NYC queers cry “Foul” & “Tacky!” to pinkwashing of Israel’s bloody occupation

Jewish National Fund: Just Not Fabulous.
NYC queers cry “Foul” & “Tacky!” to pinkwashing of Israel’s bloody occupation

Jewish National Fund changes event location, but NY queers still protest the use of gay dollars to erase Palestinian villages

MEDIA CONTACT: queersforpalestine [at] gmail.com

New York, NY, December 9 – Thirty queers and supporters gathered at the Israeli Consulate in Manhattan this evening to protest outside the launch party for the Jewish National Fund’s (JNF) new gay fundraising effort. The JNF had changed the event location to the Consulate this afternoon after learning that picketers would be present at the original venue.

“We protested tonight to tell the JNF that they cannot hide from queers any more than they can hide the remains of Palestinian villages by planting forests on top of them,” said protester Hannah Mermelstein.

Protesters held a rainbow banner saying, “Jewish National Fund: Just Not Fabulous” and sparkly signs reading “Using Queers to Oppress Palestinians: Just Not Fabulous,” “Supporting Palestinian Queers: Fabulous,” “Making the Desert Boom: Just Not Fabulous,” and “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions: Fabulous.” They loudly reminded the ill-advised attendees that driving people from their houses at gunpoint, demolishing their homes, and then planting trees on the rubble has been considered a Don't since at least 587 BCE, when it got the Babylonians no end of bad press. Protesters chanted, “Fags, trannies, gays and bi’s, Queers say not to JNF lies!” and "High femmes are super fine! Israel out of Palestine!"

The Israeli government is engaged in a concerted effort to portray Israel as a warm, fuzzy haven for LGBT people in a desperate attempt to improve Israel’s brand rating with moderate-to-liberal people who object to the mass-scale killing and displacement of Palestinians.

“Israel can’t hide its occupation and discriminatory policies behind queers,” said Marcel Moor, a picketer. “We support the Palestinian queers who have asked us to join the Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it ends its policies of occupation and apartheid.”

The push to pinkwash Israel – as well as a push to “greenwash” Israel by establishing environmental projects on land stolen from Palestinians – is coordinated under the “Brand Israel” project. Brand Israel was launched in response to the recognition that Israel is the worst-received brand name in the world. Ido Aharoni, the speaker at tonight’s JNF event, is a leader of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ “Brand Israel” efforts and Israel’s Consul General in New York.

“How about, instead of re-branding, Israel just ends the occupation and its discriminatory policies against Palestinians?” said Rela Frankel, also on the picket line. “Brand Israel is as deceptive as the Occupation is foul. It’s funded by the anti-gay religious right. GOD-TV is giving the JNF money to plant trees over the bulldozed Bedouin village of Al-Araqib. Do the Israeli marketers think queers are that stupid?”

Protest organizers released this statement on the JNF’s launch of an LGBT membership/support drive:

“The designers of the Jewish National Fund's latest cynical scheme to market land theft as a glamorous lifestyle have found themselves out of fashion again. Trying to cover up unjust acts through Greenwashing and Pinkwashing not only adds insult to injury, but leads to truly horrific color combinations. How are we supposed to coordinate fake environmentalism with a patronizing attempt to manipulate queer community feeling?" Eighties retro fashion is over - eighties-style apartheid policies should be too.

The JNF's unique contribution is to combine Pinkwashing with Greenwashing through an innovative initiative that will fund a longstanding facilitator of Israel’s Greenwashing of its war on Palestinians, the Arava Institute. Queer Jews across New York City have met this scheme with cries of horror, for its nausea-inducing political implications even more than for its palette. Neither will go unchallenged.”


Statement by Palestinian Queers for BDS: http://pqbds.wordpress.com/