Anti-Pinkwashing as Emerging Hope: Queering the Palestinian Liberation Movement in the Context of Institutionalised Neoliberalism
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Neoliberal processes take place in rapid compromises with political sovereignties of nations. The only unsovereign political space where neoliberalism is practiced today is Palestine, particularly in the West Bank, since the Oslo peace process. The portrayal of Islam in a certain light is essential to the success of neoliberal practices in the region. In line with this, Israel's official 2007 campaign, “Brand Israel,” saw millions of dollars spent for this propaganda. One of the central points is “pinkwashing” where Israel portrays itself as a haven for homosexuals while deliberately glossing over its occupation of Palestine. Israeli occupation does not distinguish between queer and straight. This phenomenon of employing gay rights as political strategy, and in this case anchored in Islamophobia, is termed by theorist Jasbir Puar as “homonationalism.” Gender is clearly an organising principle of Israeli repression and what needs to be looked at is whether gender is also an organising principle of Palestinian resistance. The Palestinian queer movement is deeply embedded in anti-pinkwashing activism and differentiates itself from Western notions of queerness. This article applies these crucial understandings to the current context of Palestine because it is a predominantly vibrant, contemporary site.

ABSTRACT: Neoliberal processes take place in rapid compromises with political sovereignties of nations. The only unsovereign political space where neoliberalism is practiced today is Palestine, particularly in the West Bank, since the Oslo peace process. The portrayal of Islam in a certain light is essential to the success of neoliberal practices in the region. In line with this, Israel’s official 2007 campaign, “Brand Israel,” saw millions of dollars spent for this propaganda. One of the central points is “pink-washing” where Israel portrays itself as a haven for homosexuals while deliberately glossing over its occupation of Palestine. Israeli occupation does not distinguish between queer and straight. This phenomenon of employing gay rights as political strategy, and in this case anchored in Islamophobia, is termed by theorist Jasbir Puar as “homonationalism.” Gender is clearly an organising principle of Israeli re-pression and what needs to be looked at is whether gender is also an organising principle of Palestinian resistance. The Palestinian queer movement is deeply embedded in anti-pinkwashing activism and differentiates itself from Western notions of queerness. This article applies these crucial understandings to the current context of Palestine because it is a predominantly vibrant, contemporary site.

Excerpt regarding Palestinian queer movement:

Anti-pinkwashing and queer rights activism has been picking up tremendously in recent years. In 2019, a Palestinian teen was severely stabbed near Tel Aviv (a gay haven according to the “Brand Israel” campaign), allegedly by his own brother based on perceived sexual and gender identity. This snowballed into unprecedented protest actions across Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Israel (Ziv, 2019). This was also the first time there was widespread reporting by the media on an incident of violence against the queer community in Palestine. A statement by Al Qaws, the organisation at the heart of the move-ment that followed, read: “This attack exposed how complicit our society is in covering up and legitimizing violence against LGBTQ people. Furthermore, this crime and the subsequent social reaction reemphasizes how much the violence against LGBTQ people in Palestine can-not be divorced from violence against women or ongoing colonial violence including Pinkwashing.” (Al Qaws, 2019) A rallying point in this movement was seen in placards with slogans calling for the freedom of Palestinian queers to not align with their occupiers, as collectively building a gender- and sexuality-diverse civil society was the only solution. This was a watershed moment in the Palestinian queer movement as it saw very public protest actions that continued for several days, assertively calling for a resilient struggle for a free Palestine for all.