A-Infos (en) France, UCL: No Pride for Genocide (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Like last year, Pride Month takes place while, on the shores of the 
Mediterranean, Israel is committing genocide in Gaza while positioning 
itself as an LGBT paradise. We cannot allow our struggles to become a 
banner of hatred. Like our Jewish comrades who refused to serve in the 
Israeli army, like our Arab brothers and sisters fighting for their 
survival, let us shout loud and clear: "No pride for genocide." Israel 
is committing genocide in Gaza while positioning itself as an LGBT 
paradise. Their strategy is supported and relayed internationally, 
including by the organizers of Eurovision, who allow them to rig the 
popular vote through state campaigns or by censoring the massive boos 
from the audience during their performances. This propaganda seeks to 
cultivate the image of a gay-friendly tourist country and an army open 
to LGBT people, compared to Arabs who are supposedly homophobic and 
backward. Cultivating this contrast provides a moral compass for racist 
speeches and actions; this is what we call homonationalism. The Israeli 
army produces an extreme version of it by planting rainbow flags on the 
rubble of Gaza, beneath which lie the corpses of women and children.

In reality, Israeli society's respect for LGBTI adolescents is 
conditional on their enlistment in this Zionist colonial project. Those 
who refuse to participate in the massacres at the age of 18 are sent to 
prison by court-martial and face intense stigmatization. Moreover, the 
far-right Israeli government makes no secret of its ideological basis, 
which remains deeply pro-natalist and therefore patriarchal.

Homophobia as a Colonial Strategy

The hypocrisy doesn't stop there, as Palestinian LGBTI organizations 
like Al-Qaws denounce the Israeli army's blackmail strategy. This 
strategy forces Palestinians to serve as informants on the resistance's 
activities for their colonizers. Homosexuals are regularly targeted and 
trapped as part of this strategy.

This forced espionage has led to the deaths of several homosexuals and 
reinforces a climate of mistrust within Palestinian society. In Gaza, 
this organized homophobia was also fueled by the funding of Hamas in its 
early days. The Israeli government's objective was to reduce the 
influence of secular organizations in the Palestinian resistance, as 
they enjoyed too much international support. Indeed, these organizations 
proposed a vision of a democratic Palestine whose citizens, whether 
atheist or of Jewish, Muslim, or Christian faiths, could live in freedom 
and equality.

Finally, Al-Bait Al-Mokhtalef (an LGBTI organization of Arabs living in 
Israel) denounces Israel's continued obstruction of asylum requests from 
trans and queer Palestinians, both within its territory and in third 
countries. For the Zionist state, LGBTI Arabs are, above all, Arabs who 
threaten its ethnonationalist project by their mere existence in the 
territory where they seek to create a national majority.

By creating a climate of widespread mistrust against LGBT people and 
preventing their asylum, Israel uses sexuality and transgender identity 
as a means of colonial control that divides the colonized population.

We cannot allow our struggles to become a banner of hatred. Like our 
Jewish comrades who refused to serve in the Israeli army, like our Arab 
brothers and sisters fighting for their survival, let us shout loud and 
clear: "No pride for genocide."

In the face of colonial propaganda, in the face of homophobia and 
transphobia in the service of apartheid, let us support the secular 
Palestinian resistance for a free, democratic and secular Palestine.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?NO-PRIDE-FOR-GENOCIDE
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