Israel, which labels itself as the only “democracy” in the Middle East, uses “pinkwashing” as a veil to cover up human rights violations against the Palestinian people, according to Ayman Awad, a queer Palestinian and a member of Queer Arabs Halifax.
“It’s a facade, It’s almost like it masks the reality of human rights abuses,” said Awad.
Pinkwashing is defined as “a deliberate strategy used by Israel’s government, agencies, and the Israeli 2SLGBTQIA+ community to exploit Israel’s relatively progressive stance on gay rights, and to deflect international attention from its gross violations of human rights and international law.”
Pinkwashing paints Palestinians as backwards, racist and barbaric in order to justify the oppression and unequal treatment of Palestinians both straight and queer. This is because Palestinian 2SLGBTQIA+ members face the repercussions of segregation daily, as opposed to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in Israel.
In Jerusalem, one of the biggest pride parades was held by Israelis, which is on the land thousands of Palestinians were displaced from.
Yet Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza need to obtain permits from the Israeli government to visit Jerusalem, which they are often denied.
As a result, Palestinians freedom to move is unjustly infringed upon.
In turn, the Palestinian queer community does not have equal rights as the average Israeli citizen, and are refused to visit the land their families were forced to flee.
Israel promotes its capital, Tel Aviv, as a gay friendly destination in the Middle East, while at the same time failing to mention that the city is built on top of several villages where Palestinians were expelled from their homes and are banned from entering the capital.
Awad says the use of pinkwashing is dangerous for queer Palestinians.
“Israeli pinkwashing, it is really dangerous. Queer and trans folks internationally see Israel as a progressive nation in the Middle East, as a LGBTQ progressive nation, when in reality they are violating the human rights of LGBTQ Palestinians,” said Awad.
“The danger is that all queer and trans people are included here except the Palestinians and that is what is dangerous about it, it’s a facade,” he added.
Palestinians queers are also denied asylum in Israel while trying to escape discrimination in their own communities.
When it comes to “queer liberation,” Israel has a nuanced view, as they continue to create destruction and terror in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel perpetuates the idea that they are the only democracy in the Middle East, and at the same time maintains one of the worst war crimes record to date.
The Israeli Occupations Forces (IOF) have a well-documented recent history of accepting queer soldiers into their service.
Because of this “progressive” act, many—members of the IOF and their supporters alike fail to mention the reality: the IOF are currently occupying Palestine and continue to exacerbate hate, prejudice and violence toward the Palestinian people.
Palestinian Queers for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions point out, “Israeli oppression, racism, and discrimination does not distinguish between queer Palestinians and heterosexual Palestinians.”
Nowhere to run
In October 2022, a 25-year-old Palestinian gay man, Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh, was killed in the West Bank after unsuccessfully seeking asylum in Israel two years prior to his murder.
Murkhiyeh was among many other 2SLGBTQ+ Palestinian asylum-seekers trying to escape their communities.
Some Queer Palestinian exiles in Israel end up relying on a temporary permit, which does not allow employment and needs renewal every six months.
In July of this year, an 18-year-old queer Palestinian woman was murdered at the hands of her brothers for her sexual orientation.
These queer Palestinian murders are a reminder of the lack of support and resources Palestinians have.
Apartheid not Pride
This year has been one of the deadliest years for Palestinians living in the West Bank since the UN began recording human rights abuses in Palestine in 2005.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the death toll has reached 153.
This includes the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) deliberate killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian journalist who was shot while wearing a blue press vest while covering Israeli raids in the Jenin Refugee camp in May of 2022.
This past July, UN experts stated that the killing of 12 Palestinians by Israeli air strikes and ground operations in the Jenin Refugee camp constituted a war crime.
From July 3 to July 4, Israeli forces killed 12 Palestinians, which included five children.
More than 100 were injured, and the attacks have been claimed to be “the fiercest in the West Bank since the destruction of the Jenin Camp in 2002”.
In 2002, Amnesty International, one of the world’s leading organizations reporting on human rights abuses, affirmed that “Israel’s continuing oppressive and discriminatory system of governing Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) constituted a system of apartheid, and Israeli officials committed the crime of apartheid under international law.”
In December of 2022, the United Nations General Assembly voted 87-26 to ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to make a ruling on the legal consequences of Israel’s ongoing human rights violations and the occupation of Palestine.
Canada was in the minority bloc of countries who voted against the resolution.
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) obtained a letter dated July 14, 2023, in which Canada asked the ICJ to “decline the request” from the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
“It is deeply hypocritical that Canada is intervening to try to block a legal opinion on Israel’s brutal occupation of the West Bank at the same time that Canada speaks forcefully against Russia’s occupation of Ukraine,” said Michael Bueckert, Vice President of CJPME in a press release.
“Canada has once again demonstrated that it is willing to deny access to justice for Palestinians in order to protect Israel from accountability,” added Bueckert.
This past March, Canada’s Global Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly met with Eli Cohen, Israel’s far-right extremist foreign affairs minister who stated: “Palestinian citizens of Israel can move to Gaza on a one-way ticket.”
During the meeting, Joly expressed concerns about violence against Israelis, but there were no comments on the oppression of Palestinians.
This year marked 16 years of the illegal blockade on the Gaza strip, “the world’s largest open air prison.”
The blockade of the two million residents in Gaza has devastated the economy with unemployment rate being 46.6 per cent as of 2022.
The strip’s agricultural sector continues to suffer losses as a result of the blockade and multiple Israeli attacks.
Figures in 2022 showed the Gaza strip suffered losses of nearly $1.3 billion since 2006 as a result of the blockade.
In May of 2023, the UN stated “This is the highest rate of mental health need ever recorded, across UNRWA’s medical system,” with more than one-in-four patients in need of mental and psychosocial help.
The discrimination of Palestinians both queer and straight is cemented into the laws that govern the state of Israel, restricting their movement, being subjected to unlawful killings and the seizures and demolishing of Palestinian villages and lands, all constitute acts of apartheid and segregation under international law.
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