Queer activists from the Middle East call on the LSVD and MANEO to withdraw from the counter-demonstration of Al-Quds-Tag.
As queer and feminist activists from different countries around the Middle East, including Iran, Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and Kurdistan, we are shocked to discover that the Berlin Chapter of the German gay and lesbian association LSVD and the gay anti-violence project MANEO will participate in the “No Al-Quds Tag” demonstration organized by a coalition of militarist, right-wing, racist and anti-Palestinian organizations.
We are accustomed to seeing different repressive regimes in our region instrumentalize the just cause of the Palestinian struggle for liberation from apartheid and occupation as an issue to distract from their own catastrophic politics. The Al-Quds demonstration, organized here in Berlin by supporters of the Iranian regime every year, stands within this sad tradition. We do not need empty speeches about the liberation of Jerusalem, which are nothing but a cynical move by a system which persecutes religious minorities, queers and women and which militarily supports the Syrian regime, which has recently been killing and starving Palestinians in a mass scale. For us, solidarity with the Palestinian people is a part of a universal fight for freedom in the whole region, for all genders and ethnicities, and not a plight to be used to cover up the most heinous crimes.
Our opposition to the “Al-Quds Rally” notwithstanding, we see the counter-demonstration, organized by right-wing Zionist organizations, as moving in similar lines, instrumentalizing the just cause of LGBT liberation to distract from the crimes of the occupation and to cynically pinkwash Israeli apartheid. Most of the organizations calling for this counter-demonstration, which supposedly objects to homophobia and anti-Semitism, have called for demonstrations in support of the Israeli massacres in Gaza and Lebanon in the past. Some are in clear support of right-wing and racist politicians in Israel and the USA who have often opposed queer rights and human rights. The support for the demonstration by the Junge Union, the youth organization of the CDU who steadfastly block legal and social improvements for LGBTQIs in Germany, shows just how cynical this supposed demonstration against homophobia really is.
The participation of LSVD and MANEO in this demonstration is a slap in the face to queer activists from all over the Middle East. Aligning the struggle for sexual liberation with occupation and war is not just immoral but also threatens our efforts for social change in the societies in which we grew up. The statement by the director of the LSVD, that they will demonstrate for “peaceful coexistence with Israeli and Rainbow flags”, is an incredibly horrifying statement taking into account the massacre of 2.300 Palestinians in Gaza exactly one year ago under the same flag. Also the systematic extortion of Palestinian LGBTQIs by the Israeli secret services, which recently became public knowledge gives the lie to Israel’s gay rights agenda. We call on you, therefore, to immediately withdraw your support for the demonstration, and we advise you to inform yourselves about the situation of LGBTQI in the middle East by reaching out to and working with organizations active in the region before making ill-conceived statements in support of a persistent human rights violator such as the state of Israel.
declaration of some antifascistas who were demonstrating in b.
... against the so called al quds day march.
as free antifascistas (antifaschist*innen) we find it very interesting that now appears such a statement in the german indymedia down left.
so we see it as necessary to declare, as only some antifascist*s who took part in the demo against the antisemites and do not speak for any organisation:
the antifascistic demo was not kooperation with the "junge union" (young part of the german "christ-democratic-union") nor directly with the lsvd - which makes some good other work, but is also to critize for some other opinions - and is not meant to be nor to bring into the same thing.
there were two different demos and two different manifestations against the "al quds" shit.
so.
thus we concern it as progressive if some young people of a somehow more or more less democratic party in germany demonstrate against antisemitism and fascism, but they have also to criticize then their own (very religious, conservative and national german kind) party, which also has more than only one right wing problem and is supporting the iran (iri) by making contracts for atomic power and devastation, where antisemitism is still the (modern) reason of state (after 1945 and the so called "islamic revolution" there after 1970). that's why we never want to be thrown into or seen in the same pot.
thanks for appreciation!
so it remains the same.
for the whole world free of antisemitism, racism, sexism and fascism, especially ((german) neo-)national-socialism!
against all antisemitism - down with germany - for communism!
“the german indymedia down left”
It's a shame that you have to stress that the “anti-fascist” demonstrators have not cooperated with the Junge Union. In fact, it's a declaration of bankruptcy. The same is true for your marvellous English: “we never want to be thrown into or seen in the same pot”. Antideutsche verpisst euch!