How Can Gay Activists Boycott the Jewish State?
Share this Article
Twitter
Facebook
Digg
Stumble
PrintTags:
5WPR BDS Boycott Divestment Sanctions Israel GAY BOYCOTT ISRAEL Gay Pride Parade Gay Rights Israel PR Israel Sanctions JEWISH PR LGBT Peter Tachtell Tel Aviv Gay Transgender Rights
Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem, 2002. Photo: wiki commons.
Israel is the sole democracy in the Middle East, a champion of gay rights, and a place where tens of thousands march in an annual gay pride parade. As the Mayor of Tel Aviv recently said, “We are trying to create a model for openness, pluralism, tolerance – live and let live.” For homosexuals, Israel is surely one of the most open places in the world.
Contrast that with Israel’s neighbors, where homosexuals can be hanged; it’s simply amazing that this week, leading gay activists declared their support for a boycott of Israel. After Qatar was awarded the 2022 Football World Cup, Sepp Blatter, president of the sport’s governing body, said that gays should “refrain from sexual activity” if they go to Qatar because homosexuality is illegal in the Emirate. And of course, as we all know from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, there are no gays in Iran.
It seems that Jew-haters will always find a reason to hate the Jewish state, and will use something asinine to mask that hatred. Peter Tatchell, a leading gay activist, signed a letter this week criticizing Israel for “pinkwashing,” trying to use the acceptance of LGBTs (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community) as a “smokescreen” of supposed human rights violations of the Palestinians. In a recent letter to the media, activists from the Gay Liberation Front, Stop Clause 28, and others, stated support for the Palestinian “boycott, divestment and sanctions” campaign against Israel. It added that it is “ironic” that Israel, “in an attempt to gain a veneer of respectability by promoting itself as a liberal,” has grown tolerant towards gay people while the “oppressive regime routinely violates human rights.” So, Israel, the sole country in the Middle East which supports gay rights, is also boycotted by the gay activist community.
One wonders what these gay rights activists can possibly know about these supposed human rights violations and the on-the-ground situation in Gaza or the West Bank. Surely, they haven’t traveled or spent time there, because they would know that they wouldn’t be safe with the Hamas/Palestinian government. Of course, they haven’t spoken out about the violence Jews face in these regions. One wonders what justification Tachtell and other gay activists can have to boycott Israel, their strongest supporter in the Middle East. Tachtell’s boycott started a few months earlier when he criticized the IGLYO – the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Lesbian Youth and Student Organization for accepting an invitation from its Israeli chapter to hold its general assembly in Tel Aviv. He was among the first to criticize IGLYO for agreeing to a conference in Israel and said that he “fears that Israel may not be accessible to delegations from Arab countries.” They neglect the fact that Arabs can visit Israel, unlike Jews that seek to visit Arab countries.
Tachtell was successful in having the meeting moved from Israel, despite the fact that there is not a single member from the Arab world on the general assembly of this organization (for obvious reasons). Just as I wonder where the flotilla for peace to Syria is, so too am I amazed as gays and others pretend there’s a reason for hating Israel other than anti-Semitism. The heroic defender of human rights, Martin Luther King said it right when he said, “Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism.”
Ronn Torossian is the CEO of 5WPR and author of PR Book “For Immediate Release”.
9:44 pm
Even shorter version for the deranged pervert, “salvage”..
Israel treats “minorities” better than ANY MUSLIM OR ARA NATION ON THE PLANET.
As for ” how many gays were stabbed at the last Pride March” google shows the last time that happened was SEVEN YEARS AGO.
It doesn’t excuse it but neither does “pride” justify marching through the center of a religious country with your genitals on display.
As for the Chief Rabbi’s comments, until you filthy left-wing sexual fascists can throw us in the gulags for voicing our religious opinion, why don’t YOU STFU.
Better yet, why don’t you go to Iran and book a room with a view near A CRANE and see how “tolerant” the enemies of Israel (AND OF AMERICA) are.
Sign me,
formerly tolerant, now “for your support for islamo-fascism, you can have gay marriage when HELL FREEZES OVER”.
5:49 am
You are a very angry and confused man.
It sounds like you hate the gays, why is that?
2:39 pm
Great piece. Those in the gay community who claim Israel is pinkwashing and call for boycotts against the State can only see Israel through the lens of the Conflict. LGBT activists in Israel spent decades fighting for equality and achieved this goal, only for pinkwashing activists to belittle their accomplishments to promote their support in BDS. This is truly a shame. As a gay supporter of Israel – I stand behind her and know there are many in the LGBT community who feel the same way.
1:34 pm
Christianity and Islam-based states criminalize apostasy, Judaism, homosexuality, and non-belief, pagan or atheist. All are seen as threats to Christian or Muslim totalitarianism, in that they represent alternate sources of authority. All are still illegal and persecuted in Muslim states.
In the former Christendom zone, secularism and democracy have nominally replaced the old order. What we have now, is the old hatreds, wrapped up in new language. Jews are a sinister infection and homosexuals are inhuman, an abnormality. Both are metaphorically equated with diseases, which undermine the just (ie Christian or Muslim) society .
Peter Tachell believes that the dehumanization of Jews can be sustained, while the slander, exclusion, and violence against gays goes away. This is plain nonsense. A cleansed society, inspired by Christianity or Islam, rids itself of both. See: the Spanish Inquisition, Naziism, Iran, the Soviet Union, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, and etc etc etc.
9:10 am
Shorter version: because Israel doesnt lynch homosexuals they should STFU about what Israel does to other minorities.
Oh as for Israel’s tolerance how many gays were stabbed at the last Pride March and what does the head Rabbi call them again?
8:45 am
Orthodox Rabbis, Ministers, Clerics and other orthodox religious figureheads have always been outspoken against the LGBTQ community and it remains an unfortunate fact. However, the views of the Head Rabbi and Orthodox community are not in line with Israeli Law or state policy. The only way that Israel has been able to flourish these 6 short decades has been by trying to incorporate and assimilate people of all backgrounds and religious beliefs.
Although Israel was created to be a homeland for the Jewish people, Israel is happy to grant citizenship to all who do not seek to incite violence against the only democracy in the middle east
8:54 am
You miss the point.
The point is that complaining that gays complain about the treatment of Palestinians because gays are not as bad off as gays in Muslim countries is ridiculous.
Let’s say it’s Germany 1939 and the Nazis are just rounding up the homosexuals, should the Jews have kept their mouth shut because the Nazis weren’t bothering them?
No, I’m not saying that the State of Israel are Nazis I’m saying that those who are not being persecuted have an obligation to speak out for those that are. I learned that in Hebrew school when the question of what the Jews in South Africa should do about Apartheid.
11:57 am
For a thousand years Jews were accused of killing Christian children to use their blood in baking matza for Passover. This despite the fact that Jews have a strict prohibition against consuming even animal blood. All kosher meat must be salted to remove as much blood as possible. Liver cannot be eaten unless it is broiled over an open fire and all the blood drips out. Jews will not even eat an egg that has a blood spot in it. What this shows is that when it comes to Jews, the world is prepared to believe any idiotic and insane lie that people manufacture. The Palestinians/Arabs who are the creators of suicide bombers, plane hijackings, honor murders, female genital mutilation and International Islamic terrorism accuse the Jews of human rights violations and twisted perverts like Salvage believe them. Take heart Salvage, you are not alone. You stand rank and file with Islamo-Fascists in Iran, Hizbollah and Hamas murders and suicide bombers and Jew haters throughout the ages, from Egypt and Babylon to the Spanish Inquisitors, to the French anti-semites who wanted to lynch Dreyfus, to the Russian hordes who perpetrated pogroms, to the Nazis themselves. Congratulations, you are in great company!
6:46 am
The simple fact that occupation means a great violation of human rights. For for some Zionists is difficult to understand a that 40 years of occupation is equal of 40 years of gross violation of human rights of the Palestinians , as for any nationalist to understand the right of others when his national interest are in the question ( who care about freedom of others if that presents a security danger for his nation , and like that for 60 years and the next 60 years if it is necessary).
8:56 am
Moshe, you are a deeply stupid man who says deeply stupid things.
>You stand rank and file with Islamo-Fascists in Iran, Hizbollah and Hamas murders and suicide bombers and Jew haters throughout the ages
Yeah, that’s an example.
Go back to gibbering about your creator gods, you still sound like an idiot when you do but more a ditsy idiot rather than one who would risk conflict elevation by saying something like that to my face.
1:40 pm
You have the monopoly on useful information-aren’t moopnlioes illegal?