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By Michael Bielawski
On Sept. 11 the Vermont Coalition for Palestinian Liberation put out an article doubling down on their support for the state’s LGBTQ+ community.
Their article titled “For Queer, Palestinian, & Collective Liberation: Statement in Support of The Pride Center of Vermont” also accuses Israel of crimes against humanity.
It states, “Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Every individual and organization around the world is now faced with a decision: resist this crime against humanity, or defend it. The Pride Center of Vermont has joined the resistance, taking a stand in support of the Palestinian people and their struggle for self determination.”
It notes that The Pride Center had earlier this year stated support of their efforts, it was titled “No Pride for Some of Us Without Liberation for All of Us”.
The Coalition explains what they feel is a tight bond with the pride community. It states, “From the Gay Liberation Front in the 1960s to queer anti-Zionists like Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Judith Butler, bell hooks, and the movement for queer liberation in Palestine today, the LGBTQ+ community has insisted on the interconnectedness of all liberation struggles.”
The Coalition statement does not address the record of hate crimes and murders against the gay and lesbian community in Gaza and the West Bank of the Middle East. According to Reason.com: “Gay and transgender people—both in Gaza and the West Bank—face an extraordinary level of persecution, persecution that may result in a yearslong prison sentence or even death. In 2016, Hamas militants executed one of their own commanders, Mahmoud Ishtiwi, for allegedly having sex with another man. Ishtiwi’s allegiance to the group was clear: Just two years prior, he had overseen 1,000 soldiers and an assortment of attack tunnels. But not even his loyalty could save him after they lodged accusations he had engaged in homosexual activity. Prior to executing him with three bullets to the chest, Hamas reportedly tortured him by whipping him, hanging him from a ceiling for hours, and cranking loud music into his cell in order to deprive him of sleep.”
In fact, Reason states, “many LGBT Palestinians seek asylum in Israel—the same country these stateside protesters are rallying against.”
Reason seeks to explain this apparent disconnect between LGBTQ+ activists support for the ‘free Palestine’ movement and the oppressiveness of the actual movement itself: “At the heart of this contradiction is the tendency within social justice movements to pick a clear protagonist and antagonist, the oppressed and the oppressor, and to proceed from there in one-size-fits-all fashion. Some progressives decided long ago that Palestine is the former and Israel is the latter, which is the seed from which everything must grow. Palestine, then, stands not only for anti-colonialism but also LGBT rights and reproductive rights, despite that those rights, in any meaningful sense of the word, do not actually exist there.”
Misinformation about high-profile shooting
The Sept. 11 article addresses the high-profile shooting of three Palestinians by a Burlington resident which occurred last year. They write, “Written after a white racist shot three young Palestinians in Burlington, they reminded everyone that amidst a genocide – as in the history of the queer struggle for liberation around the world – ‘silence equals death.’”
However, upon investigation it was not concluded by law enforcement to be an act of racism. Furthermore, their findings revealed far left-wing political tendencies on social media from the shooter, Jason Eaton.
Upset with critical coverage by Seven Days
The Coalition expresses frustration at a story appearing early this month in the publication Seven Days titled “Pride Center of Vermont Is Roiled by Allegations of Antisemitism“. The article is in part about the aforementioned statement from the Pride Center.
An excerpt from the story reads, “The LGBTQ movement has hardly been above the fray: Placards declaring ‘Queers for Palestine’ are not uncommon at peace demonstrations, while supporters of Israel have long pointed to certain legal protections afforded gay and transgender people in that country as evidence of its tolerance, compared to the rest of the Middle East.”
The Coalition was unhappy with the criticisms of their organization. They wrote, “Violating journalistic norms, author Sasha Goldstein penned a one-sided screed against The Pride Center. He quotes only Zionists Rabbi Lynda Siegel and Rabbi David Edleson, and former Pride Board members Wendy Beinner, Daniel Zeese, and Caryn Olivetti. He does not quote a single Palestinian or pro-Palestine activist.”
Misusing the term “Zionism”
According to the Shalom Alliance, a advocacy organization for Jewish rights, the real definition of Zionism is “a person who believes in self-determination and statehood for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland, the land of Israel.”
The Coalition’s article refers to Zionists 16 times compared to Jews only 6 times. The article ends with, “The Zionists’ time is over. The time for collective liberation is now.”
They also try to paint Israel as an abuser of gay/lesbian rights rather than the Palestinian-controlled regions. They write, “The Zionists base all their slanderous accusations against the Pride Center on pinkwashing, on painting Israel as a beacon of gay liberation in a sea of Middle Eastern homophobia. But, in reality, Israel is a homophobic society like all societies throughout the world. No society has ended homophobia and no society has a monopoly on that prejudice.”
Brutal murders
Some of the high-profile incidents involving violence against gays by Palestinians occurred in October of 2022 in the West Bank when the severed body parts of a young Palestinian gay man were discovered on a roadside.
The report states, “But accounts that the victim, Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh, was a gay man who feared persecution for his sexuality and had sought asylum in Israel two years ago turned the terrible crime into a socially and politically explosive case.”
Gay refugee sounds alarm
Another story from August of 2022 appearing in i24News was an interview with a gay refugee from Gaza. The man who didn’t give his real name for the story said “There are many people gay in the Gaza Strip, and they are in Hamas also. If you are gay, you should be hiding. It’s so hard. I was so scared. … I was afraid Hamas would find out I was gay.”
Making excuses?
The group Palestinian Feminist Center for Gender and Sexual Freedoms specifically focuses on helping LGBTQ+ Palestinians. The organization suggests that the “lack of freedoms” for minority groups is only due to “restrictions imposed on the Palestinians due to the occupation” rather than any conflicting cultural values.
At no point does the Coalition’s article acknowledge some of the more disturbing acts of violence against LGTBQ+ individuals by Palestinians.
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle
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Categories: Society & Culture
This goes to show they don’t have a clue about anything that goes on in Palestine, they only listen to fools in the media.
If you are a Pro-Palestine supporter then go over and lend a hand, you won’t you’re the same cast of characters that supported BLM, and never went to help with the Black-on-Black killings in cities like Chicago either………….. pathetic fools.
To all the Pro- Palestine and Pro-Hamas, supporters, if you do go over there, don’t bring your rainbow paraphernalia, as you’re not in the US, and then maybe you’ll think about what you have here, like a “Constitution”, that’s let’s you ask like fools.
Great article, Michael!
Don’t the “queers for palestine” underst and that under most Islamic regimes, like Jewish peoples, their very existence is threatened? Leftists are fools, whether gay or Jewish…
Something about inviting chickens to KFC is ringing in my ears.
Hopefully, UVM sponsors a field trip for the youths for and interesting cultural exchange.
Astro turf, who funded all the tents, they all had the same tents across the country. This is not organic, this is paid and fostered, buy whom?
That is the story nobody wants to investigate.
Because 95% coverage of all this is complete propaganda.
Apparently, China helped with funding.
Article: https://thedailyscroll.substack.com/p/sep-13-in-san-francisco-schools-state?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=680918&post_id=148867059&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=eeac&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
I wasn’t surprised by China helping with the funding. What I am surprised by is that any person that is even a tiny bit Jewish blood in them would still support the Democratic Party or the progressive party because they clearly don’t support Israel any longer but support Palestine, hamas, Iran and China.
And as far as the LGBTQ+ community —wake up if you are a woman/and or a member of this community—you risk being beaten imprisoned and death—your allegiance is with hamas who hates women and uses the Palestinian people as human shields!! Did you know hamas has been asked multiple times to talk about a cease fire to talk about Palestine and Israel -a 2 state solution at least 3 times and hamas keeps rejecting it. And you protest for hamas??? it’s time to reassess. What are you saying about yourself—that you need a job, this is easy money and that you are stupid and can be lead around like infantiles so you let the progressives indoctrinate you.
I am so happy to hear the Michael Bielawski is concerned about protecting the rights of gay people, but I’m dismayed to see him conflate Hamas with innocent Palestinian men, women, and children. Israel has every right to defend itself from Hamas, but Israel is conducting its offensive with absolutely no regard for the lives of Palestinians who are in harm’s way through no fault of their own. It has resulted in the deaths of thousands of children – that’s is undeniably a war crime. What Hamas did can never be justified; neither can the Israeli government’s horrible mistreatment of the Palestinian people and its long-term policy of stealing Palestinian land through illegal settlements.
Question? Are Vermonters having their land stolen by high taxes and weather warfare? You will own nothing and you will be happy.
In a gradual process since the 1960’s, Vermont has become the occupied territory of the American Communist movement…
Members of the LGBTQ community are being indiscriminately slaughtered by the Israeli military every day while you cheer it on.