Queering Palestinian Solidarity Activism

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

A British gay rights direct action group OutRage! claims that gay and
lesbian activists were attacked by "an angry, screaming mob of
Islamic fundamentalists, Anglican clergymen, members of the Socialist
Workers Party, the Stop the War Coalition, and officials from the
protest organisers, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC)"
(OutRage! Press Release, "Gays Attacked at Palestine Rights Protest:
Attempt to Silence Debate on Murder of Gays," May 15, 2004). The
incident concerning the OutRage! zap action has been sensationalized
by Nick Cohen ("Saddam's Own Party," The New Statesman, June 7,
2004), accuracy of whose report is questioned by a left-wing blog
Lenin's Tomb: ("Cohen's Own Party," June 04, 2004). I'll set aside
the question of whether those who did not welcome OutRage!'s zap
action were actually "Islamic fundamentalists, Anglican clergymen,
members of the Socialist Workers Party, the Stop the War Coalition,
and officials from the protest organisers, the Palestine Solidarity
Campaign (PSC)," pending more reports on the same incident. Instead,
I'll ask a more general question of how non-Palestinian GLBT
activists should participate in Palestinian solidarity activism, the
question that has been scarcely addressed among Palestinian
solidarity activists.

According to the OutRage! press release, OutRage! and the Queer Youth
Alliance joined "a rally for free Palestine" by carrying "placards
reading: 'Israel: stop persecuting Palestine! Palestine: stop
persecuting queers!'" (May 15, 2004). While I agree with OutRage!
spokesman Peter Tatchell that "[f]reedom for Palestine must be
freedom for all Palestinians -- straight and gay," why carry placards
that falsely allege that it is "Palestine" as such that persecutes
all queers for the mere fact of their sexual identify or practice
alone, while ignoring how the Israeli occupier's recruitment of
collaborators reinforces homophobia? . . .

. . . Tatchell's misleading statement makes it difficult for
solidarity activists to confront the problem, as his statement leads
us to believe that the problem is homophobia and homophobia alone, in
separation from both the reality of collaboration and (sometimes
paranoid) fear and hatred of collaborators, both of which are logical
consequences of the military occupation.

What approach, then, might GLBT activists in Palestinian solidarity
movements take? Firstly, as a statement by QUIT! (Queers Undermining
Israeli Terrorism) -- one of whose founders is a Palestinian gay man
-- shows, GLBT activists in Palestinian solidarity movements must
reckon with pro-Israeli-occupation propaganda that comes with a
seemingly pro-gay twist . . .

Secondly, queer political organizations that wish to promote debate
among Palestinian solidarity activists on the question of treatment
of GLBT individuals in Palestinian society should ask themselves if
their own groups are not racially exclusive. . . .

The full posting is at
<http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/06/queering-palestinian-solidarity.html>.
--
Yoshie

* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/>
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
* Calendars of Events in Columbus:
<http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>,
<http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
* Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
* Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>