I Am A Pinkwasher

Mar. 24th, 2012 05:58 pm
eumelia: (queer rage)
I'm part of an organisation that was boycotted in Seattle last week.

The Seattle LGBT Commision cancelled a planned evening with Israeli representative of the Association of Israeli LGBT Educational Organisations. Organisations which include IGY (Israeli Gay Youth), Tehila (Parents and Family of LGBT people) and Hoshen (Education and Change - the org I associate myself with).

It happened because a local Seattle activist made the case that by having an Israeli event, the Commission would be participating in pinkwashing - in which the use of LGBT rights are culture are appropriated and used to diminish the human right abuses and violations committed by Israel in upon Palestine and the Palestinian people.

The Seattle activist, Dean Spade (Facebook link) was not wrong. Due to the recent history of pinkwashing the Occupation, it would be safe to assume that any and all events regarding Israeli LGBT groups would perpetuate this stance.

The Queerty article rightly states:
Debate has raged both on Queerty and elsewhere about whether the Israeli government’s efforts to publicize the country’s gay-friendliness are a smokescreen to distract from its mistreatment of Palestinians.

And that’s a valid debate.

But the AILO participants are from nongovernmental groups who might very well have a problem with their leaders’ actions. Are anti-pinkwashers like Spade now saying that all gays from Israel should be silenced in the public arena, lest they accidentally encourage someone to visit their homeland?

Are we calling for the end of civil discourse and kicking Israel’s LGBT off the bus?
Emphasis by me

Yes, a great many of the people I know who volunteer for any number of these orgs oppose pinkwashing. Not everyone sees the cynical use of the Israeli government of the LGBT community as pinkwashing, because hey, things better in Israel than, say, Russia or Croatia.

But that isn't the point. Gay rights are human rights. To "brag" about one groups progression from marginalised and debased (which some of us still are, sad to say, because only a certain type of gay is actually "okay") while trampling on the rights of another group simply due to their ethnic, national and religious affiliation is beyond hypocritical and disgusting.

And no, LGBT Palestinians from the Occupied Territories do not actually "seek asylum" in Israel - seeing as Palestianian refugees are a class of their own according to the UN, practically all LGBT Palestinians who have fled the territories are illegal residents in Israel, subject to deportation back the Territories at any time - and seeing as heterosexual straight couples get no slack when it comes to "family reunification", you can bet same sex couples get zero tolerance.

It is telling that I know of no Arab LGBT volunteer in any of the AILO orgs, but I know of several Palestinian specific LGBT orgs that operate within Israel or have no specific base of operations.

Pinkwashing is heavily debated and is a hugely divisive subject within the Israeli LGBT community (whatever that may mean), it has been so since 2009 as far as I'm aware even though the discourse has existed for longer.

My own opinions are of the radical and liberationist kind. I do not think queer people need or should pander to straight society in order to be "accepted" or heaven forbid "tolerated". I've long come to the understanding that as a gay Jewish woman person there is no "true" place for me on this planet - not as long as religion, nationalism, patriarchy, racism, heteronormativity and homophobia prevail - but I know that doing nothing and just complaining about shit is a useless state of being.

So I joined a liberal org that panders to straight society. Being a role model for younger people is a privilege that I have the ability to leverage into a type of activism that may piss a lot of other radicals off, but has been proved to be effective in the long run.

And being a part of that org means that I participate in pinkwashing, just like being part of the local economy means that I participate in corruption and land appropriation. It is a double edged sword that I grip.

I don't know how much longer we can bleed into this blood sodden earth.
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Let Me Spell Something Out For You

Feb. 7th, 2012 08:57 pm
eumelia: (bisexual fury)
Just because Israel doesn't automatically persecute gay men, lesbian women, bisexual people and trans people, mean that Israel is so bloody progressive when it comes to LGBT rights.

As regular readers know, I've been pretty vigilant about the way the LGBT community is being used as a way to cover up the disastrous human rights violations Israel commits on a daily basis, not only to the various ethnic minorities, but to LGBT people - a minority that crosses ethnic and religious "divides".

"Pinkwashing" isn't new, but it's getting a lot of news due to the fact that Israel's "re-branding" is, hah, failing.

Back in November, Sarah Schulman wrote an op-ed in the New York Times about this strategy that Israel uses, through its foreign ministry, its tourist industry - don't you know that Americans voted Tel Aviv as the best Gay city in the world! - and just plain flinging all those wonderful "rights" us queers have in the Holy land. Excuse me, I must go vomit.

Taking all that into account - the fact that there is this constant push and pull regarding Israel's image as a liberal oasis in a desert of religious conservatism - people seem to forget that all those "rights" lovingly bestowed onto the gay community (and yes, there is a big difference between the gay men and every other group put together in the alphabet soup of LGBT) are not presented accurately to the world, or more to the point to the United States.

A recent pinkwashing op-ed by a fellow by the name of Scott Piro wrote that:
Israel is the only Middle Eastern country where people are not persecuted because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

He then lays out the "facts" about Israeli LGBT life:
Israel has passed anti-discrimination laws protecting LGBTs.

Formal laws, do not rights make. Not to mention that women still receive 75% of the average salary as opposed to men. Consider a two women house-hold, when both women work in what is considered a "second-salary slot".
I can't even begin to tell you how fucked transgender people are when it comes to labour, because no one will fucking hire them - trans people are not protected under anti-discrimination laws with regards to the work place - putting that T in LGBT, launders the reality of trans people in Israel, who I can safely say are the most fucked over group under the queer umbrella.
Unless they also happen to be Palestinian. More on that, in a bit.
And sure, businesses are not allowed to discriminate against same-sex couples or people who have a gender non-conforming appearance, but hey, if you're a religious institution you most certainly can!
That's just the tip, of course.

Israel Recognizes same-sex marriages performed abroad.
No, Israel does not. It writes on the ID card "married" for couples who got married in a country where same-sex marriage is legal, because international law requires that there be equal status in all documents. The fact is, if you are same-sex couple and you got married in, say, Canada (like many of the wealthier gays and lesbians do), your status will be written, but not recognised and you have the same rights as a registered co-habitated or common-law married couple.

So, uh, you can scratch that off the list.

Israel has legalized LGBT adoption rights.
The supreme court allowed one lesbian couple to cross-adopt each other's biological children. It is a legal precedent, like most LGBT "rights" in Israel, as opposed to actual pro-active legislation.

Can this horse get any higher?

LGBT soldiers serve openly in all military branches, including special units; discrimination is prohibited.
Only Americans find this special. Seriously. Just because you had DADT for too fucking long (read, at all) doesn't mean that the fact that LGB (if you are a T and are out you will most likely be exempt from military service for reasons relating to mental health. Snack on that.) serve "openly" make the IDF in any way progressive. Considering the fact that the IDF is growing more religiously conservative as we speak and has rabbis telling soldiers to not hear a woman sing on pain of death, I can't see the fact that some boys and girls in certain units are out (you are not likely to be out in a cambat unit, as opposed to an intel unit, for instance) make the army liberal.

And in any event, why would we want to emulate a militaristic, hierarchical, masculine-supremacist, racist and patriarchal institution?

Same-sex couples have the same inheritance rights as heterosexual, married couples.
Wrong again. Inheritance rights for unmarried, common-law married or co-habitating couples relies on drawing up official papers and making your spouse your beneficiary, unlike heterosexual married couples, where it is automatic.

So you see folks. We may not be the worst, but really, when you compare us to actual Western countries (because we pretend to be one), we are not in the best shape. In other words, it's really easy to compare us to countries where things are really bad and come out looking quite good.

Also, of course, all this is related to Jewish LGB(T) people in Israel. The fact is, Israel uses the hard won fights the LGBT community has wrought throughout the years in order to cover up the fact that it violates international law and human rights in the West Bank, Gaza and in Israel proper - where is the help for Palestinian LGBT's in the West Bank and Gaza? There is a reason Israel based Palestinian queer groups like Aswat and Al-Qaws are critical of the mainstream and Jewish LGBT community for lapping up the fact that we are being used as a fig leaf for Israel's human rights violations.

Don't tell me Israel is a "queer oasis".
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Liberal Guilt and Queer Rage

Dec. 11th, 2011 11:41 pm
eumelia: (bisexual fury)
It occurred to me that my previous post was a whole lot of whine and cheese about a life, in which, I really don't have all that much to complain about.

(BIG WARNING:Graphic Pictures of Wounds and Violence)

I mean, why complain about a leaky toilet when the IDF shoots a protester at point blank with a grenade launcher, subsequently kills him and proceed to attack the funeral procession.

Don't talk to me about the most moral army in the world, 'kay?

Speaking of fallacious images. Did you know that Israel is the best place to be gay in the Middle East? No, really, it is.

We have rights, and parties, and freedom of expression and places in which we can gather safely!

Oh, wait.

Considering what happened in 2009 at the LGBT youth club and the fact that the people who come to the Tel-Aviv LGBT centre and the park in which it is situated are routinely assaulted, the whole, "it's goo to be gay in Israel" stance is more dissonant than ever before.

My age is showing, because what I consider a "gay park" is not what they mean in the article.

Especially when you consider the fact that pinkwashing as a propaganda tactic is at an all time low. At least, I hope my fellow siblings aren't as gullible as the Foreign Office would like to believe.

I've spoken about Pinkwashing before and last month the whole shebang was blown out of the water by Sarah Schulman who posted a brilliant op-ed in the New York Times titled Israel and 'Pinkwashing', in which she writes:
[...]
In 2005, with help from American marketing executives, the Israeli government began a marketing campaign, “Brand Israel,” aimed at men ages 18 to 34. The campaign, as reported by The Jewish Daily Forward, sought to depict Israel as “relevant and modern.” The government later expanded the marketing plan by harnessing the gay community to reposition its global image.
[...]
The growing global gay movement against the Israeli occupation has named these tactics “pinkwashing”: a deliberate strategy to conceal the continuing violations of Palestinians’ human rights behind an image of modernity signified by Israeli gay life. Aeyal Gross, a professor of law at Tel Aviv University, argues that “gay rights have essentially become a public-relations tool,” even though “conservative and especially religious politicians remain fiercely homophobic.”


'nuff said, really.
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Pride is a Protest, not a Party

Jun. 8th, 2011 01:00 pm
eumelia: (bisexual fury)
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.
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Brandishing The Un-Holy Brand

Apr. 11th, 2011 08:55 pm
eumelia: (queer rage)
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.
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No Miracle Max, alas

Dec. 2nd, 2010 12:11 pm
eumelia: (verbiage)
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.
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Bad News Day in the "Holy Land"

Aug. 26th, 2010 12:28 am
eumelia: (not in rome)
They, whoever "they" are, that Tel-Aviv is a safe haven for QUILTBAG people.

Not so, when a young guy's family kidnapped him from his flat in the city, beat him up and threatened to kill him because he's gay.

Reading about this, especially after everything this community has been through this year, along with the blatant Pinkwashing that has happened is so tragic and so upsetting I don't even know what to say.

In related events, because really, you can't separate homophobia from racism and misogyny; remember a few days ago I mentioned the racist surveys regarding the future Jerusalem light-rail, that asked passengers whether they'd mind travelling with Arabs?
Well, they've been slammed, the Jerusalem light-rail company that is.
Municipal officials slammed the company that won the Jerusalem light rail tender for publishing a survey asking city residents whether it would bother them if Palestinians were to use the system under various conditions.

Officials from the municipality and the Transportation Ministry called the questions "racist," and said they should not have been asked, especially not by a private company.
[...]
A spokesman for [The light-rail company] CityPass responded, "The light rail in Jerusalem is supposed to serve all the city's residents and to be an important growth lever for all parts of the city. The survey's goal was to help prepare for various facets of the train's extremely complex operation, including the particular security situation in Jerusalem.
Emphasis mine.
Note that bold sentence, if you would, "serve all the city's residents". Yes, indeed. Note, as well, that they don't say the word "equally".
Public transport, according to this company, is not equal, not when it comes to nationality, race, religion, or for that matter gender. Yeah, you got it, gender segregated cars:
"The train was built to serve everyone," [CityPass CEO Yair Naveh] said, in response to a question on segregated cars. "I think it is required to create alternatives for everyone, and that option exists because of the train's division into cars. It is not a problem to declare every third or fourth car a mehadrin (kosher) car."

The mehadrin cars would serve Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox population, who refrain from mixing genders.

Rachel Azariya, a member of the Jerusalem city council and one of the opponents of the existing 'mehadrin' bus lines in Jerusalem (on which men sit in the front of the bus and women sit only in the back), criticized Naveh's declaration, saying that "Naveh is apparently unaware of the high court ruling forbidding further segregation."

The high court is a toothless lion in this country. Some precedents are approved and listened to, some are not. Arbitrarily and with accordance to interests to do with politics rather than law, justice and the ethical treatment of all people under this aforementioned thing called law.

Jerusalem... you're a beautiful city, but if your Holy Sites and the majority of your residents were gone, I wouldn't be sorry.

Sincerely,

The Atheist Jewess who is sick of the shenanigans done because people think you somehow symbolise the Force.

But wait, there's more... but that's stuff for another post, not regarding the crap that's happening here, but elsewhere, unfortunately, thing that happen elsewhere affect things here. Namely, the fact that I must make noise about a subject that, in principle, I should be apathetic about.
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One Year

Aug. 1st, 2010 11:25 pm
eumelia: (bisexual fury)
Guess what I'm writing about.

One year ago. Exactly. At this hour. I was watching television, with my mother, I have no idea what we were watching and as we flicked through the channels, we saw a News alert that there was an attack in Tel-Aviv.

Like the majority of us in my locale, the first thought that came into my head was that there had been a terrorist attack. They are rare now, but still, a News alert like that with fuzzy footage, police cordoning the area and ambulances everywhere, the first thought is Terror.

And in a way it was, just not the kind of Terror we were used to.

When the field anchors stated the address of the attack I thought I had heard wrong. I had only been to that headquarters of Israeli LGBT association a few times, it houses numerous clubs and support groups and I personally never found what I was looking for or needed there, but I knew of many who did.

In a way, the attack didn't come as a surprise, much as it was a shock, but the violence of my culture, the machismo, the misogyny... everything.

It was only a matter of time right.

Not that it made one iota of difference on the larger scale. Straight people still treat this as a freak event. The shooter is still out there and he knows he has succeeded, because the fact is, it takes activist judges to get queers any protection under the law, trans people are still persecuted and have no protection under the law, three people were assaulted after the Jerusalem Pride march and I didn't go to the memorial held at the Tel-Aviv Gay Community Centre because every community event has felt like a memorial this year.

Apparently there were many people at the memorial last night. The minister of (re)education was there and was rightfully heckled and he promised, as he did a year ago, that gay material would be put into the curriculum.

This incident, by the way, is not recognised as a hate crime, nor is it recognised as an act of terror against a community already so disenfranchised.

We know, we can be your pretty face to the world and bring in business and tourists and get liberals to defend our actions violating other human rights, but to actually grant us equal rights, treat us as though we are worth something.
That... that's just too much.

I'll be here, Rewatching myself march in the Jerusalem Pride Parade. ( Yeah, there's a video )
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Democratic Dictatorship

Jul. 22nd, 2010 07:07 pm
eumelia: (flags)
Are you ready to read about some politics?

Are you ready to read about the fact that soon those who advocate (as in speak words) economic boycott against Israeli products will be criminalised?

Are you ready to read about the fact Israel believes that the Occupation is a public relations problem and not an actual human rights problem?

Are any of these things News to you?

They are not to me, but here's the gist. The Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement is gaining momentum. So much so, that politicians are running scared and have drafted a law (which has already passed a first reading - for a Bill to be passed it needs to pass three reads in the Knesset) in which supporting, advocating and participating in BDS activities will be criminalised: Seriously.
Of course, this all came about because the Palestinian Authority boycotted Israel first!

Wrong.
The most brutal, naked boycott is, of course, the siege on Gaza and the boycott of Hamas. At Israel's behest, nearly all Western countries signed onto the boycott with inexplicable alacrity. This is not just a siege that has left Gaza in a state of shortage for three years. Nor is it just a complete (and foolish ) boycott of Hamas, save for the discussions over abducted soldier Gilad Shalit. It's a series of cultural, academic, humanitarian and economic boycotts. Israel threatens nearly every diplomat who seeks to enter Gaza to see firsthand the unbearable sights.


The Israeli mind set, of which mine does not escape, views everything in terms of warfare, something that Dr. Dalit Baum articulated in the video embedded below. A boycott, by it's definition, is a pro-active non-violent form of protest by abstaining from economically participating and dealing with bodies, organisations and governments whose policies, for instance, you do not believe deserve to be supported.



But that, that's Antisemitism right there, not willing to wheel and deal with Israelis, well... that's you being a hateful bigot isn't it?

Never mind that an Arab man is currently in hospital for talking to a Jewish girl. But no, there's no racism.
None at all

It's all, one big PR problem. And you who are freakin' fantastic at PR?
Gays.
Yep, Liberals in Europe and the United States always approve of the Gays.
I mean, all Israel needs is a little re-branding.
Gays made the best logos.
Especially when they host great parties and have a fabulous night life.
C'mon over my brothers! Tel Aviv is just the City for you.

Don't mind that girl who was beaten to a bloody pulp by her brothers because she's trangender (the girl is constantly misgendered in the article).
Or the fact that it has been a whole entire fucking year since the murder at the Gay Youth club and the murderer is still at large.

But no, we queers have to be the pretty face Israel presents the world because while we continue to benefit for activist judges and some social progression, the IDF proclaims itself to be under no obligation to protect civilians. By the way, that white phosphorus Israel has been denying it used during the assault on Gaza? Well, now we're going to "reduce its use".
Brilliant hypocrisy.
Just fucking brilliant.

This is what Israeli democracy looks like - with Loyalty tests, religious persecution, racial inequality, human rights violations and hijacking the language of human rights in order to paint ourselves as better, more accepting, more tolerant and Normal.
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Before returning to the fun stuff!

May. 18th, 2010 02:04 pm
eumelia: (bisexual fury)
Okay, so, remember how two weeks ago I spoke about that father stuck in India with his twin sons?

Well, finally the Jerusalem District Attorney told ...Judge... Phillip Marcus that there is no legal obstacle to the paternity test Goldberg needs in order to bring his sons to Israel and for them to become citizens:
Meanwhile, the Rainbow Families group - an umbrella organization for gay families - held a demonstration in support of Goldberg in Tel Aviv yesterday. The demonstrators called upon Interior Minister Eli Yishai to allow the twins to come to Israel.


Of course it took the Prime Minister to actually kick things up. It's not as though the state actually gives a shit.

Yeah, Happy IDAHO, Goldbergs!


Yesterday there was a Pride Parade for the first time in Rishon Lezion, which is a city south of Tel-Aviv, there the IDAHO events in Israel kicked off. Not that I can find any news about what went on there of course - it had a hard time coming together and since all I have are a few accounts, apparently there were only a couple hundred people who weren't cops.

Lovely.

It's especially lovely to read that over the weekend at Eilat's annual Gay Pride and Village Events three gay men were attacked.
Of course, it's "unclear" as to what motivated the attack.

My ass.

And lest we forget institutionalised homophobia, transphobia, lesbophbia, biphobia and a general queerphobia:
"The flamboyance of the homosexuals borders on the disgusting. It's an issue not only of aesthetics, but of decency. They propagandize minors in order to increase their own political clout. To glorify a disability and turn it into an ideal is a distortion of morality and human nature."... ""It is human nature to be attracted to the opposite sex,"..." "True, there are thousands of teens whose nature endowed them with the opposite inclination. But this is no cause for celebration or for pride, just as to be proud, just as it is no cause for discrimination against them .... It is a fraud to think that the purpose here is just to protect these thousands of teens in distress. There is a political, extra-parliamentary system aimed at delegitimizing the institution of the traditional family in favor of immediate, available sexual gratification. Many naive [individuals] have surrendered to the verbal brutality of the [gay] 'community,' and in exchange for the protection of thousands of teens, tens of thousands more have ended up confused,"

This is a comment made by a teacher named Yair Becker, as quoted in Ha'aretz article in which he also states:
"I don't have a problem with the Web sites that deal with education and homosexuality, but rather with the fact that a religious student who is directed to the site by a teacher could be exposed to material that goes beyond what the teacher intended."

It's not personal of course.
Except when it is:
"Just as I'm not supposed to tell my students what I like in bed, no student of mine should tell me about his sexual orientation."

And that's how mainline Israel looks today.

Gays have to prove themselves to be human enough to be parents. Gays can't walk down the street while recognisable as gay. Gays should be invisible and not share the fact that they are, who they are, it makes the straights uncomfortable.

A couple of weeks ago I was in class, a class called "Critically Queer", yes, named after Judith Butler's mass of the same name and I lost it. I almost never cut people off when they speak. I am polite and raise my hand and wait my turn.
But when a fucking stupid privileged inconsiderate ass-hole says that gays need to show they are capable of "mature" (see: real) relationships, then the "mainstream" would accept them.

I think y'all can imagine what happened next.

Beyond the fact that I ripped her argument to fucking shreds, I went on a tirade that it's not for the "mainstream" (whatever the fuck that is) to decide what's acceptable and what it not. I am human, or I am not. I am acceptable, or I not. There are no conditions to be put upon my and my friends humanity.

I was so fucking angry and I had to walk around campus for a while, the lecturer said my comments were good but that he feared for my health - when I get red in the face, I feel as though the top of my head opens up and lava comes spewing out - sorry for the image, but I do get hot with rage.
It didn't help that I later decided to get into a fight with Zionists who called me a self-hating Jew. But that's a story for another day.

Believe me, the fact that there are gay journalists, gay movie makes, gay authors, gay actors, gay uni professors and the fact that the Association for LGBT Rights in Israel won the President's Volunteer award, really, but really doesn't mean things are fine and fucking dandy.

Things fucking suck!

Also, I use "gay" for a reason, as there is barely any Lesbian visibility, Bisexul and Trans identities can be safely considered non-existent in "mainstream" conciousness.

Queers are the radical leftist anti-zionist whack-jobs. They don't represent anyone.

Oh, Palestinian LGBT's? Hah! They're lucky to be living in Israel, the ones with Israeli citizenship of course. Queer oasis.
The ones in Gaza and the West Bank... they don't even have tongues with which to articulate their distress.

Damn right I'm fucking red in the face!
Tags:

I know it's sometimes difficult to remember...

Apr. 24th, 2010 01:35 pm
eumelia: (master politician)
... but LGBT rights are Human rights.

Really, really they are.

Matter the first, the Toronto Municipality is threatening to axe funding to the annual Gay Pride Parade because of one of the marching faction's politics.
Queers Against Israeli Apartheid is a group that correlates, quite rightly, Palestinian oppression and queerphobia under Israeli Occupation.
Now, regardless of what you think of their politics. Really, you can disagree with their stand, you can think they're wrong in everything they, you can even think that they're counter productive and do more harm than good.

Personally, I like them.

Canadian and US-aian Zionist Jews and their allies do not.

Ha'aretz reports:
The City of Toronto this month threatened to cut funding for its main gay pride event, following complaints by Canadian and Israeli gay rights activists who documented what they call acrimonious anti-Israel propaganda at the event.

Jewish gay rights activists from Toronto and Tel Aviv lauded the move, but the Toronto Jewish community's main body noted the city is yet to take any concrete action. Others, including prominent Canadian gays and pro-Palestinian campaigners, condemned the move as interference with free speech.
[...]
The decision by the city - which is among the world's gay-friendliest - came after repeated complaints by Martin Gladstone, a Toronto lawyer and gay rights activist, who made a film about QuAIA entitled "Reclaiming our Pride." In the film, activists at a Pride Tononto 2009 parade call Israel an "apartheid state" and one of them wears a T-shirt with a crossed-out swastika.

"How does demonizing Israel celebrate gay rights?" Gladstone said, adding: "It creates a hateful and exclusionary environment." Jonathan Danilowitz, a prominent, South Africa-born gay rights activist from Tel Aviv, praised the city's stand, which he defined as "going against hypocrisy."

[Elle] Flanders [the spokesperson for QuAIA], a Jewish filmmaker and artist who is also a PhD candidate in Toronto, rejected these accusations, adding that they were meant to "shut down the debate" and that she will "start a defamation suit against the next person who attempts to call us anti-Semitic."

It is extremely disingenuous to call a faction exclusionary and then shut it out of the parade. This may come as a surprise to some, but the Pride Parade is a protest march, not an assimilationist extravaganza. Or at least that's how it started, it's not about "celebrating gay rights", it's about showing how far we've come and how much more we have to go.

It is downright homophobic to pick and chose who you (Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Danilowitz) think is a "representative" of the gay people.

Israel goes out of it's way to present itself as "Gay Friendly", mainly by comparing itself to other Middle-Eastern countries in which gay rights are not as progressive as here.
Well, bullshit.
Seriously, bullshit.
When a campaign like Out in Israel is being executed in San Francisco which is run by the Foreign Affais Office (whose minister is nothing short of a monster), the consulate, a bunch of gay cis men speaking and a token Lesbian, I call propaganda and the exploitation of my culture that erases the identities of non-Jewish queers (as there is nothing in that programme about Palestinian (with Israeli citizenship) queers, nothing in that programme regarding non-Ashkenazi Jewish queers, nothing about bisexual identities, nothing about trans identities.
The Queer Palestinian organisations Al-Qwas and Aswat have called for a boycott

Israel is cookie cutter perfect when it comes to gay rights.

So perfect we're even invited to speak at the Knesst in June (Pride Month)... oh, wait:
In a letter addressed to [Knesset Speaker MK Reuven] Rivlin, titled 'Protecting the Knesset's dignity",[MK Ya'akov] Katz wrote: "I was shocked and amazed to receive an email invitation from MK Horowitz to attend an event at the Knesset on the subject of 'pride day'.


"Alongside the strange name, which symbolizes the opposite of any normal ethical value a human being should aspire to, all the more so a Jew, the possibility that such a provocative event will be held in the house of Israel's lawmakers should concern every member of the Jewish culture.


"Our holy Torah, the Torah of life, sees the world's existence in its normal and healthy form as a supreme value. Our Torah referred to what this conference is meant to represent as an 'abomination'. Within a nation which is a source of inspiration, our role is to be the pillar of fire lighting the way for the rest of the world's nations, which are watching us and learning from us," Katz noted in his letter.

Oh, and the murderer of the gay youth club is still at large and Social Security won't give the wounded and currently disables any allowance because the attack doesn't count as a "Terrorist Attack".

Regarding Toronto Pride.
You don't get to pick the "Gay Agenda".
There is no "Gay Agenda". LGBT Rights are Human Rights and to ignore the fact that Israel, while lauding itself as a Queer Oasis in a Desert of Homophobia (much like Zionism is called a Wall against the Barbarians, I kid you not) absolutely does not give a flying fuck about the rights of people living under military Occupation in the West Bank, under siege in Gaza or anyone who doesn't fit the image that Israel wants to send our to the world.

Pink Washing Israel violates me as a queer citizen of my country, as it is my culture being appropriated and assimilated in order to cover for the crimes committed in my name.

Fuck. That.

The fact that all something like the travesty going on at Toronto Pride, the utterance of MK Katz and the propaganda of Out in Israel is proof that no ones considers queers to be anything more than a freak show for straights, who are willing to see us as they see fit and not as we really are.

I'll repeat.

Fuck. That.
Tags:

Supression, Opression and other forms of Navel Gazing

Feb. 11th, 2010 06:27 pm
eumelia: (Default)
Right after the murder at the gay youth club in August, there was a public poll via the Ha'aretz News Paper which I wrote about at the time - that indicated 46% of those questioned thought gays are deviant. Now this came right after the murder. I'm quite convinced that if the poll was taken now or before it happened, the number would be higher.

There is currently a "scandal" in the ministry of education concerning a poem by renowned Hebrew poet Yona Wallach, who was proud of her own queer sexuality.
There is talk of censoring it because it is not only erotic, it is also explicitly queer.

Yeah, we're such a haven for LGBTQ people in the Middle East

The poem in question is very difficult to translate into English - It's called "You are (he is) my Girlfriend", available in Hebrew and English at the bottom of this post - as it relies heavily on the gendered pronouns in Hebrew - each sex has a different pronoun, making Hebrew, in Wallach's own words, a "Sex maniac".

I speak of this, not only because it's an issue that is personally dear to my heart - Yona Wallach is my favourite poet - but because while the issues may appear different, they are intertwined on an international level.

The fear, dehumanisation, distortion and silencing of queer voices transcends the local and colloquial.

I speak of this, because yesterday, I had the greatest misfortune to read a fail so monumental I do not know where to even begin de-constructing it!

I warn you, because while I've a great many editorials in which gays are maligned, dehumanised and basically accused of being a disease upon humanity, I don't think I've ever read something so virulently hateful and historically inaccurate.

I found it via Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish, who linked to The Washington Times's Letters to the Editor here, or under the ( cut )

I'm not American, so this conceivably, has nothing to do with me. But when I see this kind of mis/disinfomation, this kind of unabashed hatred, to invoke Hitler in the same sentence with homophobia is the height of ignorance.

In Israel the Holocaust is the Shoa, it is a tragedy of the Jews. At Yad Va'Shem there is very little mentioning of the rest of the victims of the industrialised murder by the Nazi's.

It was only when I was 16 and went on the school trip to Poland and was at the actual camps did I realise that there were other victims, that not all were Jews. Jews held a special place in Nazi ideology, but we weren't the only victims and there was an intersection between the different populations of course.

I had no idea that the pink triangle was the gay symbol for prisoners.

I'm digressing.

My point is; to compare a leader to Hitler because one has a personal grievance, a political/policy disagreement with him is fallacious at best, obscene at worst.

It's difficult for me to even discuss this because you know what? This shouldn't even be a discussion!

I read this lovely letter the same day, via my reading list, I read The Bad Old Days, in The Advocate. In 1967, CBS aired a news report (the full length video is embedded in the article) titled "The Homosexuals, which was basically 45 minutes of dehumanising, demonising, fear-mongering and paradigm entrenching propaganda, regarding gay men (gay women are not mention and are thus invisible, bisexuality is what happens when a gay man marries a woman and keeps homosexual liaisons on the side).

I watched it.

Talk about being touched by history. Homosexuality is a cancer spreading around America and the world. Watching pre-Stonewall homosexual activists always makes me cringe - it's like they're a begging for bread crumbs. Which is exactly what they are doing.
Begging to be treated as human beings.
Unlike the Gay Liberation movement, the Matachine society were assimilationists - the whole Lib vs. Assim isn't over

That was 1967. And this is only in the "West".

Here's the video of "The Homosexuals", if you're not interested in going to the Advocate article:


( אתה חברה שלי )

( You are my Girlfriend )
Tags:

Exclusion in the name of "the general public"

Nov. 23rd, 2009 12:41 pm
eumelia: (Default)
If you are an Israeli gay guy; Independence Park in Tel Aviv will resonate in you in a way that doesn't for other people.
It is a large patch of greenery on near the beach, it's benches, trees and bushes.

The first time I ever went there, I was about 15 and scared out of my mind, there are barely any street lamps and I was pretty much thought I was going to be assaulted.
Luckily I was with a bunch of friends who told me, with a bit of humour, that I would not be approached by any man in this park.

The penny dropped.

Independence Park has a huge amount of baggage when it comes to queer culture - so much that a book has been written about it.

Now the #1 "unofficial" cruising spot is being yoinked from our hands:
T.A. gay community says city trying to evict them from cruising site
[...]
Now, community members say, the Tel Aviv municipality is trying to evict them from the park - installing stronger lighting, getting rid of bushes and trees, and increasing harassment by municipal patrols.

Visitors say that for the last two months, city inspectors have been blocking them from entering areas with shrubbery.

Harassment, by the way, is nothing new.
Obviously, this is not a place for queer women to go cruising, but I know from my gay men friends who have been harassed more often than not by police, that they've often been caught "with their pants down" though they're usually just been shoved around and not arrested for indecency or something like that.
The uprooting of trees and bushes is not something I'd heard of before and I find this worrying. I've always been comforted by the fact the the majority if litter found in the park (and the University parking lot) are used condoms - safe sex is awesome you guys!

The article continues:
The new policy is divisive even within the LGBT community itself, as some of its leaders sided with city hall. Yaniv Weizmann, founder of the Proud Youth organization and a city council member, told Haaretz that the park's historic role was over.

"The community has matured," he said. "We can walk around in broad daylight in Tel Aviv. Something that was relevant when we were a persecuted and oppressed community is no longer relevant today."
Emphasis mine.

What utter, utter bullshit.
I love it how cis gay men in positions of power presume to tell other queers what it means to persecuted and oppressed now.
Especially when we've just had Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Maybe you can walk in broad daylight mister city council member - a bunch of kids who part of your Proud Youth org cannot.

Others see establishment leaders like Weizmann as traitors to the cause.

"There's a coalition of homophobic straights and lush, fat, bourgeois gays who forget where they come from," said Lior Kay, who heads Hadash's Red-Pink forum. "They forgot how they, as petrified teenagers, would sneak off to Independence Park.

"If Weizmann wants to be a representative, he should be representing all of us, not just people who stepped out of the closet and into a penthouse," he said.

I'm glad they put both "sides" in this teeny-tiny article that no one but us queers are going to read about and actually give a damn.
Most straight people will not even realise what this means.
I'll tell you what it means, it means more persecution of gay people, restricting the movement and historical accessibility of gay people and basically policing gay people's behaviour into what is believed to be for the benefit of the "general public".
'Cause gays, obviously, are NOT a part of the general public and why should they (we) even think of retaining some kind of cultural history, am I right?

Director Zohar Kaniel, who frequents the park, believes the municipality's measures will not deter people.

"I don't want to go and pay money to meet people in some club or sauna. As a cruising spot, this place predates the state itself. You have parks like this one even in the most retrograde of countries. When I see a straight couple making out I don't bother them, so why should anyone bother me?"
Emphasis mine.

Israel has been showing a great regression when it comes to tolerating sexual minorities - not that I think we've ever been that great, but really this is plain ridiculous.
Especially in Tel-Aviv which has had a bad few months when it comes to its queer citizens.

Tel Aviv municipality said, "Over the last week, we witnessed activity in the park that appears to be illegal. Law enforcement authorities were instructed to take care of that activity, to allow the entire public to enjoy the park. We should stress there's no policy of driving away the gay community, but merely maintaining the park, just like all other parks in the city."

It just so happens that, de facto, the Tel-Aviv municipality is enacting homophobic legislation.
God, why is the city I plan to live in one day - at least for a bit - deciding to suck so hard?
Tags:

Pride in the (un)Divided Holy City

Jun. 25th, 2009 01:12 am
eumelia: (Default)
I'm heading to Jerusalem tomorrow.

The main reason being Pride and the second reason being that my Eldest sister lives there with her family and she needs me for the evening/Friday morning.

It all worked out in the end (even though Exam season impinged on me being able to spend any significant time with [Southern!Girl] this week - which is her Birthday week, *curses*).
[Southern!Girl] and I will be marching with the everyone else.

Jerusalem Pride is different from Tel-Aviv Pride, or the tiny Pride in Haifa or even the one in Tourist Town Eilat.

Jerusalem, is not a united City.
It never was.
Nor, I fear, will it ever be.

But queers of every colour and creed live there.
The Jerusalem Open House is one of the few places in which Orthodox Jews, Muslims and Christians who are Queer can be out, attain information and actually feel the solidarity they so sorely lack in their "home" environments.

And this is contentious.

Because Jerusalem is a Holy City.

My sceptical brain thinks this is malarkey. My Jewish heritage says this is a part of my history. My Israeli mouth says "על הזין שלי" crudely "on my dick" which is an phrase loosely translated as "Fuck it".

I like it.

Yes, the march, is considered a provocation. Jerusalem Pride isn't a Parade. There are no floats, no advertisements, no scantily clad men and women revelling in their sexuality while people watch from the sidelines and will either join in or simply enjoy the scene.

Every time human rights are on the agenda it is provocative.

We are creating a scene.

Because the religions that make that City what it is are also a part of the power structure that demands that queers be quiet, be silent.
A silence that is so violent, it scars our bodies and our souls and has made this march so dangerous in the past (last year was the first time there wasn't any real violence committed upon the people walking), we can never forget that in 2005 three people were stabbed for "being queer and here".

It looks like it's going to be a quiet time this year as well.

It's the heat. June is not an easy month for day time events in Israel and Palestine. It's also being exposed to "immodest" people. Can't be contaminated by the "sex" we queers exude from just being in the same vicinity as straight people.
However, that is beyond the point. Religion and violence that is.

As Israel's Capital.
As a place in which LGBTQ people live.
We have a right to express the fact that there is still work to be done.
That we will not twiddle our thumbs while we are still considered "different" under the law.

That we protest the idea of normal.
There is no such thing as "normal".

There is only variety.

And in Jerusalem, ostensibly the most diverse city in Israel, we march for our human rights and with any luck, even have some fun doing so.

Good night. A Happy 40th Stonewall to us all! Yes, I know it's on the 28th... close enough!
Tags:

Questions of great import!

Jun. 4th, 2009 02:23 pm
eumelia: (Default)
What is the difference between people following a religious leader blindly and civilians following a military drill?

Why is creating a program using the LGBT community as an example for why Israel is a bitchin' place to be, problematic, when a large portion of the LGBT community do not, in fact, feel that Israel is a bitchin's place to be?

What is the difference between men (queer or not) dressing up as women and Drag Queens? Is it the same? Can it be regarded as demeaning towards "actual" women?

Your opinions are greatly appreciated.
Tags:

Israel is the Gayest Place Ever

May. 21st, 2009 05:15 pm
eumelia: (Default)
Yeah, not so much.

Remember, a few weeks ago, I wrote about the foreign ministry's attempt at recruiting the Gay LGBT community to improve Israel's image (while slandering Iran's).

I just read a very, very disturbing article on Ynet and seriously, Israel is the best place for Gays in the Middle East?!
2 men attacked while kissing on Tel Aviv street

Dangerous liaisons: Two men who were seen kissing on a central Tel Aviv street were the near-victims of an assault by several local youths, who took aversion to the public display of affection.

Nadav, 29, recounted the terrifying end to his Tuesday night date: "We were kissing and then a car sped by and the passengers began yelling 'homos! We'll kill you!' We ignored it at first, it was – after all – only a yell, but then the car stopped.

"Two men stepped out, opened up the trunk and pulled out iron maces. We understood what was going to happen and ran into the stairwell of a nearby building. They chased us, but stopped at the door to the stairwell.


Peace, Tolerance and Bullshit.
This is obviously an aberration in behaviour. Of course those Youths (as they're called) are normative and don't really hate anyone.
Anyone who doesn't fit their parameters of human beings of course.

( Another anecdote of Homophobia induced violence )
Yesterday I read this nifty little article:( Parts of import under the cut )
Emphasis by me and let me put one thing straight (hehe), I do not oppose the sex industry as an industry or with it being advertised... I have a problem with the following:
Gays as fetish?
Check!
Resuming the Levant's status as sex tourism hot spot?
Check!
Eradication of women and femininity?
Check!
And
Queer women are not part of the LGBT experience, no worries!
Check!

Oh, and I almost forgot to add; Jews are feminized (because sex workers are passive/feminized).

So much wrong in one campaign.
So much.
Tags:

"Our Queers are better than your Queers"

Apr. 22nd, 2009 12:39 pm
eumelia: (Default)
I've been trying to find a way to write coherently about this subject for the past couple days, I hope I manage to make my point without confusing the hell out of you, dear readers.

Iran is a religious dictatorship. Ahmadinejad has bad PR. Iran is trying to make itself a power house in the Middle East.
Iran's treatment of women leaves much to be desired.
Ahmadinejad has gone on the record saying that Iran doesn't have homosexuals.
All these are facts.

And you know what? I don't care.
I don't care that there are worse places in the world.
Because if that's the kind of narration Israel is using in order to make itself look better... it kind of sucks.

Israel's Foreign Ministry is overseeing a new public relations campaign in which the gay LGBT community is recruited. This PR campaign is going to be used to discredit Iran through it's human rights violations.

Dude... WTF?

Beyond the callous use of an underprivileged minority in order to publicly discredit a different nation, it's a blatant attempt to deflect Israel's own human rights violations.

I'll be the first to admit, my life as a white, Jewish, able bodied cis-woman of the middle-class* in Israel is pretty good.
And in my little cultural Niche of Tel-Aviv Uni and the City itself, being a Queer isn't so bad.
I mean, I can't really complain about same-sex marriage as there is no such thing as civil marriages or union in Israel.
Sure there are common-law marriages and couples un-interested (or can't due to various issues) in marrying through the religious institutions can sign fiscal agreements or fly to countries in which you can marry though civil ceremonies - hetero couples like Cypres as it is close and cheap, at the moment the only country in which same-sex couples can have their marriage sort of recognised in Israel is Canada.
Very convenient.
There is precedent when it comes to the adoption of kids in same sex families, which again, is encouraging and quite awesome.

I suppose I should point out that the above is basically available to Israeli-Jews.

Being a heterosexual couple made out of an Arab and Jew is difficult enough and life threatening. Being a same-sex couple made out of an Arab and a Jew can be a death sentence... for both parties.
And that's within Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.
There are Palestinian queer organisations like ASWAT, which are awesome, co-founder Rouda Morcos is one of the most inspiring women I've ever had the privilege to meet.
ASWAT criticises both Israeli and Palestinian societies, but the underlying thought is that the Palestinians society as a whole is oppressed and that in order for LGBT rights to be advanced within Palestinian (and the other Arab societies in Israel and the Occupied territories) the Occupation must end.

Is life better for Queers within Israel proper than beyond the Green Line and in our neighbouring countries? Yes, big and resounding, yes, life is better.

However, that just exemplifies the issue of Israel's own complicity in the situation in the West Bank and Gaza.

To target Iran in order to deflect Israel's own crimes is pathetic.
Yes, yes it is.

Especially when the current government will probably do next to nothing to promote LGBT rights within Israel itself, if anything there will probably be the strengthening of the religious establishment over the next couple of years.

*Did I miss anything in the privilege disclosure?
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V and Justice

V: Ah, I was forgetting that we are not properly introduced. I do not have a name. You can call me V. Madam Justice...this is V. V... this is Madam Justice. hello, Madam Justice.

Justice: Good evening, V.

V: There. Now we know each other. Actually, I've been a fan of yours for quite some time. Oh, I know what you're thinking...

Justice: The poor boy has a crush on me...an adolescent fatuation.

V: I beg your pardon, Madam. It isn't like that at all. I've long admired you...albeit only from a distance. I used to stare at you from the streets below when I was a child. I'd say to my father, "Who is that lady?" And he'd say "That's Madam Justice." And I'd say "Isn't she pretty."

V: Please don't think it was merely physical. I know you're not that sort of girl. No, I loved you as a person. As an ideal.

Justice: What? V! For shame! You have betrayed me for some harlot, some vain and pouting hussy with painted lips and a knowing smile!

V: I, Madam? I beg to differ! It was your infidelity that drove me to her arms!

V: Ah-ha! That surprised you, didn't it? You thought I didn't know about your little fling. But I do. I know everything! Frankly, I wasn't surprised when I found out. You always did have an eye for a man in uniform.

Justice: Uniform? Why I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. It was always you, V. You were the only one...

V: Liar! Slut! Whore! Deny that you let him have his way with you, him with his armbands and jackboots!

V: Well? Cat got your tongue? I though as much.

V: Very well. So you stand revealed at last. you are no longer my justice. You are his justice now. You have bedded another.

Justice: Sob! Choke! Wh-who is she, V? What is her name?

V: Her name is Anarchy. And she has taught me more as a mistress than you ever did! She has taught me that justice is meaningless without freedom. She is honest. She makes no promises and breaks none. Unlike you, Jezebel. I used to wonder why you could never look me in the eye. Now I know. So good bye, dear lady. I would be saddened by our parting even now, save that you are no longer the woman I once loved.

*KABOOM!*

-"V for Vendetta"

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