Last Monday, we issued a million-dollar challenge: The New Tolerance Campaign will award that amount to “Queers for Palestine” or any LGBTQ advocacy group in the United States that hosts a gay pride parade in the West Bank or Gaza.
One week later, still no takers.
Our campaign was born out of a sincere desire to highlight the disparity in human rights between Israel and the Palestinian territories — and also to point out the rank hypocrisy of “Queers for Palestine” and the very well-funded network of LGBTQ nonprofits that purport to fight for the human rights of sexual minorities globally.
Ever since the horrific Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, a motley crew of leftist factions has joined forces in support of the brutal Hamas regime that governs Gaza.
The driving force behind “Queers for Palestine” — a loose label employed by varied activists on college campuses and at protest events, rather than an established organization — isn’t “liberation” at all.
Case in point: Disenchanted after being barred from participating in Berlin’s gay pride parade in 2019, supporters of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement developed a strategy to buck the LGBTQ establishment.
They adopted the name “Queers for Palestine” and marched anyway, using that banner for cover. Their goal was to transform the gay-pride movement into a space for “feminist anti-racist and anti-colonial politics.”
In other words, they sought to make gay pride even more woke than it already is — and use it to push a narrative painting Israel as an oppressive colonizer.
“Queers for Palestine” is nothing but a marketing lie.
Those using the label don’t care about “queers” in Palestine, who suffer greatly at the hands of an Islamist regime that violates private rights at a whim, nor do they care about the contradictory nature of their rallying call.
Instead, self-anointed “Queers for Palestine” aim to start a woke revolution that will overthrow what they view as oppressive Western systems — not just Israel, but capitalism, the patriarchy, the establishment.
All are one and the same to them, and it all needs to be destroyed.
It’s no wonder the anti-Israel left is mum on the way gays are treated in the West Bank and Gaza.
Homosexuality is criminalized across the Middle East, including the Palestinian territories. Same-sex activity in Gaza has been illegal since 1936.
Prominent West Bank Imam Sheikh Mahmud, asked in 2022 what he believes should happen to homosexuals, responded, “The Islamic punishment of death should apply to them.”
“Queer” people in the West may be “for Palestine,” but Palestine is certainly not “for queers.”
It’s one thing for the anti-Israel left to be motivated by a hatred for capitalism and perceived oppression, but what about US nonprofits who claim to stand up for LGBTQ rights globally?
The Human Rights Campaign is perhaps the world’s premier “pro-LGBTQ” nonprofit. It’s certainly the largest and most well-funded.
In the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks, HRC President Kelley J. Robinson pledged that the group is “unwavering in our commitment to building a safer, more inclusive world and refuse to accept one where the LGBTQ+ community, especially trans people, live under the constant threat of violence.”
And yet, HRC remains silent on the plight of gays in the Palestinian territories — and is equally silent on NTC’s $1 million offer.
But it definitely knows about it: Billboard trucks advertising our campaign circled the group’s soaring headquarters in Washington, DC for days last week.
In fact, on campaign launch day the truck’s driver called to say he had been accosted by a group of angry activists in front of the HRC building, who demanded to know who he was and what he was up to.
Human-rights campaigners infuriated at the idea of a gay-pride parade — did you ever think you’d see the day?
NTC’s challenge demonstrates that many of these so-called “advocacy” organizations only promote positions that benefit their short-term interests. They would rather give the appearance of virtue instead of acting virtuously.
HRC would rather expend its resources issuing a travel advisory for Florida — where some of the biggest pride parades in the nation occur — rather than helping gay Palestinians whose lives are routinely claimed by “honor killings.”
Our $1 million “Queers for Palestine” campaign isn’t an empty provocation; it’s a plea for the LGBT establishment to demonstrate its claimed values.
Anyone up for it?
Christian Watson is the mobilization coordinator for the New Tolerance Campaign.
