Widening the Frame: The Connections Between Queer and Palestinian Liberation
Tuesday, 02 February 2016 00:00 By Wendy Elisheva Somerson, Truthout | Op-Ed
At the National LGBTQ Task Force's Creating Change 2016 conference,
protesters call for an end to "pinkwashing," or the co-optation of LGBTQ
rights by Israel advocacy organizations as a means to divert attention from
the Israeli occupation. (Photo: Sarah Ji)
As a queer Jewish activist who supported the protest and demands that the
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force cancel the reception sponsored by the
Israel advocacy group, A Wider Bridge, at the Creating Change conference, I
am appalled but not surprised by the accusations and misconceptions that are
being spread about the protesters, the LGBTQ left and the Palestine
solidarity movement as a whole.
What onlookers should know about these accusations, particularly around
anti-Semitism, is that they are nothing new. They get trotted out every time
we peel back the rainbow sticker to draw attention to pinkwashing - the
cynical use of LGBTQ rights in Israel to cover up and justify Israeli
apartheid and occupation. Pro-occupation commentators purposefully confuse
the issue by using telescopic vision to zoom in on one piece of the
controversy in order to obscure the larger power dynamics. By accusing the
protesters of anti-Semitism, these critics can position the organization and
people who are aligned with a powerful state, Israel, as the protesters'
victims.
Focusing excessively on tactics is part of their effort to distract
attention from the real issue that the protest highlights: the increasing
insistence on including Palestine in all of our struggles for social
justice.
So let me state clearly: The central problem we face in the LGBTQ community
is not anti-Semitism, but a crucially important struggle over what kind of
LGBTQ agenda we want to move forward. Will we align ourselves with state
power and happily mingle with those who justify the actions of an apartheid
state at our conferences? Or will we keep challenging these abuses of power
every chance we get?
A little bit of queer history is in order. In the 1960s and 1970s in the
United States, gay liberation movements grew out of other liberation
struggles and were deeply intertwined with feminist and anti-racist
movements. Queer movements challenged capitalism, racism and state power
because gay lives were oppositional to mainstream society. However, over
time, as some LGBTQ folks gained acceptance and gay activism became
institutionalized, many LGBTQ organizations narrowed their focus to gaining
inclusion into state institutions such as marriage and the military.
The LGBTQ rights movement poured its resources into accessing rights for the
most privileged in its community, while leaving behind the needs of
marginalized folks, including LGBTQ people of color, immigrants and poor
people. By making LGBTQ identity a distinct category aligned with the state,
LGBTQ institutions have tried to separate LGBTQ identity from all other
aspects of our identities and align LGBTQ rights with privilege and state
power.
But many of us who share an intersectional analysis of power and oppression
see LGBTQ identities as inextricably intertwined with race, gender, class,
ethnicity and nationality. We want a movement that addresses all of our
needs without leaving the most vulnerable queers behind. And no surprise: We
are the very same people protesting Israel's use of LGBTQ rights to cover up
and justify Israeli apartheid.
So, while some LGBTQ folks might support any reception that purports to be
about LGBTQ rights in isolation from a political context, the protesters are
asking our community to step back and take a wider look at the whole
picture, including the power dynamics of an event hosted by an Israeli
advocacy organization known for its involvement in pinkwashing. Who is being
marginalized and invisibilized by such an event? LGBTQ Palestinians.
With the chant, "we want our movement back," the protesters are asking that
we return to our radical roots and build an inclusive and liberatory LGBTQ
movement that challenges state power, occupation and racism.
But criticism of the protest is coalescing around a different chant:
"Palestine will be free from the river to the sea." The writers of the open
Letter to the LGBTQ Task Force claim that the chant is anti-Semitic because
it "necessarily suggests that the State of Israel should no longer exist."
But since the chant says nothing about Israel at all, how could that be
true? For many Jews, the chant evokes a common refrain about Israel that I
heard as a child: "they (the Palestinians) want to push us (the Jews) into
the sea." But this phrase about pushing us into the sea was an earlier
attempt to narrow our focus by directing our gaze to the past: It references
the Jewish historical trauma of forced displacement and genocide in Europe
in order to position Israeli Jews as victims of Palestinians. In fact, it is
Palestinians who were driven from their homes in 1948 during the ethnic
cleansing of Palestine in order to clear the way for the state of Israel.
The chant itself simply promotes a vision of a liberated Palestine.
Pro-occupation advocates who equate Palestinian freedom with Israeli
annihilation reveal their view of the relationship between Israel and
Palestine as a zero-sum game in which only one group of people, Israeli
Jews, deserves liberation. But can we call it liberation if Israeli freedom
comes at the cost of Palestinian freedom? Or if a handful of LGBTQ people
gain individual rights, while others languish in poverty, prisons and
detention centers?
I am deeply grateful to the protesters for highlighting this challenge to
our community. It's time we expand our frame, deepen our analysis of power
and gain inspiration from our queer history in order to once again become a
LGBTQ movement that insists on liberation for all people.
Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.
WENDY ELISHEVA SOMERSON
A founder of Jewish Voice for Peace-Seattle, Wendy Elisheva Somerson works
at the intersection of art, activism and ritual to help envision and create
the world to come. She is a somatic practitioner in Seattle.
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Widening the Frame: The Connections Between Queer and Palestinian Liberation
Tuesday, 02 February 2016 00:00 By Wendy Elisheva Somerson, Truthout | Op-Ed
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. At the National LGBTQ Task Force's Creating Change 2016 conference,
protesters call for an end to "pinkwashing," or the co-optation of LGBTQ
rights by Israel advocacy organizations as a means to divert attention from
the Israeli occupation. (Photo: Sarah Ji)
. As a queer Jewish activist who supported the protest and demands
that the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force cancel the reception sponsored
by the Israel advocacy group, A Wider Bridge, at the Creating Change
conference, I am appalled but not surprised by the accusations and
misconceptions that are being spread about the protesters, the LGBTQ left
and the Palestine solidarity movement as a whole.
What onlookers should know about these accusations, particularly around
anti-Semitism, is that they are nothing new. They get trotted out every time
we peel back the rainbow sticker to draw attention to pinkwashing - the
cynical use of LGBTQ rights in Israel to cover up and justify Israeli
apartheid and occupation. Pro-occupation commentators purposefully confuse
the issue by using telescopic vision to zoom in on one piece of the
controversy in order to obscure the larger power dynamics. By accusing the
protesters of anti-Semitism, these critics can position the organization and
people who are aligned with a powerful state, Israel, as the protesters'
victims.
Focusing excessively on tactics is part of their effort to distract
attention from the real issue that the protest highlights: the increasing
insistence on including Palestine in all of our struggles for social
justice.
So let me state clearly: The central problem we face in the LGBTQ community
is not anti-Semitism, but a crucially important struggle over what kind of
LGBTQ agenda we want to move forward. Will we align ourselves with state
power and happily mingle with those who justify the actions of an apartheid
state at our conferences? Or will we keep challenging these abuses of power
every chance we get?
A little bit of queer history is in order. In the 1960s and 1970s in the
United States, gay liberation movements grew out of other liberation
struggles and were deeply intertwined with feminist and anti-racist
movements. Queer movements challenged capitalism, racism and state power
because gay lives were oppositional to mainstream society. However, over
time, as some LGBTQ folks gained acceptance and gay activism became
institutionalized, many LGBTQ organizations narrowed their focus to gaining
inclusion into state institutions such as marriage and the military.
The LGBTQ rights movement poured its resources into accessing rights for the
most privileged in its community, while leaving behind the needs of
marginalized folks, including LGBTQ people of color, immigrants and poor
people. By making LGBTQ identity a distinct category aligned with the state,
LGBTQ institutions have tried to separate LGBTQ identity from all other
aspects of our identities and align LGBTQ rights with privilege and state
power.
But many of us who share an intersectional analysis of power and oppression
see LGBTQ identities as inextricably intertwined with race, gender, class,
ethnicity and nationality. We want a movement that addresses all of our
needs without leaving the most vulnerable queers behind. And no surprise: We
are the very same people protesting Israel's use of LGBTQ rights to cover up
and justify Israeli apartheid.
So, while some LGBTQ folks might support any reception that purports to be
about LGBTQ rights in isolation from a political context, the protesters are
asking our community to step back and take a wider look at the whole
picture, including the power dynamics of an event hosted by an Israeli
advocacy organization known for its involvement in pinkwashing. Who is being
marginalized and invisibilized by such an event? LGBTQ Palestinians.
With the chant, "we want our movement back," the protesters are asking that
we return to our radical roots and build an inclusive and liberatory LGBTQ
movement that challenges state power, occupation and racism.
But criticism of the protest is coalescing around a different chant:
"Palestine will be free from the river to the sea." The writers of the open
Letter to the LGBTQ Task Force claim that the chant is anti-Semitic because
it "necessarily suggests that the State of Israel should no longer exist."
But since the chant says nothing about Israel at all, how could that be
true? For many Jews, the chant evokes a common refrain about Israel that I
heard as a child: "they (the Palestinians) want to push us (the Jews) into
the sea." But this phrase about pushing us into the sea was an earlier
attempt to narrow our focus by directing our gaze to the past: It references
the Jewish historical trauma of forced displacement and genocide in Europe
in order to position Israeli Jews as victims of Palestinians. In fact, it is
Palestinians who were driven from their homes in 1948 during the ethnic
cleansing of Palestine in order to clear the way for the state of Israel.
The chant itself simply promotes a vision of a liberated Palestine.
Pro-occupation advocates who equate Palestinian freedom with Israeli
annihilation reveal their view of the relationship between Israel and
Palestine as a zero-sum game in which only one group of people, Israeli
Jews, deserves liberation. But can we call it liberation if Israeli freedom
comes at the cost of Palestinian freedom? Or if a handful of LGBTQ people
gain individual rights, while others languish in poverty, prisons and
detention centers?
I am deeply grateful to the protesters for highlighting this challenge to
our community. It's time we expand our frame, deepen our analysis of power
and gain inspiration from our queer history in order to once again become a
LGBTQ movement that insists on liberation for all people.
Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.
Wendy Elisheva Somerson
A founder of Jewish Voice for Peace-Seattle, Wendy Elisheva Somerson works
at the intersection of art, activism and ritual to help envision and create
the world to come. She is a somatic practitioner in Seattle.
Related Stories
De-Pinkwashing Israel
By Toshio Meronek, Truthout | News AnalysisIsrael's "Pro-Gay" Occupation: An
Interview With Dean Spade
By Toshio Meronek, Truthout | News AnalysisIn Praise of Discomfort: Learning
From Dr. King and Confronting Pinkwashing
By Stefanie Fox, Truthout | Op-Ed
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