<http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2007/2/1/opedImperialQueernessAndIsraeliPropaganda> Op-Ed: Imperial queerness and Israeli propaganda February 1, 2007 By Jerry Zee
On Wednesday night, a number of groups — including the off-campus organization pro-Israel advocacy group StandWithUs — screened a 15-minute film entitled "Out of the Closet and into the Streets of Tel Aviv." This is neither a documentary (it was produced by a PR firm in Israel), nor does it seek to generate critical discussion. Among the recent surge of discussion surrounding Israel, the event was advertised as a "great documentary about the open lifestyle of lesbians and gays in Israel," but the movie itself is blatantly a propaganda piece that is simultaneously distasteful in the way it represents an amorphous and culturally backward Middle East, offensive in the way that it explicitly characterizes Islam and disgusting in the way that it appropriates the rhetoric of the queer movement.
The film, subtitled "A Peek at Freedom and Acceptance in the Middle East," opens with images of presumably Muslim people performing ritual ablutions and praying. An announcer informs the audience that democracy and human rights have only recently arrived in the Middle East and, to the soundtrack of the Islamic call to prayer, goes on to inform us that the lives of LGBT people are difficult throughout the Middle East. However, we are told, in contrast to all the repression of the Middle East, "Israel is an oasis of gay and lesbian freedom" as the shape of Israel is highlighted, propaganda style, on a map of the Middle East. Israel is represented as a gay utopia, where no one lives in fear of homophobia, where gay life is open and free, where anyone can be themselves — even gay Palestinians (provided they carry their identification cards).
I would like to point out that the rhetoric of queer rights is being appropriated and used instrumentally by the producers and screeners of this film in a way that justifies violence, occupation and oppression. Queer Israel is presented as liberated and modern, in explicit contrast to the supposed barbarism of the Middle East. The doctrine of the queer movement that stresses freedom and openness is being used to justify Israel's claims to statehood while at the same time demonizing the Arab other as backward.
I am not claiming that perhaps conditions for queer people are not better in Israel than they are elsewhere. I am arguing that the way queer rights is being appropriated is disgusting and goes in complete opposition to the ideals of the queer movement. Israel's portrayal of itself as queer-friendly is contrasted with a vague Middle Eastern barbaric other, so this film is not about queer rights in Israel, but rather about the demonization of the Middle East. What this amounts to is using queer rights to attack the Middle East through language in order to justify the physical violence that the Israeli state commits.
As a member of the queer community, I am angry at the use of our liberatory rhetoric to justify exactly the opposite of liberation. I hope, from now on, that the line between education and propaganda will not be so shamelessly flouted for politicized ends.
Jerry Zee is a senior majoring in linguistics. He can be reached at jerryzee at stanford.edu.
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<http://www.washblade.com/2006/8-18/news/worldnews/worldpride.cfm> War depresses turnout for World Pride Just 400 brave Israeli-Hezbollah conflict to attend Jerusalem event
By JOSHUA LYNSEN Friday, August 18, 2006
World Pride organizers are blaming Middle East violence for the low turnout at this month's event in Jerusalem.
An estimated 400 people attended World Pride, which began Aug. 6 and concluded Aug. 12. The event came during a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah, and while other clashes raged in the Gaza Strip.
Organizers had hoped to see 10,000 people at World Pride.
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[Sharon] Kleinbaum [World Pride's North American co-chair] said the violence north of World Pride "affected everything on some level."
She said most people who planned to attend the event cancelled, hotels were inundated with refugees, and local volunteers were summoned for military service.
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