Video: QAIA w. Haneen Maikey + Saadia Toor on Islamophobia

 On October 25, QAIA joined with Haneen Maikey and Saadia Toor for a conversation about Islamophobia and pinkwashing -- and a fundraiser for al Qaws for Sexual and Gender Diversity in Palestine.  Here's the video!

This conversation will be the basis for thinking about our work going forward -- and for many more conversations. Please join us!

Please donate to Al Qaws' critical decolonizing work at their website.

Read more »

Video: QAIA & Sarah Schulman at the LGBT Center

On March 11, 2013, QAIA hosted Sarah Schulman for a reading at the LGBT Center -- the event that the Center had banned. The ban raised such an outcry that the Center was finally forced to deal with it... Here is the whole event!

Read more »

Connecting pinkwashing + NYC Islamophobia

QAIA cosponsored "Jewish Responses to Islamophobia and Anti-Arab Racism" this week, organized by Jews Against Islamophobia. The event a Congregation Beth Simchat Torah was
"a roundtable conversation about how we can strengthen our work as Jews committed to challenging Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism. We hope the conversation will help us think more deeply about how we can most effectively engage as partners and allies in one of the most pressing and important civil and human rights issues of our time." (JVP-NY)

QAIA brought this letter to add to the conversation:

Islamophobia and Queers: Exploring the Links

We thank the Jews Against Islamophobia Coalition for sponsoring a series of panels addressing the question of Islamophobia. These events have helped deepen the much-needed discussion of this issue here in NYC.

NYC Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, working in solidarity with LQBTQ Palestinians and in support of Palestinian self-determination, urges us all to look at how Islamophobia is embedded in the use of “gay rights” to promote Israel as a self-described democratic, open society. Ostensibly “gay friendly” Israel is always implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) contrasted to repressive homophobic Arab and Muslim societies, feeding on and fuelling Islamophobia.

Israel’s policies do not create a safe haven for Palestinian queers. Recognizing gay “rights” does nothing to advance or broaden a rights discourse in Israel. These are rights compatible with a “for Jews-only” sectarianism and with patriarchal structures that require women to get their husbands’ permission for a divorce.

Deploying gay rights is a cover-up -- referred to as pinkwashing. Israel has spent decades making Palestinian bodies disappear—the ongoing demolition of Arab villages, house demolitions in Jerusalem, expulsion of Arab Bedouins from the Negev, imprisonment for those who dissent.

Palestinian queer organizations have made clear that rights for gays in an overall situation of domination and disparagement of Arabs and Muslims do not advance freedom for any Palestinians.

We hope that all those who oppose racism will look at the links between Islamophobia and queers—from NYC to (the rising far right in) Europe to Israel/Palestine.

Specifically we ask you to join us in the boycott of gay tourism to Israel, as part of our support for the broader BDS campaign. The city of Tel Aviv alone has allotted $90 million dollars to promote itself as a gay paradise, including sending gay “diplomats” to the U.S. to enlist liberal gays to defend Israel’s power over and against Palestinians. In the coming months, QAIA will be working to challenge the promoting of gay tourism and we welcome your cooperation in this effort.

Read more »

Oct. 25 - QAIA with Haneen & Saadia: Queers, Islamophobia & Apartheid!

NYC QUEERS AGAINST ISRAELI APARTHEID

host
HANEEN MAIKEY
alQaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society
and Palestinian Queers for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions

and
SAADIA TOOR 
CUNY Associate Professor for Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work CUNY Associate Professor for Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work, and NYC queer and Muslim activist

Moderated by Emmaia Gelman, NYC QAIA

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25th, 6:30-8:30pm

@ the North Star Fund, 520 Eighth Ave, 22nd Floor (near W. 36th St.)

Read more »

Immediate need: QuAIA's John Greyson & Tarek Loubani detained in Egypt

Many of us have met and worked with John Greyson of QuAIA Toronto. He's been detained in Egypt on the way to Gaza. He and Tarek Loubani, a friend who is detained along with him, need support. Needless to say, they're in danger as long as they're in custody.
PLEASE check http://tarekandjohn.com for information on simple, critical ways to help. Also please sign the petition to free John and Tarek.

How to contact US offices:
Egyptian Embassy: 202-966-6342 // embassy@egyptembassy.net
Canadian Embassy: Gary Doer, Ambassador (202) 682-1740 // enqserv@international.gc.ca


Information from the support website:
"Two Canadians, Dr. Tarek Loubani and filmmaker John Greyson, were arrested by Egyptian police on Friday, August 16 in Cairo.

They were en route to the Gaza Strip, where they are working on an academic and medical collaboration between the University of Western Ontario (UWO) and the main hospital in the Gaza Strip, the al-Shifa hospital.

Tarek Loubani is an emergency room medical doctor and assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Western Ontario (UWO). He is one of the architects of the Canada-Gaza academic collaboration, a project that has brought doctors from UWO to Gaza to train physicians in Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) and Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS).

John Greyson is a professor at the Department of Film at York University and an award-winning film-maker. He is in the initial stages of working on a film to be produced in the region.

John and Tarek arrived in Cairo on August 15 with the intention of traveling to Gaza immediately. Given the volatile situation in Egypt, travel to the border with Gaza was problematic and they delayed their travel plan by one day.

We have heard through sources in Cairo that John and Tarek entered a police station on Friday evening, as they were lost and needed help with directions back to their hotel. At this point they were promptly arrested.  At 4pm Toronto time (10pm Cairo time), Tarek called his primary contact in Canada with the very short message: “we are being arrested by Egyptian police”.

Since their arrest, we have had no contact with either Tarek or John. Canadian consular officials have visited them where they are being held, and we have been told that they are “okay”.

Beyond this, we have currently not been able to confirm their status or condition, or speak to them directly. We are asking Egyptian authorities to release John and Tarek immediately.

We know there are many people eagerly awaiting news and their release, and we will distribute information as we know more."

Read more »

After the QPH forum: More straight people tell queers how great Israel is for us.

From Pauline, a heads up about the Queens Chronicle's reaction to the Palestine forum at Queens Pride House:

Attached are the news story & the editorial that the Queens Chronicle just published on the Israel/Palestine forum that we had at Queens Pride House on Tuesday. As you can see, the article is a pretty 'straight forward' news story, even if the reporter did get QAIA's name wrong. The editorial, on the other hand, is more like a scene from "The Empire Strikes Back." 

While the editorial is extremely misguided, just spewing talking points from the pinkwashing playbook, I think both the editorial & the news story represent something of a breakthrough, as they're the first instances I'm aware of that a Queens publication has published an article using the terms 'pinkwashing' & 'Israeli apartheid,' much less focusing on Israel/Palestine as an LGBT issue.

Read more »

March with QAIA in Brooklyn Pride! and other places!

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid @ Brooklyn Pride

Saturday, June 8th

Meet QAIA at 7 pm on 5th Ave. at Union Street, 

in front of the gym - used to be a bank

In past years, it has been particularly fabulous to march in BK pride. Folks on the sidelines and in the march understand why we're there, and are mostly really supportive and glad to see queer anti-apartheid activists on the move. Let's go to there!

The parade begins at 7:30 pm, but we'd like to form our contingent by 7pm. Some of us will march in the parade, and others will hand out our new anti-pinkwashing, anti-occupation flyers. Let's make our presence known!!

If you can join us on Saturday in Brooklyn, please let us know by contacting Brad Taylor either by email at btaylor013@aol.com or by phone at 917-287-5597.

Looking ahead, we're planning on leafleting at several more Pride events at the end of the month:

• Trans Day of Action and the Drag March both on Friday, June 28th
• Dyke March on Saturday, June 29th
• NYC Pride Parade on Sunday, June 30th

If you can join us for any of these activities, please also contact Brad to let us know.

And if you're going to other pride events during June and want to hand out our leaflets, that would be great!!

We'll be sending out more details about the activities at the end of June as we get closer to those dates. In the meantime, we hope to see you this Saturday in Brooklyn!! 

Read more »

Flyers to download! QAIA/Boycott Apartheid Tourism

Hi Queers - fun times! We'll be trolling around with these flyers all summer... This Pride season, queers around the world are fighting back against Israel's push for [white male] gay tourism. Resistance is sexy! Apartheid not so much!

Here are NYC-QAIA's flyers. You can email around the images below, or download a printable version here. (The PDF has 4 flyers on a page, intended for double-sided copies.) Feel free to send them far and wide!

xoxo

NYC-QAIA

Read more »

QAIA/Queens Pride House forum: June 4, 7pm!

New York City Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (NYC QAIA) are pleased to co-sponsor a forum on Israel/Palestine at Queens Pride House on Tuesday, June 4 from 7-9 p.m. The event will feature a panel discussion with Sarah Schulman and Pauline Park. 

A noted activist, Schulman is Distinguished Professor at the College of Staten Island (CSI) of the City University of New York (CUNY) and the author of 17 books, including ten novels, five nonfiction books, and two plays; her most recent book is "Israel/Palestine and the Queer International" (published by Duke University Press in November 2012). 

Park, who led the campaign for the transgender rights law enacted by the New York City Council in 2002, was one of the delegates who participated in the first US LGBTQ delegation tour of Palestine in January 2012, which Schulman helped organize. 

Schulman and Park will explain why Israel/Palestine is an issue for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and will discuss the work they do to challenge the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. 

The event is free and open to the public and is also being co-sponsored by Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel, Brooklyn For Peace, Brooklyn College Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace-NY, Jews Say No, the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA), QUEEROCRACY, Q-Wave, and Women in Black–Union Square. 

Queens Pride House can be reached by subway to Roosevelt Ave. (EFMR) and 74th St./Broadway (#7). Please note that the site is a second-floor walk-up and is not wheelchair-accessible. For more info. about the event, e-mail Pauline Park (PPark@queenspridehouse.org) or call (718) 429-5309. For directions to Queens Pride House, see this map:

http://www.queenspridehouse.org/wordpress/contact/

http://www.queenspridehouse.org/wordpress/2013/05/08/israelpalestine-is-an-lgbt-issue-the-june-4-forum-at-pride-house/

Read more »

Upcoming QAIA-NYC Events

Sign up for our email notices about these and other activities of QAIA:

April 3rd - Teach-in on Pinkwashining POSTPONED! Please check back here soon for the new date and other details!

April 11th - Part of "Impossible Communities" Panel at Homonationalism and Pinkwashing Conference at CUNY. The conference is sold out, but if you already have a ticket please check out our presentation on this panel.

April 24th - General Meeting of QAIA. 6 pm at The LGBT Center, 208 West 13th St., Manhattan. This meeting is open to everyone interested in becoming more actively involved in the educational and organizing work of QAIA!

June/LGBT Pride Month - Stay tuned for details about QAIA participation in many of the pride activities around NYC during the month of June.

Read more »

Petition! NYC Electeds: stand up for free speech, including on Israel.

Join QAIA in signing this letter to elected officials! 
Yesterday, QAIA and a coalition of 15 other Muslim, Jewish, Arab, South Asian, Iranian, LGBT and student groups delivered a letter to NYC elected officials. Please join us as we begin to hold electeds accountable, and clear space for free public discussion of Israeli apartheid, BDS and pinkwashing.

Read more »

GCN calls it: LGBT pols' "perfect inversion" of reality

Gay City News' editor Paul Schindler writes this week about the shameful behavior of LGBT elected officials. (First they failed to confront the LGBT Center's pusillanimous failure to stand up for the queer community's right to have its own ideas; then they piled on with a scandalous failure of their own.)

Schindler's letter speaks for itself. The queer community has spoken for itself, too. Deafening silence persists, though, from the other queer institutions who would be our "leaders."

LGBT Community Center: A Bad Policy Ended Badly (2/27/13)

BY PAUL SCHINDLER | Turning a corner on an unhappy episode in the history of New York’s LGBT Community Center that lasted nearly two years, the Center announced on February 15 that it was ending its “indefinite moratorium” on renting space to organizations that “organize around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

The difficulties began in the spring of 2011 when several well-known supporters of Israel, springing into action at the urging of gay porn entrepreneur Michael Lucas, complained the Center was renting space to Siege Busters, a group challenging the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, for a commemoration of Israeli Apartheid Week, a worldwide protest aimed at the Jewish state over its policies toward its Palestinian residents.

In response to the complaints, the Center canceled that gathering, explaining that Siege Busters was not an LGBT group and was bringing undue controversy into the West 13th Street facility’s operations. When others then criticized the Center for betraying a tradition of open access, it held a town hall meeting to vent the issue and also hired a consulting firm to advise it on establishing a new policy.

In the meanwhile, the Center accepted space reservations from a second group, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, which had an overlapping membership with Siege Busters. When complaints quickly resurfaced, the Center canceled the final two of QAIA’s three dates and announced the “indefinite moratorium.”

Given that the Center had engaged outside consultants to advise them, it was not unreasonable to hope that the “indefinite moratorium” would yield in some reasonable period of time to a coherent access policy honoring the traditions of a community center serving diverse populations. No new policy, however, was forthcoming.

Until, that is, the Center faced an uproar over its denial of space to QAIA for a reading by noted author, novelist, playwright, and activist Sarah Schulman from her book “Israel/ Palestine and the Queer International.” Schulman is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement aimed at punishing Israel economically for its Palestinian policies. She is also a New York lesbian leader of 30 years, and her exclusion from the Center proved a bigger challenge than the untenable policy — which was really an abdication of responsibility for making policy — could absorb.

In the day or so after the story broke on February 13, Center staff adamantly denied there was any contemplation of a change in policy — and then suddenly late on a Friday afternoon, new guidelines were announced. The nearly instantaneous release of a statement from City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and three other out gay and lesbian elected officials made it clear they were working hand in glove with Center officials to tamp down the latest crisis.

The new guidelines can be made to work. The Center has for some time had a policy requiring groups renting space to sign a pledge that they are non-discriminatory and do not engage in bigotry or hate speech. Disavowing any intention to “pre-vet” groups asking for space or the content they will present, the Center has put the onus on those charging any group with bigotry or hate speech to come forward with a formal written complaint.

Personally, I am not thrilled at the prospect of signing a statement attesting that “I am not now nor ever have been” engaged in hate speech. On the other hand, the Center has an obligation to create a space where people are free from discrimination and bigotry, so an overall policy and pledge addressing discrimination, bigotry, and hate speech — if required universally with appropriate due process and evidentiary standards — can be an acceptable approach.

I am not encouraged, however, by the way the Center framed its February 15 announcement, nor am I happy about the manner in which the public officials chimed in.

The Center’s announcement would have us believe that the change of heart resulted from the salutary effects of a moratorium that “allowed things to cool down and gave us time to rethink the Center’s space use policies.” Baloney. It came in response to an angry community reaction to the snub of Schulman.

This is no academic question, because in the next paragraph, when discussing the pledge required of space renters, the announcement states, “we deplore the rhetoric of hate and bigotry.” If the policy change had come in its own time, that statement might be seen as a umpire’s neutral observation. Articulated as part of a reversal of another recent denial of space to QAIA, it is clear finger-pointing at the critics of Israel. Not only is the statement unnecessary but it flies in the face of the Center’s avowed intention to stay out of the Israeli/ Palestinian controversy. The Center was clearly covering its butt against charges it had caved to Israel-haters.

I wouldn’t use the word apartheid in describing Israel’s policies toward its Palestinian residents and neighbors, much as I have problems with the way in which Israeli politics has retreated from any sincere commitment to working toward humanitarian solutions to the tragedy faced by the Palestinian people. I don’t like use of the word for the same reason I reject glib comparisons to the Nazi regime, to slavery, or to Jim Crow racism. Just as with the challenges facing LGBT people, I think we should talk about the difficulties confronting the Palestinians — and the culpability Israel might have in that regard — in language specific to the situation. I don’t see any purpose served by saying, “You don’t have to bother educating yourself about Israel and Palestine, it’s just like the former white regime in South Africa and its black majority.”

I am dismayed, however, at how much more difficult it is to have a thoughtful debate about Israel’s shortcomings in the US than it is in Israel. There, the opposition is freewheeling in its criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Here, nuanced thinking seems to pretty quickly hit a brick wall of “My Israel, Right or Wrong.”

That is surely the attitude at the heart of the disconcerting release from Quinn, City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, State Senator Brad Hoylman, and Assemblywoman Deborah Glick. After praising the Center for finding an approach that will maximize access, the four gratuitously added, “That said, we want to make abundantly clear that we categorically reject attempts by any organization to use the Center to delegitimize Israel and promote an anti-Israel agenda.” Then, in a perfect inversion of what actually happened over the past two years on West 13th Street, they continued, “We adamantly oppose any and all efforts to inappropriately inject the Center into politics that are not the core of their important mission.”

If only they could have left it at a paraphrase of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s rebuke of those who threatened to punish Brooklyn College for hosting a BDS forum — and said simply, “If you want to go to a community center where the government or a board of directors meeting in private decides what kind of subjects are fit for discussion, I suggest you look for a community center in North Korea.”

Read more »

Dueling op-eds: NY Post & NY Daily News

Can it be that that the doomed, wrongheaded effort to repress speech at a City University has ended decades of blackout on public debate on BDS, queers, silencing criticism of Israel and EVERYTHING!!!? Today, Omar Barghouti talks gentle sense in the Daily News! Alan Dershowitz spews victimology and hate (targeting CUNY again, and queers too) in the NY Post! The floor is open, people.

Barghouti:

"Our opponents call us “Jew haters.” That is a lie and a slander. BDS advocates equal rights for all and consistently opposes all forms of racism, including anti-Semitism. In fact, many progressive Jewish activists, intellectuals, students, feminists and others participate in and sometimes lead BDS campaigns in Western countries. The increasing impact of Israeli supporters of BDS has led the Knesset to pass a draconian anti-boycott law banning advocacy of any boycott against Israel or its complicit institutions..."

"...Building on its global ascendance, the BDS movement is spreading across the U.S., especially on campuses and in churches. Multi-million-dollar campaigns by Israel’s foreign ministry to counter BDS by “rebranding” through art, science and cynically using LGBT rights to “pinkwash” Israel’s denial of basic Palestinian rights have failed to stem the tide."

Dershowitz:

"Are the media supposed to be so impressed with Israel’s pro-gay policies that they no longer cover the Palestinian issue? Well, that certainly hasn’t worked.Are gays around the world supposed to feel so indebted to Israel that they no longer criticize the Jewish nation? That surely hasn’t worked, either — witness the increasingly rabid anti-Israel advocacy by some radical gay groups..." 

"...But to the anti-Semite, it doesn’t matter how Jews manage their supposed manipulations. The anti-Semite just knows that there’s something sinister at work if Jews do anything positive. The core characteristic of anti-Semitism is the certainty that everything the Jews do is wrong, and everything that’s wrong is done by the Jews."

Read more »

The Nation: Victory, except on PEPs.

Lisa Duggan's new piece continues The Nation's coverage of how "progressive" electeds routinely throw Palestinians (and Muslims, and Arabs, and more...) under the bus. Indeed, there's a set of "Progressive, Except Palestine" politicians who draw funding and political capital from the pro-Israel lobby to support whatever moderately left-of-center work they do on fair wages, housing, policing, etc.

The more the pro-Israel lobby extracts from those PEPs, though, the further they're pushed into right-wing positions. And the more the anti-Muslim, anti-Arab underpinnings of the whole project peek through, the harder it is to preserve even the appearance of being progressive. Is a challenge beginning to emerge?

A New Consensus on Public Space and 'Free' Speech on Israel/Palestine in New York City

"It looks like a quick and decisive victory for the champions of free speech. But was it? Well, yes and no. The new consensus, evidently palatable to city politicians and the center’s major donors, now includes stated support for free speech and open discussion, sans demands and threats against public and community institutions that sponsor politically controversial events. But this openness comes with the ongoing requirement that public officials and community institutions ritually invoke their solid support for Israel’s policies and their disgust at critiques of those policies, critiques that are seen as always already underwriting anti-Semitic bigotry and hate speech."

Read more »

Getting personal with Michael Lucas (thanks, Mondoweiss.)

We don't like to pay much attention to Michael Lucas. Yes, he was the initiator of the "Muslim panic" at the LGBT Center which led to the Center's horrifying series of repressive actions: panic-cancelling a Palestine-related event; holding a kangeroo "community forum" in which they totally ignored the calls of the queer community to resist the panic; suddenly reframing the Center's mission as fulfilling social service contracts instead of being home to a community engaged in messy but important self-determination; totally ignoring the calls from queers of color, immigrant queers, trans people etc. that the Center's actions were further closing it off to queers who are already marginalized; banning all mention of Palestine (unless you could talk about Palestine without talking about Israel's occupation, so... just all mention of Palestine); refusing for two years to meet with the community or discuss the issue; and generally acting like a right-wing fortress instead of a community center.

But Lucas, we always say, is not the point. The point is the Center and the web of politics and money -- mostly not queer at all --- that seeks to squash critiques of Israel.

That said, it's worth a moment to look at who Michael Lucas is. Two reasons: first, he's a major advance-man for pinkwashing. Maybe he's to the right of other defenders of apartheid like Stuart Appelbaum, but his extremeness gives them cover to claim that they're centrists. And the queers who are reached by his porn may not be activists, but their consumption of pro-Israel, anti-Arab propaganda definitely shapes the queer community as a whole.

Second, Lucas' extremeness doesn't rob him of credibility as it should. He's the partner of the Center's former board chair. He's a full-fledged, much accepted member of a social network that includes wealthy and powerful queers -- in fact, Lambda Legal held a Fire Island fundraiser at his house last year. There is a massive failure of queer power brokers and institutions to say "this guy is a known racist, let's stay away" -- much less challenge him.

So let's have a look. Mondoweiss posted a story last week with some links to Lucas' history. We've all been quoting his well-known, deeply revolting statement about Muslims, reposted in Queerty in 2008:

'I hate Muslims, absolutely. It's a horrible, horrible religion. It's a plague. People ignore me the way they ignore Rush Limbaugh because he’s a drug addict. Michael Lucas is just a porn star. People take time to call me irrelevant. They write three detailed pages on a blog about my irrelevance. … There are moments in life when silence is your fault and truth is your responsibility. The religion, the institution, the system of Islam — they are as talented and creative and passionate as anyone else. But they’re stuck in a horrible lie, brainwashed from birth to death. And now they have been stuck in time Jsince the 7th century. They have not contributed to civilization in any way, in any field — political thought, science, music, architecture, nothing for century after century. What do they produce? Carpets. That's how they should travel because that’s the only way they travel without killing people.'

But Mondoweiss rightly prompts us to look further. Let's get really familiar with this beast. Let's all primary-sourced on his ass.

• Here are his ravings at The Advocate.
• Here's a 2008 article at the Forward where Lucas talks about his pinkwashing initiative. ('“Nobody goes to Israel for Golda Meir, I’m so sorry,” Lucas said in heavily Russian-accented English."')
• Here's a 2008 US News article that references Lucas' NY Blade piece (no longer online) in which he compares the Koran to Mein Kampf.
• Here's a blog repost of an unhinged Frontpage Mag interview with Lucas.

("Europe is very anti-Semitic and very nationalistic, which is a bit different than in America... It was not the primitive, Russian form of anti-Semitism, but rather a ridiculous Germanic form. They were obviously taught not to act on their anti-Semitism, but rather to keep their mouths shut. I remember when I would say that I was Jewish, people would reply, “No problem.” I would tell them that I didn’t care whether they had a problem or not. Then they will say, “When I talk to you, I don’t see a Jew, I see Michael.” My response was usually, “Where the hell are you looking?” So the Germans and I were not on great terms. As for the French, I shouldn’t even begin to elaborate. They completely sold themselves to Sons of Allah. If a Muslim steals your wallet, he will claim that he chased you down because you hate Muslims and not because he stole from you.")

• Here's the Boston Edge article, cited in Mondoweiss, about the uproar at Stanford over Lucas' appearance there. That appearance led to a dialogue in and around the Stanford Daily (no longer online) in which Lucas reiterated everything hateful he'd previously said about Muslims, queers who don't agree with him, and everyone else.
• Here is a celebratory repost, on jihadwatch.org, of Lucas' retort in the Stanford Daily to those who called out his racist rants.

There's nothing reticent about the guy. Let's look at the other places he's been, and the other things he's said.

And let's not let people, politicians or institutions get away with staying connected to him.

Read more »

Now at our community center!!! March 11: QAIA's Schulman reading

NYC Queers Against Israeli Apartheid is (extremely!) proud to present...

Sarah Schulman reading from her new book

Israel/Palestine and the Queer International

Mon. March 11 @ 7pm

NYC LGBT Community Center (208 West 13th St.
Free & open to the public!
---------

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (NYC-QAIA) is proud to welcome Sarah Schulman with a reading from her new book, Israel/Palestine and the Queer International as NYC launches Israel Apartheid Week.

This event is a huge victory for free speech and queer organizing, and we hope you’ll come celebrate it with us! Beginning in March 2011, the NYC LGBT Center banned any discussion of Palestine, in response to pressure from wealthy supporters of Israel’s anti-Palestinian policies.

In February 2013, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QAIA) applied to the NYC LGBT Community Center for space for this reading. But in response to that denial and the two years history of censorship at the Center, the LGBT community mobilized in outrage, and overturned the ban!

From Palestinian Queers for BDS:

‘As Palestinian queers, our struggle is not only against social injustice and our rights as a queer minority in Palestinian society, but rather, our main struggle is one against Israel’s colonization, occupation and apartheid; a system that has oppressed us for the past 63 years… In the last years Israel has been leading an international campaign that tries to present Israel as the “only democracy” and the “gay haven” in the Middle East, while ironically portraying Palestinians, who suffer every single day from Israel’s state racism and terrorism, as barbaric and homophobic.’ (pqbds.com)

Read more »

The petition! End the ban.

On Valentine's Day, the LGBT Center's refusal to provide space for QAIA's reading with Sarah Schulman spawned a Change.org petition. Within a few days, it had over 1,000 signatures and was on fire across queer email lists and Facebook. Some signers were outraged about the imposition of lock-step support for Israel, some were outraged about lock-step support for any state, and some were outraged about the suppression of queer speech and organizing in our community spaces.

As the petition vented the bottled-up rage and disgust of the queer community, the Center (along with a group of electeds who re-rang the "we totally love Israel no matter what it does!" bell) rescinded the ban.

Here's the petition text, created by Tom Leger:

---------------------

In 2011, the LGBT Center of New York City began to ban certain LGBT groups and events that discussed ideas that the Executive Director, Glennda Testone, and the Board of Directors, deemed to be controversial. Initially this ban was meant to affect only a group called Siegebusters, a group of LGBT people working on activism related to Palestine, but the effects of this ban have mushroomed over the past two years.

Banning some LGBT people from the Center based on their beliefs, interests or conversations puts into danger the legitimacy all LGBT people at the NYC LGBT Center. Since the ban in 2011, many groups have left the Center, especially groups that are comprised chiefly of queer people of color, because this shift in policy indicated to many people that the LGBT Center was no longer a safe or welcoming place for them.

On February 13, 2013, Gay City News reported that Sarah Schulman, one of America's most prolific out lesbian authors, was barred from appearing at an event at the LGBT Center of New York City because the content of the book she was to read from, ISRAEL/PALESTINE AND THE QUEER INTERNATIONAL (Duke University Press), was objectionable and violated the policy of censorship put into place under Executive Director Glennda Testone. 

The hosting organization, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid–NYC, is currently working to provide a back-up venue for the event.

QAIA Blog: http://queersagainstisraeliapartheid.blogspot.com/Gay City News Article: http://gaycitynews.com/lgbt-center-bars-sarah-schulman-reading/

Sarah Schulman is a distinguished professor of the City of New York, author of 18 books, co-founder of the ACT UP Oral History Project, co-producer of the ACT UP documentary UNITED IN ANGER, co-founder of the Lesbian Avengers and co-founder of the MIX Experimental Film Festival. In her long career, she has been awarded the Kessler Prize for Sustained Contribution in LGBT Studies, a Stonewall Award for Contributions Improving the Lives of Lesbians and Gays in the United States, a Fullbright for Judaic studies, and many other awards. She was arrested five times protesting the ban on gay groups in the St. Patrick's Day Parade. In short, there are few other living activists who are more deserving of space at the LGBT Center of New York City. That the LGBT Center of New York City has become an organization hostile to an activist and scholar with the credibility of Ms. Schulman is a clear indication that no LGBT person can feel safe expressing their personal political beliefs without fear of being ostracized by this LGBT organization.

Clearly, the current "space rental policy" constitutes a dangerous form of censorship. Additionally, it is unethical and inappropriate for an organization meant to serve all LGBT people of the City of New York to exclude those LGBT people with whom the leadership disagrees.

The leadership of the LGBT Center of New York City must immediately reverse any and all policies which ban LGBT people from meeting at the LGBT center because of their political beliefs. This petition appeals to Glennda Testone, Executive Director, and to Brian C. Offutt, the Board President, who are responsible for not just an important organization but for the future of LGBT culture and activism in New York City, which was not built on, and can not be successful under a climate of censorship and fear.

To:
Glennda Testone, Executive, Director The LGBT Center of New York City 

End censorship of Sarah Schulman and open your doors to all queer people.

The leadership of the LGBT Center of New York City must immediately reverse any and all policies which ban LGBT people from meeting at the LGBT center because of their political beliefs.

Sincerely,
[Your name]

(This post is backdated to maintain a historical timeline on the QAIA blog. Posted on 3/1/13.)

Read more »

MuzzleWatch on City Council's "JCRC-inspired/SNL parody" statement, ha!

That's right, lady: after a victory you get to laugh a little, dammit!

http://www.muzzlewatch.com/2013/02/15/mazel-tov-lgbt-center-shame-on-christine-c-quinn-et-al/

'...within seconds of the NYC LGBT Center’s posting of their new policy, four NY elected officials, led by NYC Council Speaker Christine C. “I just can’t get enough free trips to Israel” Quinn, issued a NY Jewish Community Relations Council inspired statement supporting the decision but then reiterating their irrational and non-fact based terror of a Palestinian-led nonviolent movement... Weirder, it reads like a Saturday Night Live parody of surreal Israel-obsequiousness. I mean, it’s hard to imagine these pols similarly tripping over themselves to defend the United States from criticism. And why are they even commenting on another country? They are NY politicians.'

Read more »

QAIA on LGBT Center's tentative move toward free speech

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (NYC QAIA) statement in response to rescission of the LGBT Center's moratorium on Palestine solidarity organizing

For info:

Pauline Park (718) 662-8893

Steve Ault (718) 928-3777

The New York City Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center issued a statement earlier today (Feb. 15, 2013) lifting the moratorium on Palestine solidarity organizing and discussion of Israel/Palestine. 

While we are pleased to see the Center's announcement, we in QAIA believe that the true test of the Center's new space usage policy will come when we request space at the Center. We are also concerned that the Center's guidelines for using space there says  "no group utilizing space at the Center shall engage in hate speech or bigotry of any kind."  We completely deplore bigotry of any kind, but we cannot help but wonder who will define "hate speech" and/or "bigotry of any kind." There needs to be more clarification on this issue. Such open-ended policies have frequently been used to silence critics of Israel, most often when anti-Arab/anti-Muslim forces conflate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism.

In spite of lifting the moratorium, the Center appears to be positioning itself to police and shut down queer organizing in support of Palestinian queers, and Palestinian civil and human rights. A statement issued by pro-Israel elected NYC officials just minutes after the Center's announcement, clearly coordinated with the Center, "reject[s] attempts by any organization to use the Center to delegitimize Israel and promote an anti-Israel agenda" and dismisses this burgeoning queer movement as "politics that are not the core of [the Center's] important mission." The elected officials' makes clear, both to the Center and to the queer community, that the Center's ban on mentioning Palestinians, queer or otherwise, has its source in powerful political circles. The bigotry institutionalized in New York City's politics, which has chained our community center for the past two years, must still be challenged. 

Regardless of how the Center implements this decision and regardless of the misguided and uninformed opinions of these elected officials, we in QAIA are committed to continuing to organize around our mission to help end Israeli apartheid, the system of control exercised over the lives of Palestinians living under the illegal Israeli occupation. We expect a prompt issuance of detailed guidelines for the use of space at the Center as well as the formal complaint procedure mentioned in the Center's statement on the rescission of the ban; such guidelines should be free from any ambiguity on the question of the right of individuals as well as organizations such as QAIA to engage in discussion of Israel/Palestine and organizing in solidarity with the people of Palestine. We will remain vigilant in responding to any attempts by either elected officials, Center donors, other organizations, or the Center itself to modify or interpret the new policy in such a way as to preclude free and genuine discussion of the Israel/Palestine issue on the Center's premises. 

We are pleased that our two years of organizing is beginning to have positive results, but the LGBT Center is not in the clear yet and our work is not yet complete.

Read more »

This is wild: Center "lifts moratorium", NYC electeds bid to reimpose it.

Check out this announcement from the NYC LGBT Center, posted about 15 minutes ago... and the racist, repressive press release from NYC electeds (below), posted about four nanoseconds later.

STATEMENT ON CENTER SPACE USE POLICY FROM GLENNDA TESTONE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AND THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL & TRANSGENDER COMMUNITY CENTER

February 15, 2013 – In 2011 the Center was thrust into a controversy involving the Israeli/Palestinian conflict about which we took no position, but were forced to expend significant resources to address. This controversy placed substantial strains on management resources and front line staff, and created an environment that interfered with our ability to assist those in our community who needed our services. In response, we imposed a moratorium on renting space to groups that organize on all sides of this conflict, which, while itself controversial, allowed things to cool down and gave us time to rethink the Center's space use policies.

Our resulting Space Use Guidelines, Terms and Conditions will govern the use of our space going forward, and, accordingly, the moratorium is no longer in effect. The Center does not endorse the views of any groups to which it rents space. We adamantly believe in and defend free speech and the open exchange of ideas, but we deplore the rhetoric of hate and bigotry. As stated in our guidelines: "no group utilizing space at the Center shall engage in hate speech or bigotry of any kind." Therefore, all groups wishing to utilize space at the Center must agree and commit to our Pledge of Nondiscrimination and our above-described prohibition on hate speech and bigotry.

Going forward, if members of the community feel that hate speech or bigotry has occurred at the Center, they are encouraged to submit a formal complaint in writing. The Center does not have the resources to "pre-vet" all content that comes through groups that rent space, and we encourage community members themselves to help us keep our space safe through this formal process. In the coming weeks, the Center will publish the details of a formal resolution process to address space use-related complaints.

Provided applicants agree in good faith to fully comply with our guidelines, we will process current and future requests for space, including from entities who were previously declined under the moratorium. And we encourage other groups or individuals of differing viewpoints to apply to rent space as well so that all voices may be heard.

The Center must move forward and remains strongly committed to serving the needs of our community as best we can. We hope everyone will join us in good faith.

------------------------

Joint Statement by NYC Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, NYS Assembly Member Deborah Glick, NYS Senator Brad Hoylman, and NYC Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer

Re: New LGBT Community Center Space Use Guidelines

“We support the new Space Use guidelines, terms and conditions being implemented by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center. Their decision to allow groups to have open discussion and to create a resolution process to address complaints of potential hate-related speech is the correct approach. Under the Center’s new guidelines, all parties will have access to rent space to organize around LGBT issues, and the Center will remain a safe space, where hate-related speech will not be tolerated. This will allow the Center staff and board to promote its core mission of providing health and wellbeing services to our community, in addition to providing a safe and secure forum for issues relevant to NYC’s LGBT community.

That said, we want to make abundantly clear that we categorically reject attempts by any organization to use the Center to delegitimize Israel and promote an anti-Israel agenda. We adamantly oppose any and all efforts to inappropriately inject the Center into politics that are not the core of their important mission.

We vehemently oppose the absurd accusations by some groups that Israel is engaged in so-called “pinkwashing”. We find this charge offensive and fundamentally detrimental to the global cause of LGBT equality. These accusations should be understood as just one part of the arsenal of those who seek to completely discredit the state of Israel altogether. In fact, Israel’s highly laudable record in advancing LGBT rights deserves praise, not scorn. Given the very poor record of much of the world on LGBT issues, we should be celebrating Israel's – or any country's – LGBT equality advances. We must always encourage countries with strong records of achievement for our community to be rightly and publicly proud so they may set an example for others. We continue to believe that the boycott, sanctions and divestment (BDS) movement against Israel is wrongheaded, destructive, and an obstacle to our collective hope for a peaceful two-state solution.

We applaud the Center Board and staff for taking this important step. We now hope everyone will respect the Center as a safe space for open and safe discussions. We hope the Center can move forward and serve the LGBT community as it has always done.”

Read more »

Sarah unpacks it for you in 5 minutes or less.

One thing you can say about Sarah Schulman: she has a knack for wading into a somewhat complex issue that has nice liberals wringing their hands about what's right and how to walk the delicate line between (for instance) anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism (they're not worrying about the line between Zionism and anti-Arab racism in this example) -- and she can pick up that line like a freakin' javelin and stab waffling in the heart.

Which is to say, this is a refreshing little interview.

Saeed Jones' BuzzFeed interview with Sarah Schulman:

'It's hard to understand the logic of the LGBT Center. At the failed community meeting with their director, Glennda Tentone and her board, there were no Jews on staff, yet they kept telling us that this censorship would make the Center a 'safe space" for Jews! It was bizarre, especially considering that Jews like myself, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, Judith Butler, Joan Nestle etc were among the 1500 people who signed a petition for an open center. It seems that they hold cliched and stereotyped beliefs about punitive rich Jews who will pull out their Jew-money if anyone criticizes Israel, and it was this misguided prejudice that lead them to defensively ban any criticism of Israel. I know it sounds insane, but I honestly think that that is what happened. A weird kind of anti-semitism combined with a profound lack of intelligence and integrity.'

Read more »

QAIA's statement on Center's banning of our event with Sarah Schulman

Statement from Queers Against Israeli Apartheid

on the NYC LGBT Center’s banning of QAIA-NYC’s Sarah Schulman reading

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid is (again) appalled at the hijacking of our NYC LGBT Community Center. At this point, the Center has banned any discussion of Palestine – and the growing movement to support Palestinian queers’ calls for civil and human rights – for two full years. We’re reminded that the Center’s board enacted this ban at the instigation of an avowed Islamophobe, who uses his wealth as a megaphone, who claimed to have organized other wealthy gay men as a threat to the Center, and who is the partner of a former chair of the Center’s board. The ban is not a community decision, but an action by a few wealthy, politically-powerful people to leverage their control of a community resource. The Center’s board and administration have refused to meet with the community, talk to the media, or respond to queries about excluding so many of us.

It’s worth noting that a number of groups of queers of color, immigrants and trans people have written to the Center to report that this ban further marginalizes them in a space that’s critical to them. The Center is not interested.

In its latest reprehensible move, the Center refused QAIA’s space request for a reading by Sarah Schulman from her new book, Israel/Palestine and the Queer International. Sarah is a respected author, activist, organizer and educator, and this book, like her other books, reflects critical currents in the queer community. The ban on her reading insults the integrity and intelligence of New Yorkers. The Center gave no reason for the ban, except to refer obliquely to “Center policy.”

In banning Sarah’s reading, the Center made no distinction between refusing space for Sarah’s reading and refusing QAIA’s particular request for space for that reading. That’s because there is no distinction. Sarah and QAIA are engaged in the same work. It’s that work, in which much of the queer community is engaged, that the Center has banned.

The work of QAIA and Sarah that the Center is banning is this:

1) exposing Israel's pinkwashing of the occupation, and

2) supporting the civil and human rights of Palestinian queers, which are inseparable from the civil and human rights currently denied to all Palestinians.

The Center ban covers anyone working with or in support of Palestinian queers who are trying to secure their rights.

Meanwhile, the issues of Palestine and pinkwashing – the Israeli government’s draping of itself in “LGBT rights” in an effort to obscure its gross violations of civil and human rights – have come to the forefront of queer organizing. While the Israeli government’s “Brand Israel” public relations campaign paints Israel as a gay haven, queers in Palestine are increasingly organized and vocal. Their call to queers worldwide is that Palestinians cannot begin to have “queer rights” under conditions where Palestinians have no rights at all. Worldwide, queers have increasingly responded. In fact, few issues are more front and center in queer political organizing right now than Palestine.

The Center’s claim that its ban maintains neutrality on Israel/Palestine is absurd. No reasonable person would interpret room rental as an endorsement of a position. QAIA is not neutral, but we support our community’s freedom of speech at the Center, and would of course support the right of pro-Israel groups to meet there. The Center is not neutral either: in banning Sarah Schulman, QAIA, Siegebusters and any discussion which dares to touch on Palestinians, gay or not, the Center’s board exposes its complicity with broader right-wing elements who are no friends to LGBT people. With shady maneuvering reminiscent of the recent attacks on Brooklyn College, they trample the rights upon which the Center was built.

The Center’s comportment mirrors exactly the attacks on the BDS forum at Brooklyn College. It reflects the same bias against human rights organizing by inconvenient people, the same censorship, and the same racism. It leverages the same complicity of “progressive” elected officials: with Brooklyn College, they piled on in attacking discussion of Palestinian rights. Here, they pile on with a deliberate, deafening silence in the face of racism and exclusion. The difference between Brooklyn College and the Center is integrity: Brooklyn College undertook its role as a taxpayer-supported institution to preserve free speech, while the taxpayer-supported Center sets out to undermine it.

The queer movement to expose and unravel Israel’s pinkwashing is gaining strength. In the process, we are forced to challenge the anti-Arab racism and anti-Muslim hysteria in the US that pervades circles of wealth and political power, which in turn support the ugliest, most bigoted corners of the queer community. To the extent that queer institutions have pulled those queers into their boards as fundraisers and political connectors, we’re forced to challenge them too. We are not afraid of public discussion of these issues; we welcome it. Those ugly forces pulling the strings of queer communities have been hidden for too long – let’s bring them out.

For more information about QAIA:

http://queersagainstisraeliapartheid.blogspot.com

For info on the event:

http://tinyurl.com/schulman-reading

Read more »

Gay City News: LGBT Center Bars Sarah Schulman Reading

LGBT Center Bars Sarah Schulman Reading

'A leading queer community author was barred from an appearance at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center apparently because the book she was to discuss deals with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.' 

'“We requested space for me to do a presentation of my new book ‘Israel/ Palestine and the Queer International,’ which has gotten a good review in the Lambda Literary Review,” wrote Sarah Schulman in a February 11 email. “It is amazing to me that after all my work in the community, I could be refused a platform to present a queer book.”'

Read more »

Comic biteback: There's a checkpoint around this Center!

Check out Ethan Heitner's really beautiful exposition of Tara and Ana's throwdown at "Occupy the Center!" The full 8 panel comic is posted on mondoweiss.net today.

Read more »

Honduran queer event organizers call out LGBT Center's racism

QAIA was just forwarded this letter from NYC queer organizers working in support of Honduran queers. Go, sisters!

The Center's claim that it's "open" break down as the community excluded gets broader and broader. The Center has flatly ignored critiques about its racism, refusing to be accountable to its community, or to present any response at all. This event (on 2/12) will be held instead at the Venezuelan Consulate -- click on the image for details.

------------

Dear Ms. Testone:

This Tuesday, February 12, Pepe Palacios, a leader of the LGBT community in Honduras, will be in New York City to speak as part of a national tour organized by the Honduras Solidarity Network. He will report on the brutal repression against the LGBT community by the illegal coup government, and also about the heroic resistance of the Honduran people. We hope that Pepe's appearance here will raise awareness of the struggle in Honduras for democratic rights and against the U.S.-backed coup regime. We especially hope to win supporters for that struggle among the LGBT community here.

The LGBT Center would have been a natural home for this event. However, during the planning process, we heard about the Center's history for the past two years of denying meeting space to Queers Against Israeli Apartheid and other groups that support the Palestinian people in their struggle against occupation. We were disappointed to learn that the Center, which for so long had been a welcoming locus for the diverse LGBT community, now bars certain parts of the community. This ban on pro-Palestinian groups and individuals amounts to a racist affront to the Palestinian, Arab and in fact all communities of color.

In the light of this terrible, shameful policy on your part, we could not in good conscience hold our event in the Center. And so a representative of the Honduran LGBT community will speak not at the purported center of New York's LGBT community, but rather is being welcomed at the Venezuelan Consulate.

We wanted you to know this, to know that as a consequence of your reactionary ban against QAIA and its chilling effect on LGBT communities of color, New Yorkers will go elsewhere to hear the words of a brave, heroic Honduran gay leader. We expect to have a great, stirring, well-attended meeting. But not on 13th Street. Not while those who support our Palestinian sisters and brothers are barred from your premises.

Teresa Gutierrez
Teresa Gutierrez
International Action Center

Lucy Pagoada-Quesada
Lucy Pagoada-Quesada
Honduras/USA Resistencia

Read more »

Brooklyn College BDS: Judith Butler's remarks

QAIA folks who attended the Omar Barghouti/Judith Butler event on BDS at Brooklyn College were moved and strengthened by the talk. Judith Butler's remarks are archived at The Nation magazine. They cover BDS, the illogic of decrying BDS or anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism, and academic freedom.

http://www.thenation.com/article/172752/judith-butlers-remarks-brooklyn-college-bds


"...When Zionism becomes co-extensive with Jewishness, Jewishness is pitted against the diversity that defines democracy, and if I may say so, betrays one of the most important ethical dimensions of the diasporic Jewish tradition, namely, the obligation of co-habitation with those different from ourselves. Indeed, such a conflation denies the Jewish role in broad alliances in the historical struggle for social and political justice in unions, political demands for free speech, in socialist communities, in the resistance movement in World War II, in peace activism, the Civil Rights movement and the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. It also demeans the important struggles in which Jews and Palestinians work together to stop the wall, to rebuild homes, to document indefinite detention, to oppose military harassment at the borders and to oppose the occupation and to imagine the plausible scenarios for the Palestinian right to return.

"The point of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement is to withdraw funds and support from major financial and cultural institutions that support the operations of the Israeli state and its military. The withdrawal of investments from companies that actively support the military or that build on occupied lands, the refusal to buy products that are made by companies on occupied lands, the withdrawal of funds from investment accounts that support any of these activities, a message that a growing number of people in the international community will not be complicit with the occupation. For this goal to be realized, it matters that there is a difference between those who carry Israeli passports and the state of Israel, since the boycott is directed only toward the latter. BDS focuses on state agencies and corporations that build machinery designed to destroy homes, that build military materiel that targets populations, that profit from the occupation, that are situated illegally on Palestinian lands, to name a few.

"BDS does not discriminate against individuals on the basis of their national citizenship. I concede that not all versions of BDS have been consistent on this point in the past, but the present policy confirms this principle..."

Read more »

QAIA reportback from Brooklyn College

From Brad Taylor

Judith Butler and Omar Barghouti’s presentation at Brooklyn College on Thurs. night (Feb. 7) lived up to all the incredible hype that preceded it.  They were informative, engaging, appealing, constructive – as much as their full-capacity audience wanted and expected.  They were sometimes funny – Judith paused wryly in her remarks about hearing and listening, allowing the sound of the anti-BDS crowd chanting outside to punctuate her comments.

Both speakers mentioned the barrage of scurrilous charges of anti-Semitism, threats of funding attacks on Brooklyn College from public officials – the panoply of false accusations, character assassination and assaults on their intent and dignity - that they suffered in the lead-up to Thursday’s event.   And both were visibly tired and saddened by the pitch and timbre of the unfriendly and unsavory reception that some in New York had in store for them.   But, undaunted, they elucidated the objectives and strategies of the BDS movement, backgrounded the current moment in the campaign, and noted numerous very substantial recent successes of the boycott - among those, the recent endorsement of BDS from the African National Congress, a landmark development.

One thing about the evening’s discussion that I found particularly notable was the grace and generosity with which both Barghouti and Butler received questions from the audience members which were designed to challenge the strategic fairness or effectiveness of BDS.  These questions required tenacity of the questioners in the decidedly pro-BDS surround – and they were sometimes questions which were so blank, so generic that they were actually somewhat inappropriate in the setting.  Like one gentleman asked, essentially, what was the point of BDS? – when that had been the whole substance of the conversation which had been going on for two hours when he asked the question.  Omar and Judith fielded every question with respect, with generosity, and found a way to answer each one much more substantively than many would have felt that the questions merited. 

That’s, I think, the hallmark of a good spokesperson – the ability to cover a concept inclusively, in a way that belittles no-one and avoids the censorship and malice that, unfortunately, the speakers themselves encountered in Brooklyn.

Read more »

Paisley Currah on standing up to NYC's "Progressive Except Palestine" Councilmembers

Paisley Currah writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the furor over Brooklyn College's Poli Sci department co-sponsoring a talk on BDS.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2013/02/05/a-melee-grows-in-brooklyn/

"...The usual suspects—New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, the Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz—piled on, and the rhetoric escalated. “We’re talking about the potential for a second Holocaust here,” one assemblyman told The Daily Beast. I’ve gotten hate mail and a death threat. I’ve been attacked in the media—I’m a “coward,” says Hikind; I’m an expert not on government or politics but on “transgender rights” (apparently that’s an insult), writes a conservative columnist in the New York Post.
...
"But late last week, the game changed when President Gould received two letters from elected officials. The first, from Congressman Jerrold Nadler and 18 other self-identified “progressive” legislators (including three other members of Congress and leading mayoral candidates) describes the BDS movement as “wrongheaded and destructive” and calls “for Brooklyn College’s political science department to withdraw their endorsement of this event.” The second, from Lewis Fidler, assistant majority leader of the New York City Council and nine other city councilors, is even more chilling:

'A significant portion of the funding of CUNY schools comes directly from the tax dollars of the people of the State of New York. Every year, we legislators are asked for additional funding to support programs and initiatives at these schools and we fight hard to secure those funds. Every one of those dollars given to CUNY, and Brooklyn College, means one less dollar going to some other worthy purpose. We do not believe this program is what the taxpayers of our City—many of who [sic] would feel targeted and demonized by this program—want their tax money to be spent on.'"

Read more »