'Pinkwashing' Deconstructed

[King_David]

In 2007 the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs initiated a nation-branding campaign informally known as "Beyond the Conflict." The goal was to change people's perception of Israel from a war zone populated by the ultrareligious to a more normal place -- rich with culture, dominated by high-tech and scientific achievement, and grounded in identifiable, Western values.

American nonprofit organizations joined the effort by making sure non-conflict stories saw the light of day -- everything from Israeli companies being listed on the NASDAQ and Israeli-made computer chips powering everyday products to stories about Tel Aviv's nightlife and Israeli model Bar Rafaeli gracing the cover of Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit Issue.

Nation-branding is practiced by many states, from established democracies like the U.S., Canada, France, Japan, South Korea, South Africa, and New Zealand to developing countries like Tanzania, Colombia, and Guatemala. It's not unique to Israel. In fact, earlier this year the Palestinians hired a number of PR firms in the U.S. for this same purpose.

In addition to the cultural and technology stories, the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs sought ways to emphasize Israeli values. Israel's record on LGBT rights was smartly identified as a way to highlight its societal tolerance and diversity and draw contrast with more repressive regimes in the region and around the world. In reality, Israel is the only Middle Eastern country where people are not persecuted because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Here are the facts for LGBTs in Israel:
•Israel has passed anti-discrimination laws protecting LGBTs

•Israel Recognizes same-sex marriages performed abroad


•Israel has legalized LGBT adoption rights


•LGBT soldiers serve openly in all military branches, including special units; discrimination is prohibited


•Same-sex couples have the same inheritance rights as heterosexual, married couples


LGBTs enjoy these rights nowhere else in the Middle East. In fact, in every other Middle Eastern country, either homosexuality is a crime punishable by death (Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Yemen) or jail time (Gaza, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Morocco, Algeria), or LGBTs face risks of violence, torture, and "honor killings" by militias or their own families (the West Bank, Iraq, Turkey) or harassment and crackdowns from the government and non-state actors (Bahrain, Jordan). In fact, when compared to states outside the region -- including most Western democracies -- Israel has one of the strongest records for LGBT rights in the world.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-piro/israel-pinkwashing_b_1161852.html

[King_David]

1. other snips.

The sad reality is that LGBT anti-Israel groups are throwing our queer Palestinian brothers and sisters under the bus. LGBT persecution in the disputed territories is horrendous -- it comes from Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, militias, and even the victims' own families. In the academic report "Nowhere to Run: Gay Palestinian Asylum Seekers in Israel," there is testimony from Palestinian LGBTs who escaped to Israel to seek asylum status. The torture they received in the West Bank is shocking (pp. 13-17). For example, one man recounts a horror story of being dragged from his home by Palestinian Authority officers because he was gay, then submerged in sewage water up to his neck for five hours at a time, every day for three weeks (p. 15). The report comes from Tel Aviv University's Public Interest Law Program, but it shouldn't be dismissed for that reason; it's critical of Israel for not accepting more LGBT Palestinian refugees.



Israel's queer foes are the real "pinkwashers," because they conveniently ignore the horrors committed against LGBT people throughout the Middle East in order to focus only on the Jewish state. If the term "pinkwashing" is about covering up facts to push one's agenda, then anti-Israel queer activists are choking on their own hypocrisy and self-righteousness.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-piro/israel-pinkwashing_b_1161852.html

[Ruby the Liberal]

2. The entire concept of "pinkwashing" is just another approach

in the game of finding every microcosm of society and attempting to sway opinion in the direction of bigotry and hate while couching it as the opposite.

This time, its is directed to the LGPTQIA community in the hopes that they will "vote against their own interest" by instituting a boycott on the one country in that phenomenally beautiful region where they are welcomed and indeed, celebrated. This attempt is couched that it takes Israel's support and makes it out to be some kind of falsified marketing gimmick.

Not unlike the US Republicans have convinced a huge chunk of the population to vote against their own self-interest over 'wedge' issues like gay marriage and abortion (neither of which is anyone's business than the participants), "pinkwashing" is an attempt to turn the gay community against their brethren and sistern in Israel who would, with the full permission and support of the government, welcome them with open arms.

It is stupidity on a mass scale and many swallow it hook, line and sinker.

[King_David]

3. COMMENTARY: "Pinkwashing" is a whitewashing of the facts regarding Israel

Last edited Tue Dec 27, 2011, 07:22 PM - Edit history (1)

Lillian Faderman - Exclusive to SDGLN
December 5th, 2011

Sarah Schulman suggests that Israel, in its diabolically cunning way (now where have we heard that before about the Jews?), started a cynical campaign in 2005 to improve its image, and that campaign included an appeal to progressives who support LGBT rights.

Yet the fact is that LGBT rights in Israel go back long before 2005.

Since the 1980s and 1990s, Israeli LGBT people have enjoyed rights that predated or exceeded those rights given to LGBT people in America -- and almost anywhere else in the Western world. And the struggle for them in Israel has been nowhere near as prolonged or difficult as it has been in America and most of Europe.


I’ll limit myself to just a few examples of those rights enjoyed by ALL LGBT citizens of Israel, whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim: 

■ In 1988, all sodomy laws were abolished in Israel.
■ In 1992, Israel passed a law protecting any LGBT citizen (Jewish, Christian or Muslim) from employment discrimination.
■ In 1994, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in favor of spousal benefits for same-sex couples — regardless of whether they were Jewish, Christian or Muslim.

■ In 2004, Israeli lesbian or gay couples (Jewish, Christian or Muslim) were given the right to qualify for common-law marriage status.
■ In 2005, the same year that Schulman says Israel began its suspicious attempts to show that LGBT people were welcomed there, Israeli legislation recognized all same-sex marriages performed abroad.


The only place in the Middle East that Arab LGBT people can organize OPENLY is Israel.


http://sdgln.com/commentary/2011/12/05/commentary-pinkwashing-whitewashing-facts

[shira]

4. Hate blinds. n/t

[shira]

5. Folks who bash Israel for its record on gay rights remind me...

...of the very same people who bashed Israel for its efforts in Haiti a couple years ago.

The Israel can do nothing right crowd.

Hateful bigots.