On Sept. 11 the Vermont Coalition for Palestinian Liberation put out an article doubling down on their support for the state’s LGBTQ+ community.
Their article titled “For Queer, Palestinian, & Collective Liberation: Statement in Support of The Pride Center of Vermont” also accuses Israel of crimes against humanity.
It states, “Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Every individual and organization around the world is now faced with a decision: resist this crime against humanity, or defend it. The Pride Center of Vermont has joined the resistance, taking a stand in support of the Palestinian people and their struggle for self determination.”
It notes that The Pride Center had earlier this year stated support of their efforts, it was titled “No Pride for Some of Us Without Liberation for All of Us”.
The Coalition explains what they feel is a tight bond with the pride community. It states, “From the Gay Liberation Front in the 1960s to queer anti-Zionists like Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Judith Butler, bell hooks, and the movement for queer liberation in Palestine today, the LGBTQ+ community has insisted on the interconnectedness of all liberation struggles.”
The Coalition statement does not address the record of hate crimes and murders against the gay and lesbian community in Gaza and the West Bank of the Middle East. According to Reason.com: “Gay and transgender people—both in Gaza and the West Bank—face an extraordinary level of persecution, persecution that may result in a yearslong prison sentence or even death. In 2016, Hamas militants executed one of their own commanders, Mahmoud Ishtiwi, for allegedly having sex with another man. Ishtiwi’s allegiance to the group was clear: Just two years prior, he had overseen 1,000 soldiers and an assortment of attack tunnels. But not even his loyalty could save him after they lodged accusations he had engaged in homosexual activity. Prior to executing him with three bullets to the chest, Hamas reportedly tortured him by whipping him, hanging him from a ceiling for hours, and cranking loud music into his cell in order to deprive him of sleep.”
In fact, Reason states, “many LGBT Palestinians seek asylum in Israel—the same country these stateside protesters are rallying against.”
Reason seeks to explain this apparent disconnect between LGBTQ+ activists support for the ‘free Palestine’ movement and the oppressiveness of the actual movement itself: “At the heart of this contradiction is the tendency within social justice movements to pick a clear protagonist and antagonist, the oppressed and the oppressor, and to proceed from there in one-size-fits-all fashion. Some progressives decided long ago that Palestine is the former and Israel is the latter, which is the seed from which everything must grow. Palestine, then, stands not only for anti-colonialism but also LGBT rights and reproductive rights, despite that those rights, in any meaningful sense of the word, do not actually exist there.”
Misinformation about high-profile shooting
The Sept. 11 article addresses the high-profile shooting of three Palestinians by a Burlington resident which occurred last year. They write, “Written after a white racist shot three young Palestinians in Burlington, they reminded everyone that amidst a genocide – as in the history of the queer struggle for liberation around the world – ‘silence equals death.’”
However, upon investigation it was not concluded by law enforcement to be an act of racism. Furthermore, their findings revealed far left-wing political tendencies on social media from the shooter, Jason Eaton.
Upset with critical coverage by Seven Days
The Coalition expresses frustration at a story appearing early this month in the publication Seven Days titled “Pride Center of Vermont Is Roiled by Allegations of Antisemitism“. The article is in part about the aforementioned statement from the Pride Center.
An excerpt from the story reads, “The LGBTQ movement has hardly been above the fray: Placards declaring ‘Queers for Palestine’ are not uncommon at peace demonstrations, while supporters of Israel have long pointed to certain legal protections afforded gay and transgender people in that country as evidence of its tolerance, compared to the rest of the Middle East.”
The Coalition was unhappy with the criticisms of their organization. They wrote, “Violating journalistic norms, author Sasha Goldstein penned a one-sided screed against The Pride Center. He quotes only Zionists Rabbi Lynda Siegel and Rabbi David Edleson, and former Pride Board members Wendy Beinner, Daniel Zeese, and Caryn Olivetti. He does not quote a single Palestinian or pro-Palestine activist.”
Misusing the term “Zionism”
According to the Shalom Alliance, a advocacy organization for Jewish rights, the real definition of Zionism is “a person who believes in self-determination and statehood for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland, the land of Israel.”
The Coalition’s article refers to Zionists 16 times compared to Jews only 6 times. The article ends with, “The Zionists’ time is over. The time for collective liberation is now.”
They also try to paint Israel as an abuser of gay/lesbian rights rather than the Palestinian-controlled regions. They write, “The Zionists base all their slanderous accusations against the Pride Center on pinkwashing, on painting Israel as a beacon of gay liberation in a sea of Middle Eastern homophobia. But, in reality, Israel is a homophobic society like all societies throughout the world. No society has ended homophobia and no society has a monopoly on that prejudice.”
Brutal murders
Some of the high-profile incidents involving violence against gays by Palestinians occurred in October of 2022 in the West Bank when the severed body parts of a young Palestinian gay man were discovered on a roadside.
The report states, “But accounts that the victim, Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh, was a gay man who feared persecution for his sexuality and had sought asylum in Israel two years ago turned the terrible crime into a socially and politically explosive case.”
Gay refugee sounds alarm
Another story from August of 2022 appearing in i24News was an interview with a gay refugee from Gaza. The man who didn’t give his real name for the story said “There are many people gay in the Gaza Strip, and they are in Hamas also. If you are gay, you should be hiding. It’s so hard. I was so scared. … I was afraid Hamas would find out I was gay.”
Making excuses?
The group Palestinian Feminist Center for Gender and Sexual Freedoms specifically focuses on helping LGBTQ+ Palestinians. The organization suggests that the “lack of freedoms” for minority groups is only due to “restrictions imposed on the Palestinians due to the occupation” rather than any conflicting cultural values.
At no point does the Coalition’s article acknowledge some of the more disturbing acts of violence against LGTBQ+ individuals by Palestinians.
