A New York City LGBT Community Center’s decision to host an event of Queers
Against Israeli Apartheid last week has drawn sharp criticism.
Prominent
US gays and the Simon Wiesenthal Center on Wednesday laced into the Lesbian,
Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center and Queers Against Israeli
Apartheid.
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Dr. Shimon Samuels, the Wiesenthal Center’s international
director, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that Queers Against Israeli
Apartheid was a group of “self-hating gays” who “are working against the
interests of their own brothers and sisters and should be shunned by all LGBT
NGOs. By accepting them, the New York center is providing a fig leaf for Arab
homophobia.”
He continued, “Gay anti-Zionism is an oxymoron in that
Israel is the only country in the Middle East and in the Islamic region where
sexual diversity can be practiced freely without discrimination. In fact, many
Palestinian and other Arab gays have sought refuge in Tel Aviv. Gays certainly
had no such rights under South African Apartheid, and to even apply that term to
Israel is defamatory and the theft of another people’s narrative.”
In
February, the LGBT Center agreed to provide space during “Israeli Apartheid
Week” to the anti-Israel group Siege Busters, to raise money for a new flotilla
to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.
After Michael Lucas, a
columnist for the gay monthly The Advocate and an adult entertainment producer,
called for a financial boycott of the LGBT Center, the center pulled the plug on
its “A Party to End Apartheid” event with Siege Busters, saying that the group
was not involved in LGBT issues.
As for the center’s move to host Queers
Against Israeli Apartheid last week, Lucas told the Post, “The president of the
board of directors for the LGBT Center, Mario Palumbo, and its executive
director, Glennda Testone, are staunch anti-Zionists. In fact, they are
anti-Zionist and anti-Israeli to the point that they would not meet with
representatives from major Jewish organizations (Jewish Community Relations
Council of New York and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs) that wanted to
explain to them that the word ‘apartheid’ cannot be applicable to the Jewish
state.”
Lucas continued, “Initially, they agreed to the meeting, but then
they canceled it two hours prior. However, they have had many meetings with all
the anti-Israeli organizations that requested a meeting, culminating in the
decision to grant them the space.”
It appears that the activists from
Siege Busters have switched over to Queers Against Israeli Apartheid so they can
argue that their group is involved in LGBT issues.
“If the NYC LGBT
Center is to embrace this new ‘policy of moral relativism’ it will need to open
its doors immediately to other hate organizations that cleverly append the word
‘queer’ to their names, like ‘Queer Neo Nazis, ‘Queers for al- Qaida,’ ‘Queers
for Ahmadinejad,’ ‘Queers for Prop 8,’ or ‘Queers Against Gay Adoption,’ ‘Queers
for AIDS,’ Lucas said.
“Of course they won’t do it, because they would
consider this hate speech, but bashing Israel is perfectly fine with
them.
The center is absolutely out of touch with reality. They don’t
understand that the majority of gay people do not support the idea of allowing
QAIA [Queers Against Israeli Apartheid] to meet at the center.”
In an
e-mail to Testone, Stuart Appelbaum, the openly gay president of the New
York-based Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and president of the
Jewish Labor Committee, wrote, “You had the opportunity to meet with us before
and chose not to, despite your promises, always claiming you were too busy...
You then broke your commitment that no decisions would be made until after we
met. You dissembled and were disingenuous throughout the entire
process.
“I am prepared to review publicly how you treated the Jewish
community, the JCPA [the Jewish Council for Public Affairs] and the JCRC [the
Jewish Community Relations Council]. I find it outrageous and insulting, and
inexcusable.”
Appelbaum, who works with a statewide lobbying and advocacy
group in New York to secure same-sex marriage rights, told Testone that she has
“turned the LGBT Center into a locus for anti- Semitism where material is handed
out stating that ‘Zionism equals Apartheid.’” Cindi Creager, director of
communications and marketing at the LGBT Center, sent the Post a press statement
from May 25 that said, “The center recently received a request for space rental
by a group called ‘Queers Against Israeli Apartheid’ for the purposes of holding
recurring meetings to plan for local Pride events.
This afternoon we
informed the group that the center would allow access for these
meetings...
The center does not have a position on the
Israeli/Palestinian conflict, nor does it endorse the viewpoints of this group
or any others that use rooms here. This is a complex issue, and there is a
tremendous diversity of viewpoints within the LGBT community.”
Post
queries to Testone and Palumbo were not returned. Creager told the Post on
Wednesday, “Our statement is where things stand today.”
Efforts to reach
Queers Against Israeli Apartheid in New York were unsuccessful.
A
representative in Toronto wrote the Post on Wednesday, “We are not affiliated
with the New York group and so far we have no idea who is involved with them. I
can’t find a webpage or contact info.”
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, senior
rabbi of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in Manhattan, told the Post last week,
“The rhetoric is very high and people on all sides of this are very charged up.
The center’s leadership has been doing an incredible job listening to people and
trying to find the best path through these thorny issues. They’ve been
thoughtful, they’ve been balanced, but you can’t win for losing
here.”
Kleinbaum, who is a lesbian, added that “I am hopeful that
thoughtful, fairminded people can discuss these burning issues of the day
without destroying each other in the process. I am proud of the center’s work
and its leadership.”
Lucas fired back in a statement to the Post, “This
rabbi, for whatever reason, pretends that she represents all LGBT Jewish people.
This is simply not true. At this point, her synagogue, Congregation Beit Simchat
Torah, is basically facing a crisis because of her strong anti-Israeli
stand.
She bashes Israel all the time, making people get up and leave
services. It’s not that she’s just anti-Israeli, it’s that she’s not neutral, as
she should be. She is very vocal in her hatred towards Israel. No wonder the
LGBT Center chose her as a counterpart to groups that oppose Queers Against
Israeli Apartheid.”
Jordana Horn contributed to this report from New
York.
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