a poll conducted, 62% of Israeli Jews believe that Arab citizens (supposedly of equal standing under the law) should have no say in foreign policy - which certainly helps with the referendum law (in which the decision to withdraw from the Golan Heights and/or East Jerusalem will be be made via referendum of the people, i.e. Us, i.e. 62% of us who think that 20% of the population should have no say in the matter) which passed the Knesset last week.

Good to know where the "majority" stands regarding the nature of "democracy".

In that same poll, 55% of Israeli Jews think the state has the right to "encourage" Arab citizens to immigrate, meaning, should there be a mass population transfer, most of us wouldn't think this was a crime against humanity (yeah, I'm going there, because forced migration and population transfer is a condition of genocide and I refuse to use the term "ethnic cleansing" as that has no legal standing under any judicial body).

But hey, things aren't so bad! only 25% of Israeli Jews would find that living next to a gay couple (originally homosexual couple, most likely they mean two men, as two women are hardly as threatening in the eyes of Machismo culture).
Yeah, we're so tolerated in the only democracy in the Middle-East that doesn't mind using us as a standard of liberal propaganda, so long as we bring tourists, we're okay, but you wouldn't want to actually live next to us.

Of course, not only Israeli Jews were polled and found increasingly intolerant - Palestinians with Israeli citizenship (originally Israeli Arabs) were also polled and wouldn't you know, they are even more intolerant! 70% of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship would rather not live to a gay couple.
But 48% wouldn't mind living next to foreign workers (compared to 39% of Israeli Jews who wouldn't tolerate foreign workers as neighbours).

This poll is unsurprising. For a number of reasons.
First, Queers are always disruptive of the solidarity of an already disenfranchised group - not that that's an excuse for homophobia, but the more traditional the society, the more intolerant it is of Queers. It's a thing that needs to be addressed.
Second, when you have committees that allow for residents to select their neighbours and favour ghettoization of population, well, I can't say I'm surprised that there is such a dehumanising factor in those we perceive as "Other".
And dude, there are so many "Others" in Israel, I have a hard time finding that can be construed as solidarity.

Knesset Memeber Nitzan Horowitz (of Meretz and only out gay MK) was interviewed regarding the poll mentioned above, in this interview he talks about the connection between racism and homophobia. He mainly talks about the larger political forces at work (various parties in the Knesset and movements outside the Knesset) and he also mentions socio-economic status as a huge factor of nurturing intolerance.
Intersectionality, hurrah.

Still, when he mentions the big picture, he doesn't mention the Occupation and the way the violence that permeates the interaction between every group (including gender, street harassment and domestic violence so high, that 20% of men incarcerated in Israeli prisons are there due to domestic violence) in Israel can be felt everywhere.

I think the Occupation as an ethical position this state holds, and the monetary and political resources allocated to keeping the status quo of the Occupation is taking it's toll on Israeli civil (such as it is) society - not to mention the disparity in standard of living among Jews and Arabs who live in the West Bank and the siege on Gaza.

Of course, according to our Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman (Oh, fascist pig one) blames the Arabs for the increase in racism.
I can't even begin to quote the garbage that is written.

As Horowitz rightly said in the interview:

There is a huge gap between the support avowed by the public and by public servants for democratic principles, and the way that support translates into daily behavior. This latest survey shows that the majority supports democracy, but in practice more and more racist, hurtful and discriminatory laws are being proposed.

That's the face Israel presents to the world.