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Add an EventSan Francisco Queers Call for World Pride Boycott
Contact: Kate Raphael-Bender, 510-381-1287
Mindy Spatt, 415-334-4386
Controversial Gay March Draws Fire From Other Gays
US Gays Launch Boycott of Jerusalem Gay Pride Celebration
May 1, 2005, San Francisco—Opposition to a controversial gay pride march is emerging from an unlikely source- other gays. The march is slated to take place in the contested city of Jerusalem, and has been dubbed “World Pride Israel” by its sponsors, who hope to bring gays from all over the world to a celebration with the theme “love without borders.”
Critics of the event say until Israel’s borders are truly open there is nothing to celebrate. A boycott has been launched by San Francisco-based Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT!), a lesbian/ gay/bi/trans group that supports return of the territories occupied by Israel to Palestinian control. “No city in the world could have more borders than Jerusalem” commented Kate Raphael-Bender of QUIT. Raphael-Bender said those borders are constantly encroaching further and further into Palestinian territory, and are enforced by military checkpoints and cement walls. “Israel’s borders are impenetrable to Palestinians, and keep many separated from their homes, jobs and families” she added. Raphael-Bender noted that gay Arabs are likely to hit a wall if they try to join the festivities in Jerusalem. Not only Palestinians but all Arabs are routinely denied entry into Israel.
QUIT urges gays and lesbians to observe ongoing international boycotts of travel to Israel and Israeli products through which the international community can exert pressure on Israel to withdraw its forces from Palestine. “For internationals to stay away from this event will send a very clear message to the Israeli government,” Raphael-Bender said, noting that the situation was different for gays in Israel. QUIT’s counterpart in Israel, Black Laundry, and the Palestinian lesbian group Aswat, will participate in the event but plan to use it to draw attention to the injustices Palestinians are subject to under the brutal Israeli occupation.
The boycott has begun to pick up steam, with a spectrum of U.S. organizations quickly signing on, including Jewish, Arabic and lesbian/gay groups. QUIT recently launched a web site, boycottworldpride.org, and their colorful bumper stickers were very popular at the March 19 demonstration against the ongoing U.S. occupation of Iraq.
Groups joining the boycott call so far are LAGAI -- Queer Insurrection, Queers for Peace and Justice, Jews for a Free Palestine (SF), Queers for Palestine-NY, Queers for Palestine-Boston, Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA), American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, San Francisco Chapter (ADC-SF), International Socialist Organization
QUIT! has produced a 15-minute video to counter one produced by the San Francisco-based bluestarPR. The "Boycott World Pride: Love Without Borders?" video, excerpts of which are posted here, is available on the group's website, www.quitpalestine.org.
Israel, Judea-Samaria and Gaza is the Jews' ancestral home, and Jerusalem is their capital.
So, those Arab invaders should better go to their homeland and leave the Jews alone.
Palestine is the ancestral home of the Peoples that the ancestors of some of today's Jews ethnically cleansed from the land, i.e., the Canaanites, the Philistines, etc.
Even they were not first:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/08/1637599_comment.php#1637601
(2.) Only racists believe that land should be distributed on the basis of ancestry.
But Palestine is the Jews' land. The Arabs came afterwards and occupied it.
Stop occupation
Stop ethnic cleansing
--- from QUIT press release, on IndyBay.org queer page
......
In Israel and Palestine,
Aswat and Black Laundry know how
to use World Pride event
constructively and critically.
San Francisco QUIT doesn't know how.
Instead, QUIT urges boycott;
which would please Jerusalem's religious homophobes
(Christian, Muslim, Jewish).
Ask yourself,
why is this event being held in
Jerusalem,
rather than in some safer Israeli location,
such as Tel Aviv?
Jerusalem is a city of two nations
and three religions;
and it's a magnet for religious persons
( not all of whom are homophobes ).
Because of its history,
it attacts world attention.
If fanatics attack the queer festival,
and if queers resist
(whether violently or non-violently),
the world may learn a lesson.
This could be an international Stonewall.
.........
Who exactly is FROM anywhere. Populations have moved so much over the past thousands of years to say one group is from somewhere and another isnt is pretty arbitrary.
"It is they who conquered and occupied lands that had been Christian for centuries."
The Arab invasion during the initial spread of Islam didnt conquer that many Christian areas. The Turks (who are not Arabs) did conquer the Byzantine Empire but the real credit for that goes to Crusaders who weakened Constantinpole enough to make it easy to defeat.
Persians are also not Arabs and were not Christian before the spread of Islam.
"Arabs are very good at conquering other peoples' civilizations and then claiming them as their own, i.e. Persian, Byzantium, Egypt, Spain, etc."
Lets see here. When did the "Arabs" conquer the Persians and claim the civilization as their own? From what I can see Persian influence shaped the Islamic Middle East much more than Arab culture influenced Persians (during the brief period of Arab rule) and the Saffavids wer of Persian not Arabic background.
Arabs never conquered the Byzantine empire (that was the Turks a people who had migrated following the Mongolians invasions from NW China).
Egypt was Coptic before it became Muslim but I dont see any claim to Egyptian civlization by Islamic leaders during the Islamic Empires of the first centur. Spain was Christian before it became Muslim but Islamic Spain had a Renaisance of Science and Art because of the Muslim rulers at the very time Europe was in the depth of the Dark Ages. If anything modern Christian Spain claims credit for a lot that was a result of the Islamic period rather than the other way around.
The Renaissance of sciences and arts taking place during part of the Middle Ages Spanish-Muslim domination period was actually almost entirely one of the accomplishments by Greek and Roman people of virtue reached before the Middle Ages.
"The Renaissance of sciences and arts taking place during part of the Middle Ages Spanish-Muslim domination period was actually almost entirely one of the accomplishments by Greek and Roman people of virtue reached before the Middle Ages."
You are absolutely right. They had no original science and arts.
And besides we don't have to forget another important moment for the knowledge of the Eastern culture in Europe through Spain. It was in late XII century and in the first half of the XIII century. But it happened thanks to the Christians. And besides we don't have to forget the important part played by the Spanish Jews.
This is called "begging the question". It is typical of the tricks and lies that Zionists use to support their racist agenda.
In fact, I support neither Islamic Jihad nor HAMAS. I support the establishment of a single, secular egalitarian society in which neither one’s ancestry nor one’s religion will be a factor. Critical Thinker knows this. He’s lying through his teeth. Zionists lie because they have to. There is no honest defense of ethnic cleansing.
Critical Thinker is not the only one who knows I support neither Islamic Jihad nor HAMAS. Anyone who reads my stuff, either here of elsewhere, knows this. But Critical Thinker has so little respect for your intelligence that the thinks that you either didn’t notice, or have forgotten. How typical of Zionist mentality to disrespect the mental capacities of we racial inferiors. How depressingly unoriginal it is, as well. Zionism is nothing but a mirror image of Nazism. A Jewish state differs from an Aryan state only in the name of the ethnic group.
Spain never became Muslim. The Muslims were invaders and the Christians fought to expel them. The Reconquest finished in 1492.
During the XV century the Renaissance started being introduced in Spain, but only in the reconquered part. The occupied territory had long ago been reduced to a tiny part (Granada) and the Muslims there were killing one another, as it was usual among them.
Sorry. But Spain is Roman, Germanic and Christian.
We speak a Romanic language, our law is based upon Roman law, we have some Germanic institutions (the monarchy, for instance), we have been Christian since Roman times, and we received the italian Renaissance earlier than any other European country.
More observations. The Roman and Greek culture didn't disappear during the Middle Ages but they were preserved. In fact, that is the European background.
And besides there was a Renaissance, at least in Spain, thanks to the School of Translators of Toledo (XIII century mainly), from where all the knowledge of the time spread to Europe. But this was under Christian rule. The best period for the school of translators was the time of king Alfonso X, who personally directed the works of the school.
(snip)
Man: An argument isn't just contradiction.
(snip)
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