Bnai Brith denounces Queers Against Israeli Apartheid

Yeah, I anticipate the Hamas and Hezbollah floats. They have such gay-friendly attitudes.

Go to a gay bar in Tel Aviv and see how many Palestinians are there. Go to a gay bar in Gaza and...never mind. There are no gay bars in Gaza.

Supporting the right of gay and lesbian people to live in dignity is now an indication that one's heart is made of stone? Applauding the country that's been msot welcoming to the community of any country in the region (some countries there punish the "crime" of homosexuality by death) is "immoral"?

And since when do Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, etc. not also qualify as "mass murderers"?

Cueball wrote:

Actually the only time I participated in the Gay Pride Day event as a member of the parade was with a Palestinian group. Where is the proof in your pudding? When will the CJC and B'nai Brith be taking up their legendary part in the community as active anti-prejudice campaigners, and put a float in the parade?

I think it's great that Palestinian people can celebrate gay pride. I jsut wish they were able to do it IN Palestine, not Toronto. or Tel Aviv. I'm not a member of either Bnai Brith or the CJC. If they WERE to enter a flaot in the parade, I'd certainly applaud that.

Cueball wrote:

The mayor goes, as does the police chief. I don't see why Bernie Farber can't.

neither do I. He SHOULD be there.

But i find it odd that there's a group called "queers agaisnt israeli apartheid" as if being queer had anything to do with the issue. Or as if gays and lesbians in Israel weren't infinitely better off than anywhere else in the region. i mean where is "queers against iranian executions of gay teenagers"?

Star Spangled Canadian wrote:

But i find it odd that there's a group called "queers agaisnt israeli apartheid" as if being queer had anything to do with the issue. Or as if gays and lesbians in Israel weren't infinitely better off than anywhere else in the region. i mean where is "queers against iranian executions of gay teenagers"?

Yes, how dare LGBT people oppose bombings, mass murder and occupation if the state that is doing it allows gay marriage!  LGBT people should all take direction from you on which issues to discuss or act upon. (note the heavy sarcasm)

I'm not sure whether to file this under homophobia or simple support for the oppression of Palestinians.  Little bit of both, really.

Interesting lineup:

Quote:

Speakers include:
Nayrouz - A queer Palestinian currently studying at York, and a founding
member of ASWAT, a Palestinian gay women's group.

Jenny Peto - A queer, anti-Zionist, Jewish activist living in Toronto, and
also a member of Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid.
Natalie Kouri-Towe - A PhD student enrolled at OISE, exploring the history
of queer movements in the Middle East.
John Greyson - A York professor and filmmaker who has documented and
explored queer organizing, particularly in relation to anti-Apartheid
struggles.

Solidarity with Gaza, Aswat Palestinian Arab Lesbians ,Gay Women, transexuals, bisexuals, queer, intersexual, LQTBQI

genstrike wrote:

 

Yes, how dare LGBT people oppose bombings, mass murder and occupation if the state that is doing it allows gay marriage!

Israel doesn't allow gay marriage. Neither does the country where Star Spangled lives - but he'd rather ridicule the Gazans, or the ones still alive, for homophobia. Oh, did I mention that Israel doesn't even allow civil marriage between opposite sexes. That's ok too, because they're, like, almost Americans, so we're all in this together.

Meanwhile, BBC does this, when the International Day for LGBTTQ was celebrated last Sunday. And I notice that no other political party acknowledged this other than the NDP.

"Statement by New Democrat Leader Jack Layton on the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia

Sun 17 May 2009

Today, I stand in solidarity with Canadians across this country, and with citizens around the world, in marking the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia. I also stand in solidarity with my caucus, member of the New Democrats and with the LGBTTQ community in speaking out against violence, discrimination, and prejudice.

New Democrats are committed to ensuring equality, diversity and understanding among all people. We will continue to work towards the day when the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and transsexual people are recognized around the world and homophobia and transphobia will no longer exist."

***know it is a thread drift but if people can start carrying on about Layton's statements about Victoria Day in a CAW thread, I can certainly carry on about this here.

remind wrote:

New Democrats are committed to ensuring equality, diversity and understanding among all people.

"Committed to ensuring ... diversity?" Hahaha. This must be the same braindead speechwriter who made Jack say we were celebrating "our roots in Europe". Surely a cheap style book would have produced many acceptable verbs, like "celebrating diversity", "respecting diversity", "cherishing diversity", whatever... But "ensuring diversity", from the same pen that just got through Europeanizing everyone, is just plain titillating.

I think the point is that Jacko isn't being the inclusive politically-correct smurf he's supposed to be.

Some of us have roots in Asia.

Star Spangled Canadian wrote:

Cueball wrote:

Actually the only time I participated in the Gay Pride Day event as a member of the parade was with a Palestinian group. Where is the proof in your pudding? When will the CJC and B'nai Brith be taking up their legendary part in the community as active anti-prejudice campaigners, and put a float in the parade?

I think it's great that Palestinian people can celebrate gay pride. I jsut wish they were able to do it IN Palestine, not Toronto. or Tel Aviv. I'm not a member of either Bnai Brith or the CJC. If they WERE to enter a flaot in the parade, I'd certainly applaud that.

There's no way that continuing the Occupation and building more settlements, or the overkill retailiatory bombing inflicted on Gaza, can possibly lead to anything positive for Palestinian gays and lesbians.  And I think we can assume that almost no Israeli gays and lesbians would have voted for Likud or Yisroel Beitenyu.

al-Qa'bong wrote:

I think the point is that Jacko isn't being the inclusive politically-correct smurf he's supposed to be.

Some of us have roots in Asia.

Hmm, I don't think so, if ones looks at the NDP website he pretty much covers statement to everyone.

And what do your Asian roots have to do with Victoria Day? Not trying to be insensitive here, just asking, seeing as how it was the European colonialist activities, that caused other peoples immigrations to Canada to become possible.

Cueball did CJC make the same comments as Bnai Brith? And I was at the Pride Parade last year and saw the CJC float.

Meanwhile, the world demands Bnai Brith disappear from the galaxy.

Yes, that is heavily implied.

As I stated in the other thread about their trying to get the funding pulled from the event, 2 birds one stone, it keeps their evangelical friends happy by getting rid of the pride parade, and silencing voices in support of Palestine.

From other thread

"This is a bigger issue than that, 2 points are converging into public face of this.

The BB knows that there would not be exclusion occuring on the part of Pride parade organizers. Therefore, attacking the funding effectively would shut down the parade, which is what the Christian fundamentalists that they are now closely associated with want.

2 birds 1 stone.

And one wonders who the real fascists are?"

Quote:

Media reports made much of the fact that 7,000 policemen and women were required to protect the 2,000 marchers. The parade ended, mostly uneventfully, after an hour. At one point, the march was stopped for several minutes after a disturbance caused by two men - dressed as marchers - who started insulting the gay parade participants.

A dramatic two days in the Supreme Court - Wednesday and Thursday - ended with what both sides called a victory. Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupoliansky, Trade Minister Eli Yishai and others filed suits against holding the parade in Jerusalem, but the Court rejected all of them, ruling essentially that "freedom of expression" overrides - in this case - the offense caused to public sensitivities.

Fireifghter's Strike Douses Gay Post-march Rally

I'm enraged. I can't write any of my own words at this time.

The latest news:

Pride Toronto has banned Queers Against Israeli Apartheid from marching in the parade this year.

Quote:

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA), an anti-Zionist protest group that made corporate sponsors squirm by flying banners at last year's Toronto Pride parade, has been banned this year, along with any other group that would advance a political agenda.

"We will be very much more careful this year. We will make sure that we have a presence to ensure that people don't slip into the parade," Pride Toronto executive director Tracey Sandilands said today.

The number of volunteer marshals along the barricades is to be increased from 25 to 80 to prevent unauthorized people joining the parade, she said.

"What happened last year was ... people on the sidelines who pushed into the parade and put up banners. We were totally not expecting it," she said.

Her announcement came with a warning to grand marshall El-Farouk Khaki not to use his ceremonial position as a pulpit to promote an anti-Israeli boycott.

Frank Dimant, executive vice-president of B'nai Brith Canada, today called for disciplinary action against Mr. Khaki, a founder of the national support group Salaam: Queer Muslim Community, because he spoke to a QuAIA event on the weekend.

Fucking bullshit.

Full story here. Of course the article is in the National Post.

Tim McCaskell's letter to Toronto Pride (it's circulating on the net so I'm reproducing it in its entirety):

Quote:

Dear Pride Committee,

I have just finished reading an article in the National Post's Posted Toronto, headlined, "Toronto Pride organizers ban anti-Zionist group."

For the moment I am assuming this is a distortion of Pride Toronto's position and the organization will demand a prompt correction.

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid is a legitimate LGBTQ group and is no more a hate group than was the Simon Nkodi Anti-Apartheid Committee under whose banner I marched for many years in different Pride parades. Apartheid is legally considered a crime against humanity, and Israel's illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories falls within the definition of Apartheid. I don't expect you to take my word on it, but I attach here the executive summary of a recently released report from the prestigious South African Human Sciences Research Council. I quote below one paragraph but I highly recommend Pride board members read the document in its entirety. If anyone knows about what Apartheid is, it would be the South Africans.

This study is the outcome of a fifteen-month collaborative process of intensive research, consultation, writing and review. It concludes and, it is to be hoped, persuasively argues and clearly demonstrates that Israel, since 1967, has been the belligerent Occupying Power in the OPT, and that its occupation of these territories has become a colonial enterprise which implements a system of apartheid.

Pride has always been an opportunity for diverse LGBT groups to reach out to the community and the public and to speak about their issues. Government policies here in Canada and around the world have often been held up for criticism. I am appalled that B'nai Brith would try to bully the Pride Committee into silencing those speaking out against human rights violations in the occupied territories. At this point I am still refusing to believe that the Pride Committee would give in to such bullying.

I am looking forward to your clarification of this issue.

Sincerely

Tim McCaskell

Tim McCaskell, co-founder of AIDS Action Now, was one of the organisers of the 1981 protests against the bathhouse raids. He was a founding member of the Right to Privacy Committee and a member of The Body Politic collective.

Evidently some people are mightily embarassed by the mess Bnai Brith has made and are defensively lashing out. I don't think we need a Rabble Racist. Thanks for coming out though.

tick,tock,tick,tock...

We appear to have two threads on the same issue. I read Mark Singh's letter, and it seems to confirm (by its silence) the allegation that they have banned QAIA. Whoever made this decision must be condemned. The oppressed and marginalized people either stick together, or they are all lost. Succumbing to the pressure and dollars of the wealthy and powerful is the beginning of the end for any struggle.

Do they carry banners for political parties, and address their political platform? No that I have seen in Vancouver anyway!

And maybe I'm missing something, but wasn't the creation of the Pride Parades part of a "political agenda" in the first place?

remind wrote:

Do they carry banners for political parties, and address their political platform? No that I have seen in Vancouver anyway!

They certainly carry banners for political parties, yes. They don't "address their political platforms" because it's a festive parade not a policy seminar.