An Open Letter to Our LGBT Sisters & Brothers at Rainbow Grocery

An Open Letter to Our LGBT Sisters & Brothers at Rainbow Grocery:

We are lesbian and gay people who shop at Rainbow Grocery. One reason we buy from the Rainbow worker-owned cooperative is your queer-friendly reputation and support for alternative lifestyles in general (as well as your selection of non-toxic, organic and healthy products). We are also regularly outside the store at a table with other shoppers talking to people about boycotting Israeli products.

At times, other gay people have seemed particularly disturbed by our presence and our dedication, as lesbians and gay men, to this particular cause, and we want to explain our position.
With regard to the Middle East conflict, the social and political pressures exerted on gays in America result in the issues being presented to us as something like “liberal” and “free” democracy (US and Israel) versus a “closed” religion-based, and overtly anti-gay culture (Iran, Iraq and other primarily Islamic countries). We feel that an intensive propaganda campaign exists, supported by a primarily right-wing Israeli lobby, including Christian fundamentalists, as well as others, Jews and non-Jews, some of whom see themselves as liberal and advocating peace. In media outlets ranging from national gay magazines (like the Advocate) to billboards at transit stops, gays are implored to appreciate how their rights are protected in the state of Israel, how gays are accepted in the Israeli military, as well as to consider spending “gay” dollars at Israeli resorts. From time to time we see news articles describing how Israel gives shelter and support to Palestinian gay people who want to escape.

We do not suggest it would be easy or even possible to live as an out gay person in a primarily Islamic country, as some can in places like the United States, Europe or Israel. However, contrary to propaganda geared toward American gays, the facts make it clear that, just like in many parts of the US, Israel is nothing like a land of complete tolerance or acceptance of queer or transgender lifestyles (anti-gay protests, aborted gay marches, etc., in Israel).

US media coverage of Israel is not unlike the coverage for the US invasion of Iraq, where Americans are provided with pictures of smiling generals, heavily positioned and edited sound bites, and an occasional human-interest story about saving the life of one child when thousands more are killed. A recent study showed that the death of an Israeli child was 20 times more likely to be covered by the San Francisco Chronicle than the death of a Palestinian child. Ongoing racist anti-Arab hate mongering in the US media has often cited issues of basic rights of women and gays, while the actions of the US and other western powers have ultimately done little or nothing to improve the position of either group in Islamic countries.

In addition, pro-Israel and pro-western media reporting and other propaganda disguise the fact that there is a full-scale war going on against Palestinian people, with no exception made for LGBT Palestinians (as documented by Aswat, a Palestinian Gay Women’s group). At the hands of the Israeli military and sometimes heavily-armed residents of the illegal settlements, Palestinian people are being subjected to loss of housing, regular denial of movement to and from work, school, medical care, etc., denial of water, electricity, and physical harassment, up to and including torture and killing.

As lesbians and gay men we are aware of the sometimes keen divisions between those who would see gay rights as merely securing the freedom for personal advancement (money and resources) and those of us who advocate a more humane, caring, and socially and ecologically responsible way of life. We believe it is ultimately immoral and self defeating to reduce our “gay agenda” to single issues like gay marriage or other specific civil rights for gays and to pretend that war, occupation and environmental disaster are not gay issues and therefore not our problem. Moreover, we feel it is our duty to speak out when oppression is directly funded (as in the case of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory) by massive amounts of US taxpayer money.

Finally, we ask, do we want to endorse the message now being sent to the “other side,” to a culture seen as lacking in our western freedoms? Israel continues (against international law) to confiscate land in order to build illegal settlements, dispossessing more Palestinian families, making life ever more unlivable for others. Israel government policies include collective punishment (retaliation against families and even complete strangers for the crimes of individuals), and jailing Palestinians (approximately 10,000) without due legal process. Gaza “is the largest concentration camp ever to exist” (according to Baruch Kimmerling, in Politicide: Ariel Sharon’s War Against the Palestinians, Verso Books 2003), while the west bank is carved up into tiny enclaves shut off from each other, Israel, and the outside world by barriers, Israeli-only roads and highways, hundreds of checkpoints which heavily restrict travel and movement, and now a great “separation barrier” that is currently under construction.

All these Israeli policies reinforce an endless cycle of violence and only guarantee further hardening of hearts against anything connected with so-called “democratic and humanistic western values”. Existence in occupied Palestine has been called similar to, but worse than, life in South African bantustans by those who lived it, under apartheid South African rule.
The lessons being taught in the middle east, by US, European and Israeli imperialism, are not tolerance and respect for humanity; they are the lessons of abusive subjugation, bullying, theft, war, murder and violent retaliation. To all this, we say, not in our name.

There are those who would try to silence us by mystifying the issue, saying that this an “ancient” and exceedingly complex conflict. However the historical facts tell us that for hundreds of years Jews and Islamic peoples lived in the area of Israel/Palestine in general peace and harmony. It was the advent of Zionism which changed all that.

In short, we believe absolutely no peoples are well-served by imperialism or Zionism, not Jews, Arabs, Christians, atheists, Americans, Israelis, not queers nor anybody else. We reject short-sighted single-issue politics and see our future happiness integrally and permanently tied to the concepts of respect, tolerance, fair sharing of land and resources, and universal equality of all peoples of all identities, cultures and beliefs.

As peace-loving lesbians and gays we call on all our sisters and brothers to oppose the Israeli occupation of Palestine. We believe that now, as people have been considering this issue, there is increasing support for this kind of action among shoppers at Rainbow, both Jewish and non-Jewish, as part of a broader world-wide campaign for divestiture and boycott. We hope you will drop by our table in the near future or contact us for an invitation to one of our movie nights / informational meetings. Thanks!

Signed,
David DeNeef, Lori Nairne, Nell Myhand, Cynthia Chang, David Vergi, Nancy Stoller, Lin White, Synthia Green, Rami Bushnaq, John Baker, Charlie Hinton, lesbian and queer supporters of Rainbow BIG