A couple of months ago, the New York Times run an op-ed titled “Israel and ‘Pinkwashing,’” which accused Israel of using the issue of gay rights to whitewash its deteriorating human rights record. Quote:
In Israel, gay soldiers and the relative openness of Tel Aviv are incomplete indicators of human rights — just as in America, the expansion of gay rights in some states does not offset human rights violations like mass incarceration. The long-sought realization of some rights for some gays should not blind us to the struggles against racism in Europe and the United States, or to the Palestinians’ insistence on a land to call home.
Many Jewish-American writers, including progressive ones, attacked the Times for publishing this piece. Here is J.J. Goldberg and Jay Michaelson at The Forward and Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic; there are more examples. An adviser for Netanyahu even mentioned it in a public letter to the Times in which the PM declined to write an op-ed for the paper.
This seems to be one of those absurd cases in which criticism allowed in the Israeli conversation becomes taboo for the Jewish community in the United States: This weekend, Israel’s liberal paper Haaretz, which has exclusive rights over the Times content, ran a translation of the notorious pinkwashing piece in its news pages, as commentary responding to a feature that reported an online competition in which Tel Aviv was chosen the most desirable Gay destination in the world. “Gay rights became a PR tool for trying to hide violations of human rights in Israel,” was the lead quote chosen by the editors in Haaretz.
In the last few days, Israel’s most popular website, Walla.co.il, had two pinkwashing items of its own, dealing with the growing criticism on the Israeli use of the LGBT issue in its propaganda war with the Palestinians. One of the pieces, which also cited from Sarah Schulman’s Times op-ed, was titled “Israel – the most gay in the world, or just colored in pink?”
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January 14, 2012
8:53 am
I think there is a danger in equating Tel Aviv’s openness with Israel’s human right record. That’s like citing the food in New Orleans’ French Quarter as a win somehow for America’s culinary reputation.
January 14, 2012
12:59 pm
If Israel uses its comparative tolerance for gays as a way of covering up treatment of Palestinians shame on Israel.
If other countries in the Middle East have no pink to pinkwash with, shame on them.
Both can be and are in fact true.
January 14, 2012
5:06 pm
RE: “an online competition in which Tel Aviv was chosen the most desirable Gay destination in the world.”
FROM WIKIPEDIA:(excerpts) The 2009 Tel Aviv gay centre shooting resulted in the deaths of two people and injuries to at least fifteen others at the Tel Aviv branch of the Israeli GLBT Association…
…As of December 2011, the crime remains unsolved…
…The gunman entered the building where a weekly event was being held (in the basement), shot in several directions and then fled on foot. The building was frequented by gay teenagers who engage in social activities and listen to music.[6][11] The centre was small with one terrace; thus preventing anyone from escaping. They instead hid under a bed and tables as shots were fired. Israeli television said the crime scene was a “bloodbath”…
…The shooter was masked, dressed in black and used a pistol to carry out his attack. It is not believed his motive was related to nationalist terror but the exact motive is currently unclear. The city’s gay community stated the killer had a homophobic motive while police have cautioned people that the attack may not have been a hate crime and that the motive remains unknown…