Pride and (Anti-Israel) Prejudice in New York Times Op-Ed on Gay Rights

[King_David]

It seems that no piece of anti-Israel propaganda is too convoluted or extreme for the gatekeepers of the New York Times opinion pages.

An Op-Ed published today, superficially about gay rights, looks toward the Middle East, where in Arab and Muslim societies homosexuals are persecuted, prosecuted or even executed, and identifies a grave problem: Israel and its supporters.
The fact that Israel is by far the most progressive country in the Middle East, and by extension the most welcoming to homosexuals, poses quite a problem for radical activists hoping to entrench anti-Israelism as a liberal cause. In the Jewish state, thousands attend annual gay pride parades. Gay rights are well-protected. And, amazingly, scores of homosexual Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank have infiltrated into Israel, preferring to illegally reside in a country long cast as enemy territory than to endure the extreme hostility they would face in their own societies.

It's a good thing for the anti-Israel activists, then, that New York Times opinion editors provide such a welcoming platform for them to denigrate the Jewish state and, in this case, try to lure liberals away from natural feelings of support or pride for Israel's example of tolerance. According to the Nov. 23 Op-Ed, "Israel and 'Pinkwashing'" by CUNY professor Sarah Schulman, Israeli tolerance, or those who laud it, are part of a "deliberate strategy" to make Israel seem less-than-evil. She calls this supposedly wicked phenomenon "pinkwashing."

What's good for anti-Israel activists, though, is dangerous for homosexuals in the Middle East. Schulman, a supporter of the fringe BDS movement, which advocates boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, turns her back on Arab and Muslim gays by whitewashing the persecution they endure in Arab and Muslim countries at the hands of regimes the author apparently doesn't believe should be boycotted.



http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=35&x_article=2156

[King_David]

1. You have no idea how many eMails , who disagree with this 'Author' I have received.

'Many gays and lesbians are understandably outraged by Schulman's Op-Ed. Those opposed to hateful attempts to strike from the record any favorable news about Israel should feel the same.'

[shira]

2. The Left - whitewashing Arab/Palestinian crimes against their own innocent (and gay) civilians....

That's the Left today.

It is an anti-colonial movement whose perspectives coincide with that of the ruling classes in the so-called Third World. This grouping is on the side of the ‘colonies’ no matter what goes on there. And their understanding of the ‘colonies’ is Eurocentric, patronising and even racist. In the world according to them, the people in these countries are one and the same with the regimes they are struggling against just as the ‘Muslim community’ here is one and the same with reactionary Islamic organisations, Sharia councils, and parasitical imams. Which is why at Stop the War Coalition demonstrations, they carry banners saying ‘We are all Hezbollah;’ at meetings they segregate men and women and urge unveiled women to veil out of ‘solidarity’ and ‘respect’.

This type of politics denies universalism, sees rights as ‘western,’ justifies the suppression of rights, freedoms and equality under the guise of respect for other ‘cultures’ implying that people want to live the way they are forced to and imputing on innumerable people the most reactionary elements of culture and religion, which is that of the ruling class.

In this type of politics, the oppressor is victim and any criticism racist…

http://maryamnamazie.blogspot.com/2009/10/pathetic-excuse-of-much-of-european.html

[azurnoir]

4. Thank you odd though how you chose not to post the entire letter not ot worry I'm happy to do it

albeit you must go o the nested link to get the entire letter is there some reason you chose only part of it rather than the entire letter, after all you have posted this cherry picked part numerous times rather than the entire letter see here

http://maryamnamazie.blogspot.com/2008/03/challenges-facing-womens-liberation.html

This type of politics denies universalism, sees rights as ‘western,’ justifies the suppression of women's rights, freedoms and equality, under the guise of respect for other ‘cultures’ implying that people want to live the way they are forced to and imputing on innumerable people the most reactionary elements of culture and religion, which is that of the ruling class.

In this type of politics, the oppressor is victim and any criticism racist.

Whilst the anti-imperialist left defends and justifies political Islam on the one hand, the virulently racist and right-wing defends US militarism and the brutal Israeli occupation of Palestine on the other.

They include groups and organisations like Jihad Watch and the Horowitz Freedom Center. The latter even has an ‘Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week’ and rattles off fact after fact about the horrendous status of women under Islam so that it can help promote the neocon agenda of bombing men, women and children into ‘liberated’ swamps like Iraq.

Like the Stop Islamisation of Europe campaign, these groups have ‘difficulty with the concept of moderate Muslim’ and believe the ‘onus is on Muslims to ensure the safety of non-Muslims.’

I have to reform my opinion of Ms Namazie a bit

[shira]

7. She criticizes both the far right and far left. So?

Does she describe you and the movement you belong to in the part where she trashes a big part of the international Left?

[Little Tich]

3. Israel and ‘Pinkwashing’ - The New York Times

Source: The New York Times
By Sarah Schulman

“IN dreams begin responsibilities,” wrote Yeats in 1914. These words resonate with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who have witnessed dramatic shifts in our relationship to power. After generations of sacrifice and organization, gay people in parts of the world have won protection from discrimination and relationship recognition. But these changes have given rise to a nefarious phenomenon: the co-opting of white gay people by anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim political forces in Western Europe and Israel.

In the Netherlands, some Dutch gay people have been drawn to the messages of Geert Wilders, who inherited many followers of the assassinated anti-immigration gay leader Pim Fortuyn, and whose Party for Freedom is now the country’s third largest political party. In Norway, Anders Behring Breivik, the extremist who massacred 77 people in July, cited Bruce Bawer, a gay American writer critical of Muslim immigration, as an influence. The Guardian reported last year that the racist English Defense League had 115 members in its gay wing. The German Lesbian and Gay Federation has issued statements citing Muslim immigrants as enemies of gay people.

These depictions of immigrants — usually Muslims of Arab, South Asian, Turkish or African origin — as “homophobic fanatics” opportunistically ignore the existence of Muslim gays and their allies within their communities. They also render invisible the role that fundamentalist Christians, the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Jews play in perpetuating fear and even hatred of gays. And that cynical message has now spread from its roots in European xenophobia to become a potent tool in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In 2005, with help from American marketing executives, the Israeli government began a marketing campaign, “Brand Israel,” aimed at men ages 18 to 34. The campaign, as reported by The Jewish Daily Forward, sought to depict Israel as “relevant and modern.” The government later expanded the marketing plan by harnessing the gay community to reposition its global image.

Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/23/opinion/pinkwashing-and-israels-use-of-gays-as-a-messaging-tool.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

[King_David]

5. That article was a buncha shit .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=124&topic_id=373761&mesg_id=373761

[azurnoir]

6. scared some may actually read the Ms Schulman's op rather than what's being claimed about it? n/t

[vminfla]

8. Great article

Clearly shows the whole picture the ilk of Schulman refuse to acknowledge.