Ever since the widely reported flotilla incident, people of good will have been having vociferous disagreements on whether what Israel did was right or wrong, the legality and morality of the Gaza blockade, the safety of Israeli families, and the like. In fact, Wayne Besen and I have been having an academic match on the subject for the past week. The key word there, of course, is academic. It’s not a reflection of biases against Israelis or Palestinians or anything of the sort.
That being said, this is stupid and completely beside the point:
Organizers of Madrid’s pride parade, scheduled for the beginning of next month, have announced that they are cancelling the invitation of Israeli representatives slated to appear there, Ynet learned Monday.
The Israeli delegation, made up of members of the LGBT association and the Foreign Ministry, was scheduled to run an Israeli “bus” in the parade, for the first time since its establishment.
But the delegation has recently received hints from Spain that their arrival may cause anger among local pro-Palestinian groups, which may require excess security and, more importantly, cause a lot of embarrassment.
(…)
Community reps expressed their deep disappointment by Madrid’s decision. Chairman of the LGBT Union in Israel, Mike Hamel told Ynet, “We regret the fact that the pride organizations in Madrid have decided to focus on issues that have nothing to do with the community. The Union was invited as a non-political organization. This is a missed opportunity for dialogue.”
Regardless of one’s opinions on the flotilla incident, let’s be clear: One of the things Israel has going for it is that it is indeed the bastion of tolerance and liberalism in the region, as it pertains to the LGBT community. In fact, Israel runs circles around the United States when it comes to their progress on gay rights.
Also, of note: the Israeli participation was from the Tel Aviv Municipality, as part of their push to shine a light on their progressive, gay friendly city. This is not the Netanyahu government’s project. This would be like disinviting San Francisco from an international event because the Obama administration did something the organizers didn’t like. It has absolutely nothing to do with the greater point of the pride celebration, and it does nothing to further the cause of equality for LGBT people.
One of the themes that’s come up in the conversations I’ve had with people since the flotilla incident is nuance. Obviously some of the groups involved in Madrid pride have serious problems with what Israel has done in the past few weeks. That’s okay. There are ways to express that in appropriate places without blacklisting Israelis as people. However, for a freaking PRIDE EVENT, which is premised on the idea of “everyone is welcome and accepted as they are,” people should be able to do that without also feeling the need to throw the Israeli gay community under the bus. It’s especially stupid, considering the fact that, in the world of Israeli-Palestinian relations, Israel’s gay community is at the forefront working within their country to provide aid, advocacy and protection to Palestinians, and more specifically, to LGBT Palestinians:
All three organizations that advocate and support homosexual Palestinians are headquartered in Israel. On an individual level, the Israeli gay community often hides gay Palestinians from the Israeli authorities, for fear that they will be sent back to their home communities where they are ostracized and threatened for their sexual preferences. From the website GlobalGayz.com:
Since Palestine is a very homophobic culture many Palestinian gays and lesbians are forced against their cultural and religious will to hide in Israel where homosexuality is much more acceptable and, indeed, protected.
Like their counterparts worldwide, the Israeli gay community is one of the most progressive and left-wing in the country. One Israeli gay rights organization, Black Laundry, describes itself as “a direct action group of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, and others against the occupation and for social justice.”
The organizers of Madrid’s pride celebration should be ashamed of themselves. If it requires more security, get more security. It’s not as if gays have ever dealt with situations like that before. (/sarcasm)
As I said before, people of good will and honest intentions can disagree on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and will continue to do so until either the conflict is resolved or the end of time, whichever comes first. But the very spirit of the movement for LGBT equality is endangered when nations which are extremely friendly to LGBT people are punished for unrelated political reasons. He’s free to speak for himself and correct me, but I have a feeling that, though we disagree on many other things about that part of the world, Wayne would agree with me on this one.
(h/t Dan Blatt, who is actually also mostly right about this.)
As much as I think the Israeli reaction was disastrous, I agree that this move by the Madrid Gay Pride was a really bad, reactionary thing to do.
A country that still has cruel barbaric bull fighting doesnt have much room to point the moral finger at other nations. I don’t recall any American LGBT groups being excluded from foreign Pride events during the heinous bush administration. This has a slight oder of anti-semitism about it; even though Spain is a very progressive/inclusive country now, centuries of indoctrination by the roman catholic church has probably left some poison in the national psyche.
Someone in Spain needs to take three seconds and consider Israel has gay marriage (ish) whereas their enemies are our enemies. In my conversations with Conservatives I get hammered all the time with questions about, “why do gays support Terrorists and Islamic extremists?” Why, indeed? Are we simply anti-Israel because Conservative Christians are Pro-Israel? That’s STUPID and those following that logic are stupid for doing it.
Israel is in a fight for her survival against societies who murder LGBT people with stones. Who is your friend and who is your enemy? This horses a*s move by Madrid is liberalism gone too extreme. They have become what they claim to hate: Intolerant Bigots!
I’m not going to get into the Israel argument here, but I will note, though, that there is a difference between opposing the policies of the Israeli government under its current administration and actually “supporting terrorists and Islamic extremists.” That’s right-wing framing, and as usual, the liberals who disagree are not necessarily “anti-Israel.” But like I said, I’m not getting into it. ;-)
So, let me get this “straight”: The Spanish Gay Community is discriminating against Israelis under the guise of fighting discrimination. I am a human rights activist who has been closely watching this story and am appalled at the behavior of the Spanish Gay Community. Some commentary suggests that human rights activists cannot pick and choose for whom they stand up. So, I ask, would the Spanish Gay Community allow a Palestinian float or any other kind of representation at the Pride event when we all know that Hamas, who represents the Palestinian people, have murdered innocent people via several terrorist bombings within Israel? Killing is killing whether perpetrated by Israelis, Palestinians, Americans or Spaniards. Surely, Spanish history is not fraught with horrible human rights abuses. There is no morality in international politics. My guess is the Spanish Gay Community would not have the guts to ban an American icon from sashaying down the lane. Have not the Americans committed crimes against humanity according to many human rights organizations. Scapegoating and libeling random citizens for the actions of their government is akin to the worst form of racism, hypocrisy and divisiveness. Singling out Israeli interests is nothing more than racial hatred against a specific group of people. Shame on the Spanish Gay Community.