William A. Jacobson:
Claims of anti-Semitism are being made over actions yesterday by organizers of a “Dyke March” in Chicago to remove certain Jewish participants from the event because they carried a Jewish LGBT Pride Flag that had a Star of David in the Middle of a rainbow flag. The flag was alleged to be “triggering” to “pro-Palestinian” participants.
I’ll discuss the specifics below.
Was it anti-Semitism? Objectively, yes.
To single out Jews in this manner, and to apply unique standards to Jews, is anti-Semitism, regardless of subjective intent. See my lecture, When Does Anti-Israelism Turn Into Anti-Semitism?
By analogy, no one would hesitate to call actions racist if blacks were singled out for criticism using standards applied to no other group. The claim that the actions were merely “anti-Zionist” doesn’t hold up. There is no legitimate reason to single out the only Jewish-majority state, and apply standards not applied to dozens of Muslim-majority states and societies.
Yet those assertions of anti-Semitism miss the deeper issue. The objective anti-Semitism of these LGBT activists is based on a detachment from reality. Those activists single out the most LGBT-friendly society in the Middle East (Israel) for criticism and ostracism, and celebrate one of the most homophobic societies in the world (Palestinian).
To understand what just happened in Chicago, accordingly, requires an understanding of how the anti-Israel movement, particularly the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, has become pathological. It is an irrationality that is beyond reason, and it inevitable expresses itself in discrimination against Jews.
Anti-Pinkwashing and The Exclusion of Israel Supporters From Progressive Causes
What just happened in Chicago has been years in the making.
It’s hard to explain, because the theory behind anti-Israel LGBT activism is so maniacal. I tried to explain it in this March 2012 post, Another low for academia: Anti-Israel “Homonationalism and Pinkwashing” Conference at CUNY:
You need no better example of how twisted parts of academia have become than to look at an anti-Israeli conference being organized at The City University of New York devoted to the issue of “homonationalism and pinkwashing.”
I have posted before about the “pinkwashing” charge leveled by anti-Israel gay activists.
Israel, the only country in the Middle East with a humane record on treatment of gays, is singled out for scorn by anti-Israel gay activists who fear that giving Israel credit on gay rights may take away from the war on Israel launched by groups and countries openly hostile to gays.
The pinkwashing charge rightly is described as part of an attempt to exterminate any semblance of Israeli legitimacy:
To these sick people, it is literally impossible for Israel or Israelis to do anything admirable outside the context of the conflict. The conflict is everything…. Anything that could blunt the demonization of the Jewish state is by definition as evil as the Jewish state itself is.
I further tried to explain the phenomenon in this January 2016 post, Jewish Voice for Peace helps disrupt Israeli LGBTQ group Sabbath event, which has video and images, and explains the tactic:
The pinkwashing charge is essential for BDS on U.S. college campuses because BDS has trouble squaring its support for regimes (including Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, not to mention most Arab countries) which abuse and persecute gays with BDS’s attempt to co-opt the progressive movement.
Hence, the pinkwashing claim that Israel’s promotion of its gay-friendly policies is actually a greater evil than the abuse heaped on gays in areas controlled by Israel’s enemies.
Here is the video of that disruption of an Israeli LGBT group in Chicago in January 2016:
LGBT supporters of Israel seem to earn the particular ire of anti-Israel groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, which recently targeted at-risk LGBT participants in the Israel Day Parade for physical intimidation:
Why else is Chicago called the Windy City? Becuase of all the liberal Demacratic windbags that run the place all that mindless yammering from stupid dim-witted liberal dim-wits
So, touting that gays can live free in Israel is WORSE than being hanged to death, being thrown off a tall building to death, being tortured to death, being “honor murdered” by your own family in Islamic countries?
Seems hard to believe.
We must accept that they are insane, reality is non-existent in their world. Like a previous President, if they say it it becomes truth, dont even show them evidence it doesnt matter. It has become too much of a chore to try to process the rantings.