A Debate on Pinkwashing: A Special Web-Only Issue

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A Debate on Pinkwashing:
A Special Web-Only Issue

In an effort that some have dubbed “pinkwashing,” the Israeli government has sought to improve Israel’s global public image by disseminating images of LGBT acceptance. The Israel ambassador to the United States has gone so far as to describe Israel as a “gay mecca” in the Middle East. In fact, it is hard to deny that Jewish Israeli gays have more rights and are safer in Israel than gays and lesbians in any of the surrounding nations, or for that matter in many U.S. states. Nevertheless, gay and lesbian Palestinians have urged the LGBT community in the United States to help raise awareness about how this PR campaign obscures the ways in which the Occupation and the oppression of LGBT people in the region are deeply intertwined.

In this special web-only issue on pinkwashing, Katherine Franke and Rebecca Alpert discuss how the Israeli security service “has had a policy of blackmailing Palestinians who are gay or who are perceived to be gay and threatening to out them unless they become informants against their own people. For this reason, gay people in Palestine have a reputation as collaborators with Israel—as a result some of the homophobia gays and lesbians in Palestine experience is the direct product of the Occupation itself.”

In keeping with Tikkun’s longstanding tradition of creating space for vehement argument, this web-only issue presents a head-to-head debate. It begins with two strong anti-pinkwashing critiques, followed by a rebuttal written by Arthur Slepian, the head of an organization often accused of pinkwashing. The last four pieces—written by law professor Katherine Franke, Jewish Voice for Peace activist Wendy Elisheva Somerson, Israeli-born human rights activist Uri Horesh, and blogger Richard Silverstein—offer a variety of responses and rebuttals to Slepian’s piece. Want to join the discussion? We welcome your letters to the editor at letters@tikkun.org.

Boycotting Equality Forum’s Israeli Sponsorship

by Rebecca Alpert and Katherine Franke
This week we were scheduled to speak at the Constitution Center as part of the Equality Forum’s 2012 LGBT Summit. Instead we, a rabbi and a law professor, have withdrawn our appearances at the event, disturbed that the Equality Forum, a major mainstream gay rights group, chose Israel as the conference’s “featured nation” and gained sponsorship for the 2012 Summit from the Israeli Embassy and Ministry of Tourism. Why boycott a conference that is celebrating the gay rights record of Israel when Tel Aviv was just voted “the world’s best gay city”? Read More »

U.S. Gay Rights Activists: Stop Pinkwashing Palestinian Suffering!
by Richard Silverstein
Philadelphia hosted its yearly gay rights event, the Equality Forum, in early May. It is part-human rights symposium and part-tourism booster. Each year, it highlights a different country and this year, it was Israel’s turn. Organizers invited Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren to address the International Equality Dinner as the keynote speaker. This turned the event into an official political promotion for the State of Israel. In fact, the Israeli Ministries of Tourism and Foreign Affairs were listed as sponsors of the larger event. Read More »

An Inconvenient Truth: The Myths of Pinkwashing

by Arthur Slepian
I am a gay man, an American, and a Jew. I am passionate about Israel, devoted to its well-being, and I want to see a resolution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians that will enable both to live in peace and security. My love for Israel and my commitment to LGBT equality led me to create A Wider Bridge, an organization dedicated to strengthening the bonds between the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities in Israel and America. I believe LGBT Jews have been a transformative force for good in the Jewish world, and that LGBT Israelis have been and will continue to be a vital force in creating a stronger and better Israel. Read More »

The Greater Context of the Pinkwashing Debate

by Katherine Franke
I wanted to offer some reactions to the most recent opinion piece authored by Arthur Slepian in which he takes on those who charge the state of Israel with “pinkwashing” its dismal human rights record when it comes to Palestine and the Palestinian people. Rather than respond point by point to the bill of particulars he issues to the anti-pinkwashers, I prefer to situate this debate in the context of larger gay rights organizing. Read More »

Revealing the Truth Behind the Rainbow: Seattle’s Anti-Pinkwashing Success
by Wendy Elisheva Somerson
As a queer anti-Occupation Jew living in Seattle, I was part of the coalition that worked to get the Seattle LGBT commission to cancel the pinkwashing event, “Rainbow Generations: Building New LGBTQ Pride & Inclusion in Israel,” sponsored by Arthur Slepian’s organization, A Wider Bridge. In response to Slepian’s article, “An Inconvenient Truth: The Myths of Pinkwashing,” I want to clarify why we worked to cancel the event and counter his misinformation about pinkwashing. Read More »

Pinkwashing, Brainwashing, and Queer-Palestinian solidarity

by Uri Horesh
Arthur Slepian’s article “An Inconvenient Truth: The Myths of Pinkwashing” has been crafted very carefully, written very eloquently, and has done a remarkably better job than any other work I have encountered, either oral or in writing, to justify pinkwashing. Yet nonetheless, it performs the task of justifying Zionism in a queer context—the very definition of pinkwashing offered by Palestinian-American activist and filmmaker Nadia Awad. Read More »

Israeli Occupation and LGBT Rights: Inextricably Intertwined

by Richard Silverstein
Arthur Slepian’s contribution to Tikkun, “An Inconvenient Truth: The Myths of Pinkwashing,” is quite persuasive in its way. If you knew little about Israel and its LGBT issues, you might actually find it quite convincing. It is heavy on what I call aspirational rhetoric. It reminds me of all those grand speeches Barack Obama delivered during the 2008 campaign leading up to the Gettysburg-like Grant Park address in Chicago on election night. Oh how hopeful we all were when we heard those stirring phrases. Change, if not revolution was in the air. But the reality of Obama’s presidency has turned out to be quite different than his electrifying speechifying. We once aspired to greatness but presently remain mired in the tawdry reality of Obama’s betrayed promise. So the same holds true for Slepian’s grand liberal Zionist vision. Read More »

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