Trying to make sense of “Queers for Palestine”
Why do so many in the LGBTQ community support Hamas when Hamas sure doesn't support them?
One of the seemingly most puzzling features of some anti-Israel protests has been the presence of strongly pro-Palestinian protesters who openly identify as LGBTQ. Some, for instance, have openly marched and chanted under the banner of “Queers for Palestine”. There were LGBTQ groups at Harvard who signed onto the initial letter of condemnation of Israel immediately following the heinous and sickening massacre by Hamas of Israeli men, women, children, and babies on Oct. 7. Even Martina Navratilova has been using her X account to support Hamas while condemning Israel.
What makes all of this so puzzling, of course, is that Israel is unquestionably FAR more accepting of gays and lesbians than are the Palestinians. The Wikipedia page LGBT Rights in the State of Palestine (an odd title, given that there really is no such thing as the “state of Palestine” at the present time – but whatever) notes that:
Homosexuality in the Palestinian territories is considered a taboo subject; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people experience persecution and violence.
In the State of Palestine, there is no specific, stand-alone civil rights legislation that protects LGBT people from discrimination or harassment. It has been reported that the hostilities homosexual Palestinians face has led to many seeking refuge in other countries, such as Israel.
In February 2016, it was reported that one of the leading commanders of the armed wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas, Mahmoud Ishtiwi, was executed under the charges that he engaged in homosexual activity
Polls of public sentiment towards LGBT people in the Palestinian territories find it is overwhelmingly negative.
And from a recent Time Magazine article:
… for LGBT Gazans, the specter of death from the Israel-Hamas war only compounds what was already a struggle to live freely in a place where homosexual relations between men is outlawed and open queerness violates social and religious mores.
Basically – anyone who thinks gays and lesbians are not discriminated against in the West Bank are delusional, and attitudes are significantly more negative toward gays and lesbians in Gaza than they are in the West Bank. One shudders to think what would happen to some the the “Queers for Palestine” protesters if they were to march openly as homosexuals in the West Bank or Gaza – but there is no question they would be putting their lives in jeopardy.
All of which raises (not begs) the question: Why, then, would so many in the LGBTQ community be pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel? In an excellent recent essay published on Colin Wright’s “Reality’s Last Stand” substack, Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer address this question head on. Essentially, their answer is that – following directly from the odious oppressor/oppressed ideology that dominates what passes for moral thinking in progressive circles, Israelis are by definition oppressors, all Palestinians are members of an oppressed group – and gays and lesbians are also all members of an oppressed group. Therefore, Israelis are to be condemned (no matter what they do), while Palestinian Arabs cannot be criticized for anything that they do (no matter how barbaric and inhumane). The oppressed stand with the oppressed no matter what.
I understand all of that. It is an odious and remarkably simple-minded moral system – but (in part because of its simplicity and abhorrence of nuance or the need to think deeply about complex human situations) – I understand it. But still, as gay Jewish Seattle radio host Jason Rantz recently noted and asked in the context of the presence of Queers for Palestine protesters in his city (as described in a Fox News article):
"Seattle’s homosexual intifada flyer is a stark oxymoron as brazen as it is ignorant. It signals LGBT Seattle activists are willing to become more violent in support of a terrorist organization that would order them tossed from the highest rooftop the moment they accuse someone of misgendering them," he said.
Spelling it out for these demonstrators, he noted that in Gaza – which is governed by terror group Hamas – "being openly gay isn’t just a social taboo; it’s a fast track to execution. LGBT people face arrests, torture, and extrajudicial killings based purely on sexual orientation."
"To stand with an organization that systematically oppresses the very essence of one’s being is not just ironic; it’s a tragic and ignorant misalignment of values and realities. But if your hatred of Jews is deep enough, I suppose this can’t be too shocking."
My own take (informed by the Shenvi and Sawyer article) :
I think there are a number of possible explanations for the phenomenon of LGBTQ support for Hamas and hatred of Israel – and as is almost always the case, the explanations listed below are not mutually exclusive.
1. Some members of the LGBTQ community are antisemitic.
Do I think this plays a role? Yes. My guess (quite admittedly based on no data) is that gays and lesbians are, on average, no more, nor less, antisemitic than the rest of the population – which means that some are, some aren’t, and among those that are, some are more deeply antisemitic than others.
2. Their minds have been taken over by oppressor/oppressed ideology (as argued by Shenvi and Sawyer).
Unquestionably a contributor. This is the dominant ideology amongst progressives, and I strongly suspect that a lot of gays and lesbians consider themselves progressives.
And so closely related that I’ll simply call it “explanation 2b”:
Everyone (well –almost everyone) likes to think of themselves as a good person. A moral person. A caring person. What better way to prove your bona fides to others, and to yourself, as a good person, than to support people you see as both oppressed and as people who hate you for who you are?
3. They are simply ignorant and shallow thinkers.
Is it possible that some “Queers for Palestine” don’t know how much people like them are hated by most people in Gaza? Probably. And even if they have some awareness, they may just choose not to think about it, so if that fact is brought to their attention, they simply chant “pinkwashing” over and over (overtly or covertly) to keep themselves from thinking about the fact that people who hate them are using them as useful idiots.
4. They like being on the side of the bullies for once.
Israel may be the stronger power in the Middle East, but on college campuses and on the streets of Seattle, and Toronto, and Boston, etc. etc., it’s the pro-Palestinians who are out in force, intimidating and bullying anyone who disagrees with them. I’m sure that — especially for people who may have experienced being bullied in their own lives, it feels good to do some bullying themselves, and right now, joining in the bullying of Jews by joining the anti-Israel protests is an easy way to do that.
And again – another explanation so closely related that I’ll simply list it as 4b.
4b. They want to be accepted by the “cool kids” and don’t want to be bullied themselves.
Sadly, for college students especially, it has become “uncool” to support Israel. So if you want to join the cool kids and don’t want to be a victim of bullying yourself, the easiest course of action is to join in with the pro-Palestinian protesters.
When considered in these terms, the phenomenon of “Queers for Palestine” becomes considerably less surprising. My guess is that all four (or six — depending on how you want to count them) factors mentioned above are relevant to understanding what seems, at first, to be an odd phenomenon. As noted at the outset, the different explanations are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, in many ways they are mutually supportive; it is much easier for someone to feel good about themselves when joining in on the bullying and harassment if they can feel that their bullying is justified by a particular ideology – an ideology taught in many of their classes and apparently accepted as gospel by many of the fellow bullying students. Ironically, of course, by taking what I’m sure many of the “queers for Palestine” protesters consider to be a principled stand, they are actually just “going along with the crowd” and demonstrating their cowardice — and serving as useful idiots for those who despise who they are.
I think many of the listed examples are probably true, but another hypothesis that may also be true is gender reversal theory: homosexuals tend to be more similar in their behavior to members of the opposite sex. Since leftist politics is more common among straight women than among straight men, because women are higher than men on empathy and egalitarianism, leftism may also be more common among gay men due to their brains being more feminine.
The group has a new logo:
https://meme.aho.st/queers-for-palestine/