Pro-Israel lobbyists threaten funding for Toronto's gay pride

In Tuesday's edition of the Jewish Tribune, the political newspaper of B'nai Brith, pro-Israel lobbyists declared their intention to threaten government and corporate sponsorship of the annual Toronto Pride Festival unless the organisation banned pro-Palestinian marchers from the parade.

According to the article, an individual named Martin Gladstone has written and met with the Pride Committee several times to express his opposition to the presence of a contingent of "queers against Israeli apartheid" over the last few years. He claimed the environment they created with their presence "has very eerie parallels to Nazi Germany."

B'nai Brith issued a similar warning last year after a pro-Palestinian contingent marched in the annual Pride parade. This time, however, advocates are openly threatening to go after funding from the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, the City of Toronto, Heritage Canada, and corporate sponsorships.

And with the federal government's recent decision to cut funding for language classes offered by the Canadian Arab Federation as a result of the organisation's advocacy for Palestine, the funding from Heritage Canada may be particularly threatened.

According to Gladstone, the City of Toronto and TD Canada Trust, a major sponsor of the event, have both contacted Pride Toronto to express their opposition to the inclusion of the anti-apartheid contingent.

This comes on the heels of a press release issued by B'nai Brith condemning a queer community forum called "Coming Out Against Apartheid", including prominent gay activists Tim McCaskell and El-Farouk Khaki.

McCaskell spoke of his involvement in the Simon Nkoli Anti-Apartheid Committee, a Toronto-based queer group that fought against South African apartheid. Khaki, who is also grand marshal of this year's Pride parade, spoke of how the language of queer rights is being used by the Israeli government to justify its occupation of Palestine and racial apartheid.

B'nai Brith accused the organisers of the forum of "hijacking" the gay agenda. McCaskell, well known in the queer community as a co-founder of AIDS Action Now and co-organiser of the 1981 protests against the bathhouse raids, responded with disappointment: "The B'nai Brith press release saddens me. One cannot be a credible voice for human rights while acting as an apologist for ethnic cleansing in Palestine."

B'nai Brith's sudden interest in the gay agenda has surprised some, including Andy Lehrer of Independent Jewish Voices. He spoke at the community forum from the audience, saying, "B'nai Brith discovered gay rights this week."

He spoke about their refusal to take a public position during the same sex marriage debate, and accused them of actively deciding not to support hate speech protections for the LGBT community for fear of alienating their evangelical Christian supporters.

Pride Toronto was expected to make a decision on Tuesday whether to allow a pro-Palestinian contingent in the parade. That decision has not yet been made public.

Comments

Submitted by thanks on May 27, 2009 - 10:17am.

human rights are human rights.

charter rights are charter rights.

personal persuasions are personal persuasions.

people of different religious backgrounds need to accept the differences.

there are lots of things in religious texts which modern proponents have rejected, such as slavery.

abrogation of other human rights needs to be condemned as clearly.

the behaviour of city council and TD here is outrageous.

Submitted by NDPP on May 27, 2009 - 11:57am.

I agree: Express your outrage

mayor_miller@toronto.ca

TDBFG Workforce: td.capa@td.com [6]

cc: office@pridetoronto.com [7]

Submitted by ExGrunt on May 27, 2009 - 1:39pm.

What is the gay agenda? As a gay man I'd be curious to know exactly what it is?

There not "pro-Palestinian marchers" There anit Isreal not to mention anti gay!!!!!!!

They have no place in the parade what so ever.

Pride encompasses so many wonderfull things. Allowing them to march is taking us back in time and allowing a group to push forth an ugly political agenda that has no room for anyone else but themeselves.

Submitted by spatrioter on May 27, 2009 - 1:46pm.

Yeah, a group called "Queers Against Israeli Apartheid" sounds totally "anti gay" to me.

You should ask B'nai Brith what the "gay agenda" is. They're the ones who used the term in their press release.

Submitted by nathan_greenberg on May 27, 2009 - 2:51pm.

Since when B'nai Brith is telling Canadians what's acceptable or unacceptable for our events? It sounds they are in control of Canadian government with their rethoric of accusing everyone who disagrees with Israeli policies in Palestine whether anti-semitic or self hating Jew.

More power to gay folks from Muslim/Arab/Palestinian backround or gay friendly individuals who decided to participate in our Pride parade and voice their opinion regarding Israeli apartheid.

Submitted by ExGrunt on May 27, 2009 - 3:00pm.

So it's ok to use the parade to "voice their opinion regarding Israeli apartheid."

Isn't a parade for everyone? It's not like it's just funded by us.

"More power to gay folks from Muslim/Arab/Palestinian backround or gay friendly individuals who decided to participate"

Amen to that but to allow anti anything is just wrong.

Submitted by spatrioter on May 27, 2009 - 3:05pm.

Of course the parade is for everyone. Which is why B'nai Brith is invited to march along with everyone else. So far they've never taken up that opportunity.

Submitted by ExGrunt on May 27, 2009 - 3:15pm.

B'nai Brith should join. Be nice to see.

My concern spatrioter is that the real purpose of these people is to dupe the general public, especially impressionable people, into thinking that Israel is an apartheid state akin to South Africa. There should be no politics in the parade.

Submitted by spatrioter on May 27, 2009 - 3:26pm.

"There should be no politics in the parade."

Ha! You must be new.

Submitted by nathan_greenberg on May 27, 2009 - 3:30pm.

Well, isn't Israel an apartheid state? I know many people may disagree but if you look into the facts on the ground you can easily come to this conclusion.

Being gay in this country you can't be apolitical because our movement has gone through great strides to be where we are nowdays.

I've seen flags of many cultural minorities so what's wrong if we're going to see Palestinian flag as well?

Submitted by Skinny Dipper on May 27, 2009 - 4:32pm.

If funding ever gets cancelled because of the some supporters of Israel may get the different levels of government to cancel funding, I would get all the supporters of Pride Week to have a big parade/protest up Bathurst Street. A half-million people protesting would send a very clear message to anyone not to interfere with the internal affairs of the Pride organization.

Submitted by ExGrunt on May 27, 2009 - 7:58pm.

"I know many people may disagree but if you look into the facts on the ground you can easily come to this conclusion."

Easy - if your blind ;) and it's not about flag wavin - what a cheap cop out.

Skinny what would be wrong with funding getting cut? I love how the parade gets paid for on the tax payers dime and we call it our money....to funny.

Didnt we just have such a parade? Tigers ring a bell?

Submitted by Anita Krajnc on May 29, 2009 - 5:44pm.

Thanks for the great reporting Andrew. I think gay pride has always involved progressive politics from other social movements. The historical oppression of the GLBT community means that there's a natural link to the oppressed of today including Palestinians in the occupied territories. Besides, the gay pride parade is too commercial... I think it's great to involve more progressive politics into this celebration of diversity.

Submitted by MarkyMark on May 30, 2009 - 9:18pm.

the language of queer rights is being used by the Israeli government to justify its occupation of Palestine and racial apartheid.

Whenever I see references to the occupation of "Palestine" I wonder if the reference is to the '67 lands or to Israel altogether-it's a pretty critical distinction. In my view the creation of the state of Israel as the homeland for the Jewish People (but not as a racially exclusive state) is rooted completely in liberal principles--in fact in the same principles that support equal rights for gays and lesbians.