The following is an op-ed written by Yediot Achronot reporter, Shai Zamir. To my knowledge, it has not appeared in the paper’s online edition, nor in the Ynet English edition. It’s important enough to the debate raging about pinkwashing that I wanted it to be accessible to English readers. It’s a critique of gay pride Israel-style as a facade behind which Israeli racism and intolerance flourish:
The Dance-Line
Racism, Radicalization, International Isolation? What’s More Important is That We’re Full of Hunks on Floats
German. French. Spanish. Gay slang. Whoever walks around the streets of Tel Aviv in coming days won’t be able to avoid the muscle-bound guys who chatter at every street corner. They’ve come for the Gay Pride.
They say we’re under boycott. That Israel has become a pariah because of a bit of suffering involving our rule over another people. But the White City [Tel Aviv] withstands the ire of Israel haters from within and without, decked out in all the colors of the rainbow. It makes us just like all the other nations. For one long weekend, we can sink into the sweet illusion that Israel is a normal place just like any other western city. But the gap between reality and the gay celebrations mounted with the cooperation of gay hunks from around the world, only grows.
The more leprous Israel becomes, the more isolated, the more religious, and the much more racist, the more improved is the situation for the Israeli LGBT community, which serves as an inspiration for “homos” and lesbians the world over. Those which we like to call “gays,” because in English everything sounds so much more enlightened. Like appearances by stars of the past who land here for a second and a half, so the gay community has become a whitening agent [bleach] for an Israel likes to think of itself as free. Thanks to the surging throngs of bare-chested men, Israel clings to its image as a progressive society.
The very same Bogie Yaalon who supports gay marriage is the same defense minister who tomorrow may enforce apartheid on buses traveling in the West Bank. There are Israelis who believe we’re talking about a wonderful contradiction, which attests to Israel being a complex society filled with opposites. But more than anything, it teaches us of the highly-developed tissue of lies we tell ourselves and through which the wave of world boycott may wash Israel away to Hell.
In English, they call it pinkwashing–the methodical concealment of violations of human rights through the exploitation of pink “fuck me” underwear, which the hunks on floats wear. But the well-funded campaign by the Tel Aviv municipality and the foreign ministry to present a tolerant, gay friendly Israel isn’t meant for outsiders as is generally believed. First and foremost it’s directed internally toward Israelis who like to think of themselves as a sort of burbling brook of democracy in the midst of the primitive dark eastern savannah.
Like Meretz, American TV shows, and di gays from Berlin, gays are above all a branding opportunity meant to help us go without, and feel with: without freedom, without international legitimacy, without any intention of attempting to reach an agreement. The relative tolerance the gay community enjoys lives on borrowed time, because it isn’t founded on a genuine belief in equality, but on a superficial claim of acceptance of the Other. Gays and lesbians must know that Israeli society exploits them in order to maintain the semblance of a free society in a nation for which millions of Palestinians have no importance. A nation which charges anyone who dares to speak of human rights in the Territories as an anti-Semite. The real truth is that anyone who doesn’t love Arabs can’t love gays. And those who don’t really love gays should stop pretending.
Thanks for help with translation of Hebrew gay slang from Dena Shunra.
Let me tell you a story, Richard. When Obama was running for President in 2008, I had one of those Richard Fairey posters taped on the wall, by the mailbox out on the front porch. At the time, I was running my business out of the home (I’m an engraver) and I would get lots of interesting visitors. Several of those visitors happened to be Jewish, a few Rabbi’s from local synagogue gift shops and Judaica store owners (I engrave lots of kiddush cups and yad’s, in Hebrew as well) . Anyhow, the poster was certainly a conversation starter and being that it was 2008, and some people did not hold back. Most of my customers ignored it or made a polite comment. Not the yids. To a man (and I shit thee not) they’re comments all began with; “You’d vote for this guy?”, or; “he’s just a kid, he has no gravitas”, or “Community organizer? What’s that?”. But at the end almost all of them (and I mean every single one of the orthodox Rabbis) concluded with; “You’d vote for a shvartze?”
So you see Richard, you just have to be patient. The tribe can’t help itself. As always, their chronic diarrhea of the mouth is their undoing. They won’t be able to keep up this “pinkwashing” charade much longer. It absolutely galls them to do otherwise.
This sort of casual racism is endemic in Jewish life in America. It is us vs. them, and we’re the best. It is a learned behavior. It issues from the orthodox to most secular communities and individuals and runs parallel with support for Israel. American Zionist are racists. What other motive could they have for destroying another people? A Jewish State, perhaps, even if the only way to do this is to remove every other gentile inhabitant, demolish their home, possessing their land? Who can take pride in this? Only a racist.
You know, a belief in Jewish Self-Determination does not make you a racist. However, two wrongs don’t make a right and denial of that self-determination does make you one. That being said, there are Jews and Israelis who have conflated their self-interest and greed with the concept of self-determination. They are racists, as is the govt they have installed to further their ends. I find blanket statements such as; “American Zionists are racists” to be instructive and revealing.
Nope. Zionism is Jewish self-determination at the expense of others. The “others” part renders all Zionists racists. It do not undo the implied racism by replacing it with the neutral, politically correct term “self-determination.”
“one does not undo ….
Nonsense. That’s your Jew hatred masquerading as sophistry. Try again, dipstick.
I’ll bet it’s your sixth sense at work, the intuition that serves you so well, you know, that convincing gut feeling that you’ve spotted yet another one.
You’re kidding, right? ” Spot you”? You’re practically wearing a sandwich board that reads; “I Hate the Jews”. Believe me, subtlety is not your strong suit. :- D
What was the giveaway? At what point did you no longer need to attend to the argument and could dismiss it (and me)? How did you discern my inner disposition such that you no longer need to deal with the statements as such? Dismissing me could be seen as laziness, after all.
Just so you know. You sound like a guy who farted on a crowded elevator and got caught. You need to get past the delusion that you have successfully camouflaged your bigotry sufficiently as to allow yourself to take it for a romp in the park when the muse is upon you. As I mentioned, your comments are revealing in this regard. You’re just pissed off that somebody caught you with your fly open and your dick in your hand. Get over it or get better at not shitting where you eat, Vashtey?
I’m not irritated in the slightest, you haven’t “found out” anything.
I am curious what it is that I said that caused you to fall back on this “jew hating” all purpose excuse rather than explaining where and how I am wrong about American Zionists. Can you refute what I said about American Zionists without the ad hominem attack which has no merit? Or do you need the ad hominem because you cannot and that’s better than nothing?
I didn’t ask you whether you were irritated. I didn’t have to. Look, you’re not paying attention. I’m not engaging anyone who comes to this discussion disingenuously. While it’s not completely clear what you’re actual motivation is for being here, your previous accusations regarding American Jews and their beliefs about this or that give me reason to believe that you are, in fact, one of these people. What is clear is that you want this to be a venue to vent your Jew hatred behind a veneer of anti-zionism and doing it so incompetently that you’ve given both jew haters and anti-zionists a bad name. Lol. I on the other hand, am easily amused. I just wanted to show everyone what an asshole you are. So far, so good. You’re like the gift that keeps on giving.
So, what I had to say about American Zionists being racists and my explanation for this …these are ok because you do not refute them. You appear to be unhappy about how I say this, or perhaps, the mere fact that I say these obvious things. I know for sure that when you show the connection of “support for Israel” and “racism” to most American Jews they get very agitated. They don’t think of themselves as racists. They think they are moral ethical beings, their mothers told them so.
I come to this venue to cause guys like you some aggravation such that they wiggle around, write clever stuff, call me names, assume they understand me etc. But the only real answer you have for me about what I say is that I am an “asshole.” Well said! Very astute! G*d, I am so..oo…ooo..ooo humiliated I will never write another word. You showed me. Geez….
“Unhappy” with the things you say? I don’t remember being emotionally invested in your jew hatred one way or the other. I simply made the observation. You know, much in the way one would say; “What a shame it’s raining”, or “Oh my, I believe I just stepped in dog shit” That being said, you seem to have a pretty good idea why you’re perceived as an anti-semite. That’s good. Recognizing that you have a problem is the first step toward healing, 😉
Btw, you see anybody rushing to your defense? You know usually when somebody around here makes unfounded accusations such as; “you’re a Jew hater” toward another commenter, he is excoriated in the extremus by Richard and the others. Is it possible that even those who might find common ground in your anti-zionism somehow doubt your sincerity? Lol
@Shoded Yam — You are right: I am frank and friendless. Your whirlwind of entertaining similes and rank language (yids, shit, dipstick, farted, dick, shitting) carries the audience such that nobody will remember that you have not responded on the substantive question.
You never had a substantive question. You simply jew-baited and then demanded that I validate your polemic about the great American Jewish conspiracy. Sorry sparky. This isn’t a parking lot, I’m not the attendant and I don’t do validations. Why don’t you ask Richard or one of the others? Perhaps they’ll punch your ticket for you.
You never had a substantive question. You simply jew-baited and then demanded that I validate your polemic about the great American Jewish conspiracy. Sorry sparky. This isn’t a parking lot, I’m not the attendant and I don’t do validations. Why don’t you ask Richard or one of the others? Perhaps they’ll punch your ticket for you.
I demanded nothing but reasoned discussion. I received smut and hysteria. Same old.
Making blanket accusations against whole groups of people is not, ” reasoned discussion”, by any rational understanding of that phrase. It’s not reasoned when certain Israelis employ this tactic against Palestinians and others it’s not reasoned when it’s employed by you. But whatever. Like I said, if your looking to get stroked go ask Richard. I’m working.
Beaten bloody, and ostracized from his community, an Arab drag queen finds refuge in Tel Aviv.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/entertainment/israeli-arab-drag-queen-f/1908302.html
One momentarily happy drag queen v. an entire oppressed people (Palestinians). Not well-balanced justice.
The Palestinians construction workers I’m looking at right now, and the Palestinian pharmacist I will visit later today, all look well nourished and content. Not even overworked.
Not ten minutes ago, a bitterly oppressed Palestinian walked off his job site in order to help me change a flat tire. What a kind and gracious soul he was.
If he knew what a snarky ass you play here he would’ve spat in yr face instead. You didn’t deserve any help. You deserved a swift kick in the ass. Your tire got a puncture just as yr wit does here.
This is the same comment you already published. Do not repeat yrself. Nor is yr snark appreciated. Irony & wit are best left to others.
Fifty Israeli laws either directly or indirectly (as intended) discriminate against Palestinian citizens of Israel. Besides, Growler, you are misinterpreting the smiles and cooperation you fantasize.
@ David
I’m not even sure that Growler means Palestinian citizens of Israel when he speaks about Palestinians, as he named the Palestinian drag queen in his link ‘Arab’.
When one knows how the West Bank Palestinian construction workers are treated in Israel, how they’re underpaid, and how many hours they use on daily transport to and from job, not to talk about waiting at the check-points, his remarks about them being “well-nourished and content, and not even overworked”, simply makes me sick.
Susan Abulhawa wrote this poem to one of the thousand of Palestinians working in Israel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUIqhxMdffE
@Deir Yassin “well-nourished and content, and not even overworked” like cows lowing in their slots! You get sick, I get enraged.
@David @Deir @Richard
If Truth makes you sick, than you’ve got a serious problem.
Many pharmacists in Israel are Palestinian-Israelis. Most of the owners of housing construction companies are Palestinian-Israelis. If the construction laborers are oppressed, than they’re likely being oppressed by the Arab business owners that employ them.
That said, Looking out my window and driving through my neighborhood, I don’t see any construction workers being oppressed by anyone. The construction workers are hard working, reserved and strong.
They work. Sometimes they laugh and sing on the job. At night, they leave and return to work the next day.
Speaking of oppression, I’ve heard rumors that a local Arab has a protection racket and is ‘shaking down’ the rich Jews in my neighborhood so that they’re new homes aren’t ‘vandalized’ while under construction.
Sickening. Right?
Them darkies just a dancing and a singing…one would never know that 50 laws contrive to segregate them from you and the other masstahs.
@David
“50 laws contrive to segregate them from you and the other masstahs. ”
Richard requires me to provide cites and links when I make comments like the abovementioned.
Why not you too?
There is a dedicated website for tracking just these laws and how they work to segregate. Besides, everyone knows that separation is official policy anyway, separation as in “apartheid.”.
@ Growler: He doesn’t have to. Just do a Google search yourself. Just because you’re ignorant of a subject doesn’t mean it’s not true. Do you own research & stop asking us to do it for you. This figure is well known & well founded. I’ve read articles confirming it.
@David @Richard
First, consider the macroview, wherein Israel ranks 40th in the world in terms of social progress.
http://www.socialprogressimperative.org/data/spi#data_table/countries/spi/dim1,dim2,dim3
As for the microview, here’s one of Adalah’s nifty fifty laws of discrimination, apartheid, etc.
Description:
“A separate section of The Economic Efficiency Law (Legislative Amendments for Implementing the Economic Plan for 2009-2010) stipulates that children who do not receive the vaccinations recommended by the Ministry of Health will no longer be provided with “child allowances”. This provision mainly affects Arab Bedouin children living in the Naqab (Negev), since most of the children who do not receive the vaccinations come from this group due to the inaccessibility of health care.”
So Israel pays monies to the parents of all Israelis, Jew and Arab, ostensibly for the child’s welfare.
Israel withholds, or threatens to withhold the monies when the parents won’t give their kids needed vaccinations. Discriminatory to a small subsect of Israel’s Negev Bedouin population who have less access to health care? Maybe.
But overall, “Among the Bedouin population in the Negev, there was intense utilization of hospital services (45%) and primary services (81%) for every person in the family during the 2 months prior to sampling.”
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CDQQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fprofile%2FMohammed_Morad%2Fpublication%2F7338624_The_influence_of_Israel_Health_Insurance_Law_on_the_Negev_Bedouin_population–a_survey_study%2Flinks%2F02e7e52277150e8e8f000000.pdf&ei=5FyCVfzcKpfmoAT0mKy4Cg&usg=AFQjCNHmYfsBE-2PpD0h8oa4VqZoVQnoLQ&sig2=CXiQoa2VFfYVWABWgUY00w&bvm=bv.96042044,d.cGU
@ Growler: Your hasbara apologia is vapid. There’s a curious thing about your Social Progress survey. It didn’t include Palestine, at all. Completely erased from the survey. Apparently, there’s no social progress in Palestine or the survey takers averted their eyes from it. Can anyone take such a survey seriously?
I’ll give you a homework assignment: read all 50 of the discriminatory laws and summarize them in writing. Send me the summary and I might consider removing your moderation–after you apologize for falsely calling my relatives gangsters!
@ Growler: Of course they’re pharmacists. That’s because they really want to be medical doctors but can’t for various reasons. How many Palestinian medical doctors are there? How many Palestinians are in the Israeli academy of arts & sciences? Almost none.
As for housing contruction, perhaps small firms are Palestinian. But you can be sure the companies building high rises & large shopping centers are Jewish owned.
The reason you see so many Palestinian construction workers is that its relatively unskilled work & it’s the only job they can get. That’s because Israel’s education system for Palestinians is so lousy & underfunded. Not to mention that University is closed off for many of them. Why isn’t there a Palestinian university in Israel as there are state universities for secular and religious Jews?
Oh lawdy, da darkies do be happy w’what di massah provide! THey be singin’ & dancin’! They be happy ta git a bitta bread from his gracious hand!
As for Arab protection rackets, some of my ancestors (Jewish that is, not my immediate family) were gangsters. Why? Because no other professional, educational opportunities were open to them. Sound familiar?
“Oh lawdy, da darkies do be happy w’what di massah provide! ”
The ‘darkies’ are paid a reasonable wage, higher than anywhere else in the region. They are not slaves, but their salaries are conditioned by the market. Cheaper Chinese labor will put the Arab workers on the street.
” That’s because Israel’s education system for Palestinians is so lousy & underfunded. ”
My own nieces and nephews, had to leave Israel and go overseas to study medicine.
Wait. There are jobs for unskilled laborers, but other Arabs are forced into crime. Please.
My grandfather toiled in a garment factory while your relatives were lazy, greedy criminals.
Bernie Madoff chose a life of crime, he wasn’t forced into it.
@ Growler: No, no, no. That won’t do. We don’t compare what Palestinians could earn in Damascus. We compare what they could earn if they were Jews in Tel Aviv or Haifa. Presumably, these Palestinians are citizens of Israel and no Lebanon or Syria. So why compare wages in these places to what Palestinians earn in Israel? It’s absurd.
More absurdity. Their salaries are conditioned by their skills, education, religion & ethnic background. Can they become doctors & practice medicine at Hadassah?
Meaning precisely what? How many Palestinians have the opportunity to pursue a medical degree outside Israel? Your comments are racist, offensive & obscene.
Certainly, when the money you earn in a gang outpaces an honest wage by 10 or 100. Gang life becomes much more attractive.
I take personal offense at this lie. I never said my relatives were gang members. I specifically said they weren’t. I find you disgusting. You are moderated.
@growler I will agree with everything you say, the whole of it provided you go away and not come back. What do you say?
[Comment deleted: The F-bomb is a major comment rule violation. Do this again & you’re banned.]
@ David: I think we need these types here. Their presence indicates Hasbara Central considers us potent & a force to be fought.
Well, maybe go away just for now. So tedious…