| Arabs upset over - Oriental tourists at Al Aqsa Posted: 17 Mar 2012 11:30 PM PDT In the middle of yet another article about Zionists "breaking into" the Temple Mount and "performing Talmudic rituals", Qudsmedia notes that some visitors were dancing at Al Aqsa Mosque, thereby desecrating it horribly: Looking a little closer, you can see that the dancers aren't Jewish religious fanatics, but rather tourists from the Far East: The Muslims' anger isn't only at them, of course. Here's another photo they took of another set of tourists: How horrible! At the very least, the tourists should have enough respect for the holy site to play the traditional Muslim game of soccer, which was decreed by Allah himself as being an appropriate form of veneration, as long as the players are Muslim. 
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| Hamas and Islamic Jihad talking unity Posted: 17 Mar 2012 08:52 PM PDT Hamas' Palestine Times reports: A member of the Political Bureau of the Movement of Islamic Jihad, Mohammed al-Hindi, said that merger talks between Islamic Jihad movement and the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas are continuing and going in a positive direction. H
Hindi said in a televised statement late Saturday 17/3/2012, that the talks discussed the stages, progression and the development of public policy, "but the outcome of the talks are not yet shown on the ground," adding that his movement looks at the issue from a strategic perspective, and stressed that his movement looks to the unity of the Islamic movement in Palestine, like the results of the Arab spring in a number of neighboring Arab countries. He pointed out that coordination between the two groups are an essential step for unity. He called for coordination fully between Hamas and his movement in all areas to support the steadfastness of the Palestinian people. Islamic Jihad gained a lot of popularity in Gaza by shooting hundreds of rockets at Israel last week, and Hamas' stock with Gazans went commensurately down for failing to join in. Which means that among the populace of Gaza, the number of people who want to actually have peace with Israel is pretty small. Not that you will hear any Western leaders noticing that. After all, if Palestinian Arabs don't want peace, then peace is impossible, and the best you can hope for is managing conflict. After investing decades in a "peace process" that went nowhere, who wants to admit that? 
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| City of Seattle snubs Israeli gays over "pinkwashing" charge Posted: 17 Mar 2012 05:59 PM PDT From Seattle Times: Bowing to pressure from some gays outraged by Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, the city of Seattle commission that represents gays canceled a Friday reception at City Hall for a visiting delegation of Israeli gay leaders.
Commission members, some City Council members and local gay-community leaders had been invited.
The Seattle LGBT Commission had previously agreed to host the meeting, one of several the six-member Israeli delegation had scheduled on the West Coast — with stops in San Francisco and Los Angeles — to exchange ideas on advancing gay rights.
Only in Washington state, however, did the team encounter pushback from fellow gays.
At a heated commission meeting Thursday, a small, vocal group spoke out against the Jewish nation, saying Israel is masking what some call its poor treatment of Palestinians by promoting its positive record on gay rights — a phenomenon that has become known as "pinkwashing."
To be sure, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is a complicated, decades-long political and religious struggle that can hardly be sorted out during a few hours of a commission meeting.
Still, members — who represent Seattle's gay population to city government — bowed to pressure and canceled the session, saying they were not prepared to facilitate an event surrounding "such complex topics."
 | | Dean Spade | The first sign that the group would encounter trouble in Washington state began with a posting Monday on the Facebook page of Seattle University law professor Dean Spade, in which he called the delegation's visit "apartheid and occupation" wrapped in the rainbow flag.
The concept of "pinkwashing" has been advanced among some gay-rights social-justice activists who believe Israel is using its progressive stance on gay rights to cover up a record on the mistreatment of Palestinians.
Spade, a transgender activist, explained that his feelings toward Israel followed a January visit to the West Bank. And in a letter to commission members, he wrote that they may be unaware that "the event is part of a broad campaign launched in recent years by the state of Israel to respond to worldwide opposition to its outrageous harm and violence to Palestinian people."
Spade could not be reached for comment.
Some pro-Israel gay-rights organizations denounce the concept of pinkwashing. By saying that Israel has a positive record on gay rights does not deny anyone from criticizing its civil-rights record, say officials with the Wider Bridge, a California-based gay Jewish organization that helped to arrange the delegation's visit.
"The truth is that Israel is a good place to be LGBT, and it is so because there are countless people within Israel doing amazing, courageous work every day ... saving lives, including the lives of young LGBTQ Palestinians who often have nowhere else to turn," Wider Bridge officials said.
In other words, the commission caved in the face of a small number of loud Israel haters. They admit that they don't know a whole lot about the issues and were only hearing from one very biased side. Yet rather than err on the side of free speech and liberalism, they decided to err on the side of censorship and hate. I could reiterate how the charge of "pinkwashing" is simply a psychological projection that shows the manifestation of rabid, visceral hate towards the Jewish state which is nothing less than an expression of bigotry itself. But it is better to see what mainstream gays think. From Queerty: Are anti-pinkwashers like Spade now saying that all gays from Israel should be silenced in the public arena, lest they accidentally encourage someone to visit their homeland?
Are we calling for the end of civil discourse and kicking Israel's LGBT off the bus?
It's a double standard: When Mariela Castro, the heterosexual daughter of Cuba's president, Raoul Castro, boasts about how progressive her country is on gay issues—despite a proven track record of oppressing LGBTs and political dissidents—she's embraced with open arms by gay activists.
According to A Wider Bridge, the admittedly pro-Israel group that brought AILO to America, some good work was done so far on its tour of the U.S.:
- In Los Angeles, the delegation met with the leaders of the Trevor Project and shared ideas and practices for helping LGBT teens in crisis and working to reduce teen suicides.
- The delegation met with the Regional Board of P-FLAG, and shared their own unique programs for helping parents deal with their LGBT children.
- The delegation visited the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center, where a multitude of strategies related to HIV testing, prevention and care were shared.
- Today in San Francisco the delegation met with a diverse group of LGBT and Jewish leaders, including an LGBT Asian group and those working for LGBT inclusion in a variety of faith-based communities. Much of the conversation was focused on dealing with the special issues faced by LGBT people in minority communities, both in Israel and the U.S.
No, according to the haters, Israel has only one dimension, a single attribute that overrides everything else. And their narrowminded focus reveals far more about their own intolerance than it does about that of Israelis. Dean Spade held a party to celebrate the victory of his intolerance. His friends ask all supporters of Israel hatred to go to the Seattle LGBT Commission Facebook page to thank them. You may want to also visit that page and let them know what you think. (h/t jzaik) 
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| Latest Latma Posted: 17 Mar 2012 04:50 PM PDT |
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