Yale University’s sorority will host a conference on “pinkwashing” in Gaza next month. The controversial campaign has been slammed by pro-Israel supporters as “obscene” as the Jewish state accuses it of promoting the gay community to distract from what is unfolding. ing. within the besieged territory.
The Yale Women’s Center has begun broadcasting a three-day conference entitled “Pinkwashing and Feminism in Palestine.” Social media Early this week.
At least one of the four scheduled speakers, Ghadir Shafie, is a queer Palestinian activist who has raised accusations of pinkwashing against Israel, especially in the wake of the October 7 bloodshed by Hamas terrorists. He has a leveling background.
“This conference is worthless if we don’t talk about the atrocities against women that occurred in Israel on October 7th,” said Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis, on news of the Yale event. He then spoke to the Post. It began to circulate.
That in itself is pinkwashing, Potasnik said.
“This will prevent them from talking about the shameful horror of October 7 and will instead talk about something else,” the rabbi added.
The main crux of the “pinkwashing” accusations, which have been circulating for nearly two decades, is touting Israel’s record on LGBTQ rights in an attempt to obscure the state’s occupation of Gaza by claiming it is liberating its gay community. claims to be doing so.
Homosexuality is prohibited in Gaza, but According to the trust in human dignitya UK-based non-profit organization fighting for LGBTQ rights.
It was not immediately clear what Shafie or the other guest speakers were scheduled to say at the Ivy League school’s event next month.
But beneath a brief biography on the conference’s website is a headline reading Shafee’s “Pinkwashing Massacre.”
In a recent interview with queer media presentess agencyShafie argued that pinkwashing is “really, very dangerous” because Israel uses it to spread the “lie” that the country is a “gay paradise”.
“It also goes a step further by portraying all Palestinians as backward and homophobic and therefore deserving of oppression, creating a colonial advantage for Israelis over Palestinians.” he said in an interview in December.
The activist went on to say that one of the more “horrifying” images to emerge from the conflict is of an Israeli Defense Force soldier standing atop a pile of rubble in the Gaza Strip, holding a Pride flag with the words “In the Name of Love” scrawled across it. claimed that it was. Beyond that.
She said the message the image depicts is, “We have to defeat Hamas because if they find out I’m gay, they’ll kill me too.” insisted.
“Even this genocide, which Israel pinkwashes by saying it will bring liberation, bring peace, openness, homosexuality, when in reality it destroys entire families and neighborhoods, kills every trace of life. “There is,” Shafie told the media.
Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, a former City University of New York trustee and pro-Israel activist, dismissed the whole debate as a “double obscenity,” saying that after Hamas waged war against the Jewish people, Israel also engaged in genocide. He pointed out that he was being falsely accused. state.
“There’s a reason there are gay Palestinians in Tel Aviv. Israel is a live-and-let-let-live country,” Wiesenfeld told the Post.
By comparison, openly gay couples walking the streets in the Palestinian territories and in much of the Arab world are putting their lives at risk because of state persecution of religion, he said.
“They will be painted pink, boiled in acid and thrown from the roof of the building,” he added.
The Yale Women’s Center declined to comment when asked by the Post about the topic of the event, scheduled for April 5-7.
Attempts by the Post to contact Shafie were unsuccessful.
The bio of another guest speaker, Denison University professor Isis Nusair, is titled “Gendering, Racialization, and Sexual Torture by Israeli Military Forces in Gaza.”
Meanwhile, the conference’s co-sponsors include Yalies4Palestin, a student-led group that faced backlash over the issue last year. There were numerous online posts blaming Israel for the “unfolding violence” on October 7th.
