RAMALLAH: In partnership with the Jewish Federation of Greater of Los Angeles, JQ International has announced the creation of an LGBTQ-focused Jewish birthright trip. “After many years of inclusion work with the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, we are ecstatic to announce that JQ International is partnering with their ‘LA Way' Taglit-Birthright Israel program to launch the first-ever LGBTQ and Ally Birthright trip to Israel departing this summer from Los Angeles," JQ International's website states. The Taglit-Birthright program brings Jews ages 18-26 from across the world on trips to Israel in order to “strengthen Jewish identity, Jewish communities, and solidarity with Israel." According to Taglit's website, since the beginning of the Taglit-Birthright program in 2000, “over 340,000 young Jewish people have received the gift of a free trip to Israel." The trips include traveling the country, accompanied by Israeli soldiers, and often events designed to encourage immigration to Israel. The LGBTQ-oriented trip is a new initiative. JQ International assures potential participants that “apart from lunch, snacks & spending money, there is no cost involved for the 10-day program. This gift is 100% subsidized through the generosity of major philanthropists, local Jewish Federations and the Government of Israel." Referring to the security situation, JQ International says there is no concern: The majority of disturbances we've seen in the news occur in specific areas, namely the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. IsraelExperts programs do not visit these areas and we make sure to coordinate our itineraries with various security agencies throughout Israel. Also, the program is run in a very structured way and participants are forbidden to use public transportation or to walk about freely without any supervision. Taglit-Birthright Israel programs have run successfully and incident-free since 1999, with over 250,000 participants in spite of the situation. Israel's LGBT Controversy In the past, Israeli publication relations efforts have attempted to sculpt an image of the country as a liberal, LGBT-friendly country, often intentionally drawing comparisons to oppressive conditions of LGBT individuals under Arab governments. In 2005, Israel's government began a marketing campaign aimed at enhancing its image in the international community through efforts to brand itself as “modern and relevant." As Sarah Schulman wrote in a widely-circulated 2011 NYTimes op-ed, “The government later expanded the marketing plan by harnessing the gay community to reposition its global image." This included spending some 90 million dollars towards depicting Tel Aviv as a gay tourism destination. As Schulman points out, far rightwing Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu, while addressing the US Congress, boldly stated that the Middle East is “a region where Christians are persecuted, gays are hanged, and women are stoned." In 2012, Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren told a Philadelphia-based newspaper that “Israel was fighting for gay rights before the 1967 war. Even when terrorists were blowing up our buses and cafes, there was equality for gays." These marketing efforts, along with the comments of Netanyahu, Oren, and other Israeli officials, have drawn immense criticism, earning such PR efforts the title of “pink washing." LGBT organizations and activists who also oppose Israel's several decade long occupation of Palestinian land expressed outrage. Schulman wrote, “In Israel, gay soldiers and the relative openness of Tel Aviv are incomplete indicators of human rights... The long-sought realization of some rights for some gays should not blind us... to the Palestinians' insistence on a land to call home." American socialist and LGBTQ activist and writer, author of Sexuality and Socialism, joined the debate by publishing an article titled “What's so gay about apartheid?" Responding to Lillian Fadderman's call for the LGBT community to support Israel, she argued: In Palestine, a largely secular and leftist tradition was smashed, and most of its left leaders were exiled, jailed or killed by Israel. Pointing an accusatory finger at Palestinian leaders' illiberal stance toward LGBT people today is obscene. To ignore Israel's dispossession, occupation and immiseration of 10.6 million Palestinians in the world and then expect sexually liberatory ideals to flourish under such a condition is absurd. No population anywhere on Earth has risen to such expectations. Al-Qaws, a Palestinian an LGBTQ organization, have also come out against Israel's “pink washing" campaign. During a 2011 public forum, Al-Qaws member Sami Shamali shot down the assertions that Israel acted to protect Palestinian LGBTQ individuals and observed, “the apartheid wall was not created to keep Palestinian homophobes out of Gay Israel, and there is no magic door for gay Palestinians to pass through." As the latest attempt to enhance Israel's PR image, the LGBTQ Birthright program will likely garner the support of the country's usual allies. But it will undoubtedly draw the ire of the its many critics who also support Palestinian rights in the face of its longstanding military occupation and oppression of Palestinian national, civil, and human rights. As a gay Palestinian journalist told BikyaNews.com in August 2012, “Discrimination against Arabs in Israel does not exclude homosexual Arabs. Tel Aviv can be the gay Heaven only for a Palestinian who has never been to a gay club before. There are very few cases where Israel granted asylum to homosexual Palestinians, and other cases where they were used as spies." BN
