Supporters of the Israeli denial
of equality of
rights for
non-Jews, and of the Israeli
ethnic cleansing of non-Jews,
engage in “public relations”
(hasbara― Hebrew: הסברה)
in an attempt to mask Israel’s
horrific violations of
human rights.

David Zonsheine, Bethlehem, West Bank
The
poet Gwendolyn Brooks wrote that poetry
is “life distilled.” Gabriel Ash explores
the poetry
of hasbara in his ironically titled essay: “How
to Make the Case for
Israel and Win.” ML

How to make the case for
Israel and win
by
Gabriel Ash
To
the benefit of the many not-very-bright
Zionist wannabe apologists who
read this
blog assiduously, I decided to offer a clear
and simple method
of arguing the case for
Israel. This clear and simple method has been
distilled from a life spent listening to and
reading Zionist propaganda.
It is easy to follow
and results are guaranteed or your money back.
So don't hesitate! Take advantage NOW of
this revolutionary rhetorical system that will
make YOU a great apologist for Israel […].
Ready? 1..2..3..GO!
You need to understand just one principle:
The case for Israel is made of four propositions
that should always be presented in the correct
escalating order.
- We rock
- They suck
- You suck
- Everything sucks
That's it. Now you know everything that it took
me a lifetime to learn. The rest is details; filling
in the dotted lines.
You
begin by saying how great Israel is. Israel
wants peace; Israel is the
only democracy in the
Middle East; the desert blooms; kibutz; Israelis
invented antibiotics, the wheel, the E minor scale;
thanks to the
occupation Palestinians no longer
live in caves; Israel liberates Arab
women; Israel
has the most moral army in the world, etc.
This
will win over 50% of your listeners immediately.
Don't worry about the
factual content. This is about
brand identity, not writing a PhD. Do you
really
think BP is 'beyond petroleum'?
Then
you go into the second point: They suck.
Here you talk about the legal
system of Saudi
Arabia, gay rights in Iran, slave trade in the Sudan,
Mohammad Atta, the burqa, Palestinians dancing
after 9/11, Arafat's facial hair, etc.
There
is only one additional principle you need
to understand here. It will
separate you from the
amateurs. You need to know your audience.
If
you've got a crowd already disposed to racist
logic, go for it with everything you have. But if
you get a liberal crowd, you need to sugar coat
the racism a bit. Focus on women rights, human
rights, religious tolerance, "clash of civilizations,"
terrorism, they teach their
children to hate, etc.
Deep down your audience WANTS to enjoy racism
and
feel superior. They just need the proper
encouragement so they can keep their
sophisticated self-image. Give them what they
crave and they'll adore you! But be careful not to
'mix n match,' because it will cost you
credibility.
When you're
done, there will always be
dead-enders insisting that abuse of gays in
Iran
does not justify ethnic cleansing in Palestine. Take
a deep breath,
and pull the doomsday weapon:
You suck!
You're
a Jew-hater, Arab-lover, anti-Semite, you're
a pinko, a commie, a
dreamer, a naive, a self-hater,
you have issues, your mother worked for
the Nazis,
Prince Bandar buys you cookies, you forgot you were
responsible for the Holocaust, etc. The more the
merrier. By the time
you end this barrage, only a
handful would be left standing. For mopping
them up,
you use the ultimate postmodern wisdom:
Everything sucks.
War,
genocide, racism, oppression are everywhere.
From the Roma in Italy to
the Native-Americans in
the U.S., the weak are victimized. Why pick on
Israel? It's the way of the world. Look! Right is only
in question
between equals in power; the strong do
what they can and the weak suffer
what they must.
Ethics, schmethics. Life is a tale told by an idiot,
full
of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Eat, drink!
Carpe diem! The
Palestinians would throw us into the
sea if they could. Ha ha!
Trust
me, that's as far as words can go. If you
followed this method faithfully, you've done your
work. You should leave the few who are still
unconvinced to the forces of order.
Congratulations!
You are now ready to
apologize for Israel like a pro.
Gabriel Ash
Jews sans frontiers
July 18, 2008
[Text highlighted and edited by ML; "Stop
Hasbara" image created and added by ML]
As the Jewish National Fund geared up for its
National Conference in September of 2011, it
was hustling teens to attend a “Teen Leadership
Seminar" to be held as part of the conference.
The publicity for the Seminar seemed to cry out
for a bit of a rewrite; this is my [Michael Levin]
version of their poster, with thanks to South
Pacific's “You've Got to Be Carefully Taught."

How today's liberal Zionists echo
apartheid South Africa's defenders
by
Rania Khalek
“While the majority of black South African leaders are
against disinvestment and boycotts, there are tiny factions
that support disinvestment — namely terrorist groups such
as the African National Congress,” libertarian economics
professor Walter Williams wrote in a 1983 New York
Times op-ed.
Williams’ claim was as absurd then as it appears in
hindsight, but his sentiment was far from rare on
the American and British right in the 1980s.
Yet today’s so-called progressive and liberal Zionists
employ precisely the same kinds of claims to counter
the growing movement, initiated by Palestinians
themselves, for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS)
on Israel.
Indeed, looking back, it is clear that Israel’s liberal
apologists are recycling nearly every argument once
used by conservatives against the BDS movement
that helped dismantle South Africa’s apartheid regime.
“Singling out”
In a 1989 op-ed for the Christian Science Monitor,
University of South Africa lecturer Anne-Marie Kriek
scolded the divestment movement for singling out
her country’s racist government because, she wrote,
“the violation of human rights is the norm rather
than the exception in most of Africa’s 42
black-ruled states” (“South Africa Shouldn’t be
Singled Out,” 12 October 1989).
Kriek continued, “South Africa is the only country in
Sub-Saharan Africa that can feed itself. Blacks possess
one of the highest living standards in all of Africa,”
adding that nowhere on the continent did black Africans
have it so good. So, “Why is South Africa so harshly
condemned while completely different standards apply to
black Africa?” she asked.
Divestment opponents in the US provided similar
justifications. In 1986, for instance, Gregory Dohi, the
former editor-in-chief of the Salient, Harvard University’s
conservative campus publication, protested that those
calling for the university to divest from companies
doing business in South Africa were “selective in their
morality” (“I am full of joy to realize that I never had
anything to do with any divestment campaign …,”
Harvard Crimson, 4 April 1986).
Divestment was wrong not only because it would “harm”
black workers, Dohi claimed, but because it singled out
South Africa.
Déjà vu
Where have we heard these kinds of arguments before?
Arguing against BDS, The Nation’s Eric Alterman writes,
“The near-complete lack of democratic practices within
Israel’s neighbors in the Arab and Islamic world,
coupled with their lack of respect for the rights of
women, of gays, indeed, of dissidents of any kind —
make their protestations of Israel’s own democratic
shortcomings difficult to credit” (“A Forum on Boycott,
Divestment, Sanctions (BDS),” 3 May 2012).
Alterman’s only update to Kriek’s logic is his mention of
women’s and gay rights, a nod to The Nation readers’
liberal sensitivities.
Alterman’s sometime Nation colleague, reporter Ben Adler,
has also reprised Kriek’s and Dohi’s 1980s-style
arguments: “If you want to boycott Israel itself then you
need to explain why you’re not calling for a boycott of
other countries in the Middle East that oppress their own
citizens worse than Israel does anyone living within the
Green Line” (“The Problems With BDS,” 31 March 2012).
A scary brown majority
The late neoconservative war hawk, and long-time New
York Times columnist William Safire — who in 2002
insisted, “Iraqis, cheering their liberators, will lead the
Arab world toward democracy” — also sympathized
with white supremacist anxieties about the implications
of a single democratic South Africa.
One person, one vote “means majority rule, and
nonwhites are the overwhelming majority in South Africa,”
Safire wrote in a 1986 column. “That means an end to
white government as the Afrikaners have known it for
three centuries; that means the same kind of black
rule that exists elsewhere in Africa, and most white
South Africans would rather remain the oppressors
than become the oppressed” (“The Suzman Plan,”
7 August 1986).
Almost thirty years later, liberal Zionists exhibit the
same empathy with racists in their own hostility toward
the Palestinian right of return, which BDS unapologetically
champions.
Such a scenario would spell the end of Israel’s Jewish
majority, a horrifying prospect for ethno-religious
supremacists who, like whites in South Africa did,
fear the native population they rule.
Cary Nelson, a professor of English at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, well-known in academic
circles for his left-liberal activism, conveyed the same fears
in a recent anti-BDS tirade. He argued that “nothing in
decades of Middle East history suggests Jews would be
equal citizens in a state dominated by Arabs or
Palestinians” (“Why the ASA boycott is both disingenuous
and futile,” Al Jazeera America, 23 December 2013).
Nelson’s racism-induced panic is further distilled in a Wall
Street Journal op-ed, where he argues that the BDS
movement seeks “the elimination of Israel,” after which,
“those Jews not exiled or killed in the transition to an
Arab-dominated nation would live as second-class citizens
without fundamental rights” (“Another Anti-Israel Vote
Comes to Academia,” 8 January 2014).
Of course he wouldn’t put it this way, but Nelson fears, in
effect, that Palestinians might do to Jews what the Israeli
settler-colonial regime has done to Palestinians since
its inception.
Relying on puppets
Last December, Mahmoud Abbas, the autocratic puppet
leader of the Palestinian Authority, and chairman of the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), declared his
opposition to BDS, leaving Israel and its apologists
predictably overjoyed.
In The New Republic, Leon Wieseltier chides pro-BDS
academics for speaking on behalf of Palestinians. “Who
is Abu Mazen [Abbas] to speak for the Palestinians,
compared with an associate professor of ethnic studies
at the University of California, San Diego?” he quipped
(“The Academic Boycott of Israel Is a Travesty,” 17
December 2013).
Jeffrey Goldberg is just as derisive, writing in his
Bloomberg column that the American Studies Association
— which voted to boycott Israeli institutions — “is more
Palestinian … than the chairman of the Palestine Liberation
Organization” (“Some Lessons in Effective Scapegoating,”
16 December 2013).
These and other liberal Zionists insist that the Israeli
- and US-approved Abbas is the only authentic
representative of Palestinian sentiment. They ignore
the overwhelming support for boycotting Israel
among the Palestinian people.
But for many Palestinians, an apt comparison for Abbas is
with Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the black leader of the
Inkatha Freedom Party.
Buthelezi was often denounced by black South Africans as
a collaborator with the white apartheid regime and lauded
by British and American conservative opponents of
sanctions as the true voice of black South Africa.
In a 1985 address to representatives from US companies
operating in South Africa, Buthelezi insisted that the
majority of South African blacks firmly opposed
sanctions because they would “condemn a great
many millions and a whole new generation to
continue living in appalling slum conditions.”
In 1990, Buthelezi came out against an ANC-led campaign
of mass civil disobedience — marches, boycotts and
strikes — throwing his weight instead behind
“cooperation” and“negotiation” with the white regime.
This offers a striking parallel to the present-day Palestinian
Authority which continues to give legitimacy to the endless
“peace process” while suppressing direct action against
the occupation.
Buthelezi was only the most prominent of a handful of
black apologists and collaborators with the apartheid
regime. Others included Lucas Mangope, puppet
leader of the Bophuthatswana bantustan who also
fiercely opposed sanctions that would isolate his
white supremacist paymasters.
Mangope cringed at the idea of a one-person, one-vote
system in South Africa and spent the last days of apartheid
desperately clinging to power over his “independent” island
of repression.
Yet it wasn’t uncommon for US media outlets — including
The New York Times — to label Mangope, and others like
him, “moderate” black leaders.
Israel, it seems, has taken its cues directly from the
apartheid playbook, cultivating a small circle of
Palestinian elites willing to maintain the occupation
in exchange for power and comfort.
And liberal Zionists are more than happy to bolster the
ruse by using these comprised figures’ words against
Palestinians who still insist on their rights.
Think of the workers
When Mobil Corporation was forced to shut down its
operations in South Africa in 1989 due to what it
called “very foolish” US sanctions laws, its chief
executive, Allen Murray, feigned concern for the
impact on black workers.
“We continue to believe that our presence and our
actions have contributed greatly to economic and
social progress for nonwhites in South Africa,” the
oil executive declared (“Mobil Is Quitting South
Africa, Blaming ‘Foolish’ Laws in US,” The New York
Times, 29 April 1989).
Before finally giving in to boycott pressures, Citibank
also justified its refusal to divest by citing its obligation
to the South Africans it employed.
Last month, SodaStream chief executive Daniel Birnbaum
echoed this transparent posturing when he defended the
location of his company’s main production facility in the
illegal Israeli settlement of Maaleh Adumim.
The only thing keeping him from moving the factory,
Birnbaum claims, is his loyalty to some 500
Palestinian SodaStream employees. “We will not
throw our employees under the bus to promote
anyone’s political agenda,” he told The Jewish Daily
Forward (“SodaStream Boss Admits West Bank Plant
Is ‘a Pain’ — Praises Scarlett Johansson,” 28
January 2014).
“Constructive engagement” again?
Scarlett Johansson, the Hollywood actress who resigned
from her humanitarian ambassador role with the
anti-poverty organization Oxfam in order to pursue her
role as global brand ambassador for SodaStream,
applauded the company for “supporting neighbors
working alongside each other, receiving equal pay,
equal benefits and equal rights.”
Such appeals for cooperation with an oppressive status
quo in the face of growing support for BDS mirror
President Ronald Reagan’s insistence on “constructive
engagement” with apartheid South Africa.
While asserting in 1986 that “time is running out for
the moderates of all races in South Africa,” Reagan
opposed sanctions that could foster change. Today,
supporters of the endless Israeli-Palestinian “peace
process” also regularly insist that “time is running out,”
while fiercely opposing BDS.
Reagan praised his British counterpart Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher for having “denounced punitive
sanctions as immoral and utterly repugnant.” Why?
Because “the primary victims of an economic boycott
of South Africa would be the very people we seek to
help,” the president argued (“Transcript of Talk by
Reagan on South Africa and Apartheid,” The New York
Times, 23 July 1986).
The Reagan administration even funded a survey of
black South African workers to prove they loved working
for benevolent American corporations and adamantly
opposed divestment, never mind the fact that advocating
for sanctions under apartheid was a severely
punishable offense.
Fast forward to 2014 and Jane Eisner, editor of the
liberal Jewish Daily Forward publicly hails SodaStream
as the solution to the conflict, using her newspaper to
portray Palestinian workers as grateful to be employed
by the settlement profiteer, sentiments they expressed
while being interviewed under the watchful eyes of their
supervisors.
Taking racism a step further
Today, twenty-first century liberals and progressives who
are ideologically invested in Zionism have embraced the
rationales of racist right-wingers from a bygone era.
What’s more, liberal Zionists have taken the racism a step
further than Reagan and Thatcher ever dared to go with
South Africa.
Although they opposed sanctions, Reagan and Thatcher
regularly denounced apartheid as an unjust system that
needed to be dismantled.
Israel’s apologists, by contrast, firmly support the
maintenance of Israel’s discrimination against Palestinians
with their insistence that the country remain a “Jewish state”
and their continued denial of the Palestinian right of return.
Rania Khalek
Electronic Intifada
February 13, 2014
[Also see Michael Bueckert, "Guest Writer: Israel’s
anti-BDS tactics mirror White South
Africa’s defence of apartheid,” Middle East
Monitor, April 23, 2019; "Pioneer Jewish
South African Freedom Fighter Calls Israel ‘Apartheid
State’ ,” Haaretz, July 28, 2005; Amjad Iraqi,
"Palestinians are tired of proving Israeli apartheid
exists. There is nothing that an annexation bill
can tell us that decades of Israeli laws and policies
haven’t already," +972, June 17, 2020.]

How to fight the Israel-Apartheid
analogy in four easy steps – a guide
for useful Hasbara idiots
by
Ran Greenstein
Step one: But they have the vote
Start with fragmentation. When talking about Israel refer to
a mythical state that existed between November 1966 and
June 1967, the only period during which the majority of
Palestinians living under Israeli control were NOT subject
to military rule. Focus on the fact that Palestinians who
became Israeli citizens have the right to vote. Not quite a
right to vote for any party of their choice (various radical
lists were disqualified over the years) but still, a right to
participate in the elections.
In the process, ignore the 80% of the original inhabitants
of the territories that became part of Israel in 1948, who
have been physically excluded from exercising any civil
and political rights in their homeland. Ignore all those who
live under military occupation in the 1967 territories, with
no right to vote in Israel and no say in the way their
territories are governed by Israel (their own government
has no power over land, water, roads, housing,
development, population registration, and virtually
everything else that is relevant to their lives).
Go back to those citizens (about 15% of all Palestinians)
and assert how fortunate they are. Do not bother to read,
convey, and consider their own feelings, words,
analyses, politics. They have a very different opinion on
the applicability of the notion of apartheid to their own
situation, but why listen? Who is better qualified to
speak on their behalf than you?
Step two: But they started it
If you really have to, talk about the refugees (remember
those 80% mentioned above, who have been excluded
from any presence in Israel?). They have themselves
to blame for their situation. They started the war in
1948 and suffered the consequences, so what do
they want from you now?
In the process avoid paying attention to inconvenient facts:
that long before the 1948 war, all Palestinians residing on
land bought by official Jewish agencies had to leave their
homes. That no tenants living on land owned by official
Zionist agencies were allowed to stay (not even on a small
part of their land) once the land transaction was
completed. That well before 1948, dozens of towns and
hundreds of rural settlements were established by and for
Jewish immigrants, and that not a single one of them
allowed Palestinians to reside within their boundaries,
or even find employment within them, let alone become
full members of the community.
In other words, ignore the ever-expanding zone of
exclusion that was created by the Zionist movement
and its settlement agencies since the beginning of
the 20th century, from which all Palestinians were
barred. Pretend the whole thing started in 1948,
and they were responsible for it. Ignore the
Palestinian refugees, all of whom, regardless
of their personal involvement in military affairs
and political intentions, were equally barred
from returning to Israel after 1948. If you also
manage to ‘forget’ the massive evidence of
ethnic cleansing that took place during that
war, so much the better.
And remember: there are two important tasks to
be performed here: erase all traces of the
exclusion of the majority of Palestinians
from their land (if they are not there, by
definition they cannot be subject to apartheid),
and pre-emptively deny any subsequent claims
(if they lost their citizenship they cannot make
any claim to voting and other rights).
Step three: But we are not alone
As a fallback option, admit that the situation is
not perfect, but you are not the only one
practicing some form of discrimination
or exclusion. If everyone practices apartheid,
then the specific accusation against Israel is no
longer meaningful. Use whatever examples can
bolster your case: Kurds in Turkey, Basques in
Spain, Tibetans in China (and for the more
advanced, Saharawis in Morocco), allow you to
turn the tables against critics: why do they not
protest first against all these other oppressive
regimes? The answer may be that these are
indeed situations in which minority groups are
denied their right to independence. Yet, they
are granted equality and the possibility of full
assimilation if they so desire. Palestinians, in
contrast, have neither independence nor the
option of assimilation and equality, but why
worry about such petty nuances?
Try another tack: what about the
African/Muslim/Caribbean immigrants in
Europe, subject to various restrictions on
immigration, jobs, residence and political
rights? Of course, they are immigrants
rejected by the indigenous majority in
foreign countries, while Palestinians are
indigenous people denied rights in their own
homeland by recently-arrived immigrants,
but so what?
Or, take the legal precedent route: invoke the
right of states to give preferential treatment
to their ‘ethnic kin’ in the diaspora, recognised
by many European countries. But, do not stop to
consider that the very definition of Israel as a
state of the Jewish people (but not of its
indigenous Palestinians) is the source of the
conflict. And that in no European country do
the rights of ethnic kin come at the expense of
the indigenous ethnic groups that do not form
part of the ‘kin’.
Invoke other cases where ethnic and religious
symbols are employed by European states, in
their flag, anthem, crest and so on. That these
states (UK, Greece, Sweden and others) offer
all their citizens equal rights, regardless of
their ethnic or religious origins, and that none
of them allows differential access to resources
based on ethnic or religious identity is best left
out of the discussion. Rather, raise the problem
that Jews and Muslims cannot become UK
monarchs, never mind that 99.9% of Anglicans,
who are not of royal stock, are equally deprived
of that privilege.
Brutal honesty is another useful strategy,
especially when you can go back to the classics:
the Turks did it to the Greeks, and the Greeks
did it to the Turks. The Indians did it to the
Muslims, and the Pakistanis to the Hindus, the
Czechs and the Poles to the Germans, and the
Germans, before them, to everybody else. And
keep up to date: the Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians
have done it to each other. And, you have not
even mentioned yet the great massacres and
millions of deaths from enslavement, forced
labour, dislocation, and diseases, which
afflicted colonized populations in Africa and
the Americas. Why single Israel out, then? Why
are Israelis the only ones who have to meet
the charges of apartheid?
In those cases above (Turkey-Greece,
India-Pakistan, and so on), only a few percent
of the respective populations were affected,
while in 1948 Palestine 60% of the original
indigenous population (of the entire country)
became refugees; in those cases above, the bulk
of the respective population remained rooted in
their own territories, and retained their
independence, while in the case of 1948
Palestine the entire society was dislocated and
lost its ability to rule itself. But these are mere
technicalities, so avoid them at will.
More importantly, in all those cases, the acts of
dispossession, eviction, expulsion, dislocation,
confiscation, were once-off events, even if their
impact was of a long duration. Historical tragedies
and great injustices they were indeed, no doubt,
but life gradually returned to normal after that.
Not so in Israel/Palestine: the government,
parliament, political parties, military authorities,
construction companies, various religious and
social movements, and media organisations,
continue relentlessly to re-enact the historical
dispossession on a regular basis. It is not just the
Nakba of 1948 that matters: an ongoing
onslaught on Palestinians’ land, rights and
demographic presence is the central issue in
Israeli politics today (and has been for decades
though not always with the same intensity).
Literally, not a day passes without a new initiative,
bill, law, regulation, and campaign to restrict,
marginalise, exclude, silence and oppress
Palestinians and any others (including Jews)
who try to defend them and what remains of
Israeli democracy.
But we digress. All this can be easily
explained away by the ultimate weapon:
security!
Step four: But we need security
And if all else fails, invoke the magic word,
security. You are only in it for security. All
you care about is survival. You build a security
fence (on and through other people’s land),
you have security settlements (on other
people’s property), you strive to secure your
existence, your boundaries, your
demographic balance, your power, your rights.
You maintain the occupation because of
security fears (even if you were far more secure
before it), you neither annex the occupied
territories (because their residents would
endanger your security) nor do you leave them
(because to do so would constitute a threat to
your security), you establish settlements because
of security reasons (even if most settlers openly
deny that), you let Jews move freely in and out
of the country and burden Palestinians with
dozens of laws, hundreds of road blocks,
thousands of military regulations, all because
of security. You maintain a dual legal system
(due to security), different roads (for security
reasons), differential access to land and water
(needless to say why), and different education
systems (the s-word is responsible again).
What does all that have to do with apartheid?
Ran Greenstein
[Associate Professor in the Department
of Sociology at the University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa]
Israeli Occupation Archive
November 20, 2011
On “Pinkwashing”:
"Zionists love to ask me, “How would
you fare in Gaza?” to which I love to
respond, “How would I get to Gaza?”
— Saffo Papantonopoulou
Pinkwashing Exposed: Seattle Fights Back
“Pinkwashing" is a term activists have coined
for when countries engaged in terrible human
rights violations promote themselves as
"gay friendly" to improve their public image.
Israel is the country most famous for this
strategy, having initiated it as part of a
rebranding campaign that it has been engaged
in for the last decade. In 2012, activists in
the Pacific Northwestern region of the US
responded to an Israeli Consulate-funded
pinkwashing tour featuring Israeli gay and
lesbian activists that were coming to the
region. Local queer Palestine solidarity
activists exposed the "Rainbow Generations" tour as
pro-Israel propaganda and got some of the
events, including the tour's centerpiece event
hosted by the City of Seattle's LGBT Commission,
cancelled. A significant backlash ensued involving
the Seattle City Council and Seattle's leading LGBT
and HIV organizations. Through the inspiring
story of these activists' victory, Pinkwashing
Exposed explores how pinkwashing works and
what local activists are doing to fight back.”
Schulman, Sara. “Israel and Pinkwashing,’” New York
Times, November 22, 2011. [Note: “A more
detailed documentary history of Brand Israel,
Israel’s campaign to re-brand itself in the
minds of the world, as well as the development of
pinkwashing as a funded, explicit and deliberate
marketing project within Brand Israel, also
written by Sara Schulman,” is available here:
"A documentary guide to ‘Brand Israel’ and the
art of pinkwashing,” Mondoweiss, November
30, 2011.]
BDSMovement.net. “Say No to Pinkwashing,”
Campaign Area. ["Pinkwashing is an Israeli
government propaganda strategy that cynically
exploits LGBTQIA+ rights to project a
progressive image while concealing Israel’s
occupation and apartheid policies oppressing
Palestinians….Anti-pinkwashing activists and
groups have pushed Palestinian rights to the
forefront of Pride events across the world.
More than 100 LGBTQIA+ groups supported
the call from Palestinian queers to boycott
Eurovision 2019 in apartheid Tel Aviv. Dozens
of queer filmmakers have withdrawn or opposed
screenings of their films at TLVFest, the Israeli
government-sponsored LGBT film festival in
Tel Aviv.”]
DecolonizePalestine.com. “Pinkwashing.”
["This article will explore in further detail
how pinkwashing functions and the
detrimental impact it has had and
continues to have on all Palestinians,
but especially queer Palestinians. It will
also push back against the idea, present
even in some critiques of Israeli
pinkwashing, that Israel would be a
queer haven “if only” there was no
occupation, or that Zionism and queer
liberation could eventually become
compatible…. The pinkwashing of Israel
relies on the understanding that the East
remains stubbornly backwards regarding
homosexuality because of a refusal to learn
from Western progressivism. However, as
Joseph A. Boone outlines in “The Homoerotics
of Orientalism”, this is ignoring several
hundred years of history where “it was
the uptight Christian West that accused
the debauched Muslim East of harboring
what it euphemistically called the ‘male
vice’ (sodomy)”….These efforts to transcend
these contradictions can best be understood
through the lens of homonationalism. This
term was coined by Jasbir K. Puar in her
excellent Terrorist Assemblages:
Homonationalism in Queer Times. In it she
describes homonationalism as the
framework in which certain homosexual
constituencies are able to embrace and be
embraced by nationalist agendas, including
the imperial expansion endemic to the war on
terror. Basically, (primarily, but not exclusively)
white cisgender queers can assimilate into the
nation, such as through openly joining the
national army and buying into a combination
of ethnic chauvinism, religious nationalism,
toxic masculinity, and the Islamophobia so
crucial to the war on terror.”]
Jewish Voice for Peace. “Pinkwashing,” [an
older (2016?), online collection of resources
regarding pinkwashing].
Global Social Theory. “Jasbir Puar,” (discussion of
“homonormativity" and “homonationalism”).
["Jasbir Puar (1967) is a queer theorist who
primarily works on the intersection of sexuality,
race and geopolitics. In particular, Puar is known
for proposing the concept of ‘homonationalism’,
which illustrates how homosexuality – and in
particular homonormativity, the adoption of
heteronormative values by the ‘queer’ community
– is instrumentalised as part of nationalist and
geopolitical interventions. In her book ‘Terrorist
Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times’
(2007), she further demonstrates how both
‘pinkwashing’ (the outward adoption of LGBT
friendliness to appear progressive and/or sell
products/services/ideas to the queer community)
and ‘gay shame’ (the shame associated with being
LGBT+) are used as part of (counter)terrorism.]
Kuntsman, Adi. "Queerness as Europeanness:
Immigration, Orientialist Visions and Racialized
Encounters in Israel/Palestine,” Darkmatter Journal,
May 2, 2008. ["As many studies of Israeli GLBT
organising show, the dominant Israeli queer
culture is complicit with racial and colonial
formations. The mainstream GLBT politics
in Israel are almost exclusively Jewish-Ashkenazi
and middle class; Israeli queer’s claims of
citizenship are based on patriotism and
militarism; and many gay night clubs
apply racial(ized) selection at the entrance,
a ‘face control’ of sorts where some Mizrahi
men are denied entrance. The growing queer
presence in Israel, and GLBTs claims to rights
and visibility are undoubtly important. But
such a presence, often oriented to the ‘West’,
and usually uncritical of its own racial and
class privileges, figures the queer as white,
European, and ‘progressive’, juxtaposing it
to all those who are marked as ‘traditional’
and backward’. The Israeli queer scene, in
other words, is saturated with the notion of
European superiority; queerness becomes
Europeanness. And just as in the case of the
Russia-speaking media, immigrant queers
seem to adopt Europeanness as symbolic
capital in negotiating their place in Israeli
society and the GLBT scene.”]
Letson, Robyn. “Coming Out? Against Apartheid:
A Roundtable about Queer Solidarity with Palestine,”
Upping the Anti, #11, 2011.
Sager, Maggie. "Palestinian queer
activists challenge the ‘pinkwashing’
of the Israeli occupation,” alQaws,
February 16, 2011. ["Queer Palestinians,
like Afghan and Iraqi women, have
consistently found their discourse co-opted
by neo-conservative hawks and progressives
alike in order to justify war and occupation
under the assumption that such actions will
‘liberate’ the oppressed….The clearest
message resounding from all three speakers
was that if one actually cares about LGBT rights
within Palestine, one should be working to end
the occupation. That Israel has cultivated a
vibrant and open gay enclave is laudable, yet
such accomplishments do not give the ‘Jewish
State’ a free pass to violate human rights,
including the rights of the gay Palestinians
they allegedly care for. As Haneen dryly
explained, “It doesn’t matter what the sexual
orientation of the Soldier at a checkpoint is,
whether he can serve openly or not. What
matters is that he’s there at all.” Sami echoed
the same sentiment, jibing that “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.”]
Kaufman, David. “Is Israel Using Gay Rights to
Excuse Its Policy on Palestine?” Time, May 13, 2011.
[Excerpt: “The Israeli government and its propaganda
organs ... insist on advertising and exaggerating its
recent record on LGBT rights ... to fend off international
condemnation of its violations of the rights of the
Palestinian people," says Joseph Massad, associate
professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual
history at Columbia University in New York City.”]
Doherty, Benjamin. "Pinkwashing and the Gay
International,” Electronic Intifada, June 2, 2011.
[Excerpt: "IGY is one of the main LGBTQ youth
organizations in Israel; unfortunately, not only
is it complicit with Israel’s policies, but it also
systematically promotes and proactively supports
the same structures that oppress and discriminate
against Palestinians. As we have already mentioned
in our first letter, IGY works closely with the Israeli
Defense Forces (IDF) in recruiting young queers to
the army – a clear proof that IGY is not only a gay
organization, but a homonationalist one that plays
an active role in maintaining the same oppressive
political system that we are working hard to resist.”]
The Queer Shadow Gallery Collective. “Que(e)rying the
Israel-linked GayMiddleEast.com: a statement by
Arab queers,” June 23, 2011.
Doherty, Benjamin. "Arab activists
question Israel-linked GayMiddleEast.com,” Electronic
Intifada, June 23, 2011. ["A group of Arab activists
and human rights organizations have issued a
statement about the Israeli-linked group
GayMiddleEast.com. This organization was
founded in 2003 by Shabi Assaf Gatenio,
and has recently appeared in the media
after the exposure of the Amina hoax
presenting itself as the credible and
authentic voice of LGBT Arabs.”]
Doherty, Benjamin. "Pinkwashing: “MotherTeresa
with a keffiyeh” by marc3pax,”
Electronic Intifada, June 24, 2011.
["Pinkwashing is a phenomenon that
Palestine solidarity activists have become
vocal in resisting.”]
pinkwatcher. “On Race, Palestine, and “Dividing the Gay
Community,” Pinkwatching Israel, October 21, 2011.
[Excerpt: "But what is happening now is nothing new.
Every social movement has at some point been fractured
along the lines of race, class, gender, and sexuality, and
ours is no exception. The second wave of feminist
organizing in the US excluded lesbians, transfolk,
and marginalized the voices of women of color.
The critique leveled at the movement at the
time by people of color such as bell hooks
and Audre Lorde was its assumption of
homogeneity, of having priorities and discourses
defined and set by those in positions of privilege
but who claimed to speak for all. The exact same
thing is happening now in the LGBT movement
on a global scale. We would do well to learn
from this history.”]
Pinkwatcher. "Divine Obfuscation: The
“Non-Political” Myth,” Pinkwatching Israel,
November 9, 2011. ["By claiming to be
non-political they are making the very
political decision to ignore the plight
of the Palestinians. By claiming to be
non-political, they are accepting the
apartheid wall around Bethlehem,
and the illegal Israeli settlements in
Jerusalem. There is no such as thing
as non-political. What these groups
really mean is that they have the
privilege of ignoring discrimination
against Palestinians, and that they
will take advantage of that privilege
because their interfaith and LGBT
“solidarity” efforts must fit within
a specific agenda of Israeli
occupation. LGBT solidarity and
interfaith dialog are admirable
goals, and will certainly be a core
part of creating a stronger, Middle
East. However, true solidarity and dialog
will not amplify one set of voices will
continuing to silence the voices of the
Palestinians.”]
Pinkwatcher. "ROADMAP TO DISPOSESSION:
Exposing IGY’s Program for the World
LGBTQ Youth Leaders Summit in Tel Aviv,”
Pinkwatching Israel, November 28, 2011.
[A visual roadmap exposing Israel’s gay
youth’s program for the World LGBT
Youth Leaders Summit in Tel Aviv.”]
Kouri-Towe, Natalie. “Trending Homonationalism,”
NoMorePotlucks.com. 2012. [Excerpt: Homonationalism
functions in complementary ways to Edward Said’s
concept of Orientalism, which describes how the
West produces knowledge and dominates ‘the
Orient’ through academic, cultural and discursive
processes. Like Orientalism, homonationalism
speaks to the ways Western powers (such as the
U.S. and Canada) circulate ideas about other
cultures (like Arab and Islamic cultures) in order
to produce the West as culturally, morally, and
politically advanced and superior. However,
unlike Orientalism, homonationalism speaks
particularly to the way gender and sexual rights
discourses become central to contemporary
forms of Western hegemony.”]
Horesh, Uri. “Israel’s pinkwashing exposed as
dishonest at New York debates,” Electronic Intifada,
April 6, 2012.
Alpert, Rebecca and Katherine
Franke. “Boycotting Equality
Forum’s Israeli Sponsorship,”
Tikkun, May 10, 2012.
Silverstein, Richard. “U.S. Gay
Rights Activists: Stop Pinkwashing
Palestinian Suffering!” Tikun
Olam, June 7, 2012.
Liphshiz, Cnaan, "Israel Advocates Play Gay
Card,” Haaretz, June 12, 2009. [Excerpt:
"Tel Aviv's burgeoning gay scene may be the
single most effective Israel-advocacy
instrument in the Zionist toolbox, according
to participants of a new program which uses
Israel's vibrant gay culture to improve the
country's image abroad.”]
Meronek, Toshio. “De-
Pinkwashing Israel,”Truthout,
November 17, 2012.
alQaws. "From Pinkwashing to
Pinkwatching,” February 1, 2013.
["alQaws is pleased by the increasing
debate around pinkwashing and the
growing local and international activism
dedicated to counter pinkwashing
activities and to challenge the discourse
around it. In the last year we witnessed
a move from Pinkwashing to proactive
and strategized pinkWATCHING efforts.”]
Schulman, Sarah. Israel/Palestine and
the Queer International, Durham, NC,
Duke University Press Books, 2012.
["Sarah Schulman is a longtime AIDS
and queer activist, and a cofounder
of the MIX Festival and the ACT UP Oral
History Project. She is a playwright and
the author of seventeen books….She is
Distinguished Professor of the Humanities
at The City University of New York,
College of Staten Island.”]
Alsaafin, Linah. "Though small, Palestine’s
queer movement has big vision,” Electronic
Intfada, July 12, 2013.
Doherty, Benjamin. “Reviving
Pinkwashing and Zionist fantasies
of violence against queers and
transgender people,” Electtronic
Intifada, February 27, 2013.
Papantonopoulou, Saffo. “Even
a Freak Like You Would Be Safe
in Tel Aviv": Transgender Subjects,
Wounded Attachments, and the
Zionist Economy of Gratitude,”
WSQ Women's Studies Quarterly,
Jananuary 2014, 42(1):278-293.
[Excerpt: "In 2007, the Israeli
foreign ministry officially
launched a campaign called
Brand Israel. With professional
corporate PR firms hired to
revitalize the apartheid state’s
international image, a total of
almost $20 million was set aside
for Israeli state propaganda in that
year alone. This rebranding
campaign, which persists today,
has consisted of multiple different
tactics. The tactic that has received
perhaps the most attention, and
theone with which I am the most
concerned here, is what has been
dubbed by Palestine solidarity
activists as “pinkwashing”….(T)he
question I want to pose, then, is
where, in the age of neoliberalism
and homonationalism, is the
transgender subject relative to
colonial economies of gratitude?
Ironically, to the extent to which
this question is beginning to be
addressed within the academy,
responses to pinkwashing as it
relates to transgender subjectivities
and politics have followed the gradual
“inclusion” of transgender subjects
into homonationalism.”]
Meronek, Toshio. “Exposing Israel’s ‘Pinkwashing’,”
Common Dreams, June 23, 2014. [Originally published
by Waging Nonviolence]
Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Nadira, Sarah
Ihmoud, and Suhad Dahir-Nashif,
“Sexual Violence, Women’s Bodies,
and Israeli Settler Colonialism,”
Jadaliyya, November 17, 2014.
Abunimah, Ali. "AP corrects story falsely
claiming homosexuality is illegal for Palestinians,”
Electronic Intifada, July 7, 2015.
Shabi, Rachel. “Israel, the rainbow flag and the
'pinkwashing’ problem. The country’s championing
of gay rights is a mere public relations activity,”
Al Jazeera, July 16, 2015.
Abunimah, Ali. “AP finds new ways to smear Palestinians
over same-sex rights,” Electronic Intifada, July 30, 2015.
[Excerpt: "Earlier this month, after being contacted by
The Electronic Intifada, the Associated Press retracted
the false claim that same-sex sexual relations are illegal
under Palestinian law. No longer able to disseminate this
fabrication, AP has seemingly come up with new tactics
to smear Palestinians and put a positive gloss on
Israel….Pinkwashing…”]
Shafie, Ghadir. "Pinkwashing: Israel’s
International Strategy and Internal Agenda,”
Kohl: A Journal for Body and Gender Research
Vol. 1, No. 1 (Summer 2015). Download
the original pdf here.
[Excerpt: "One of the techniques Israel
uses in its pinkwashing campaigns is
to fabricate myths about “saving” Palestinian
queers from their homophobic and
oppressive families and communities by
bringing them to live in Tel Aviv – the
ultimate gay haven. Tel Aviv may be a
gay heaven for Jewish Israeli citizens,
or even for the hundreds of visitors who
engage in gay tourism. However, it is
neither friendly nor a haven for Palestinian
LGBTs and queers.”]
#CancelPinkwashing. “Post Creating
Change — A response from
#CancelPinkwashing,” January 27, 2016.
pinkwatcher. “Boycott Tel Aviv Pride
2016,” Pinkwatching Israel, May 27,
2016. [Includes six videos.]
Fox, Stephanie. “In Praise of Discomfort:
Learning From Dr. King and Confronting
Pinkwashing,” TruthOut, January 22, 2016.
[Excerpt: "Where am I behaving like the white
moderate who King so brilliantly takes to
task? Where is my community choosing
comfort over the urgent need for action?
Where do we want negative peace? Where
do we question the tactics of the oppressed
in their struggles for freedom? As a queer
Jew, the desire for the absence of tension
comes up most in my communities on
discussions of Palestine-Israel. King’s
teachings in that letter have everything
to do with why I asked the National Gay
and Lesbian Task Force to cancel two
events at their upcoming Creating
Change conference.”]
Behrendt, Liza. "Shutting Down a
Pinkwashing Event Is a Smart, Legitimate
Protest Against Israel's Occupation. We
shouldn’t expect Palestinians and their
allies to stop protesting for justice or
temper their message because of the
emotional toll on Jews,” Ha’aretz,
January 28, 2016.
Pasch, Jimmy. "LGBTQ Protests Against
Israel Are About Justice, Not Anti-Semitism.
Israel uses a reductive version of “gay rights”
to market itself with a positive, welcoming
image—despite its egregious human rights
abuses against Palestinians,” In These Times,
January 29, 2016. [Excerpt: "I first heard the term
“pinkwashing” at an event in Seattle four years
ago, where I saw that, as a Jewish queer, I was
the prime target for Israel’s latest public
relations strategy: marketing Israel as an
LGBTQ-friendly destination to shift focus
from its human rights abuses against all
Palestinians. A successful push by local
activists to cancel an Israel-sponsored
speaking event of LGBT Israelis had been
followed by intense backlash from several
LGBTQ and Jewish organizations. At a
report-back, Palestinian and Jewish activists
clarified why they had organized to cancel
the tour and led a discussion on pinkwashing,
insisting that, as queer people, we ask critical
questions about the use of our identities.
Which queer voices are allowed to be heard?
Whose experiences are erased? What power
structures are these narratives upholding?”]
Barrows-Friedman, Nora. “Israel’s first
trans officer helps with ethnic
cleansing,” Electronic Intifada,
April 12, 2017. [Excerpt: “Queer
and transgender activists protested
an event featuring an Israeli
soldier in Seattle on 5 April.
The event was supported by the
LGBTQ Commission, a body
that advises city leaders on lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender
issues. Two commissioners
resigned in protest just days
earlier, criticizing the group’s
participation as an act of
pinkwashing. Pinkwashing is a
public relations strategy that
deploys Israel’s supposed
enlightenment toward LGBTQ
issues to deflect criticism
from its human rights abuse
and war crimes and as a means
to build up support for Israel
among Western liberals
and progressives.”]
Bratt, Scout. "Yes, Our Anti-Israel Protest Disrupted
LGBT Conference — That's the Point!” The Forward,
January 28, 2016. [Excerpt: “It’s because of this
interconnected struggle that we can’t sit quietly
and watch pinkwashing organizations like A Wider
Bridge paper over Israel’s harmful policies toward
Palestinians — policies that harm gay Palestinians
in Haifa as well as in Ramallah. This pinkwashing
is an integral part of Israel’s “Brand Israel” public
relations strategy, which appeals to racist ideas
of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims as backward
and intolerant in contrast to the supposedly
enlightened Western liberalism of Israel. A
superficial embrace of “gay rights” has been
used as an effective way to advertise Israel’s
Western identity, at the expense of Palestinians
who are portrayed as needing to be “saved”
by Israeli liberalism — even as they are
simultaneously denied equal rights in the
Jewish state. Pinkwashing erases queer
Palestinians, or uses them as props for a
savior narrative, while intentionally
distracting from the oppression and
violence that they face under Israeli rule.”]
Barrows-Friedman, Nora. “Artists ditch
Israel’s pinkwashing film festival,”
Electronic Intifada, June 1, 2017.
Dolsten, Josefin and JTA. "Jerusalem Chief Rabbi
Calls Homosexuality ‘A Wild Lust That Needs to Be
Overcome’: 'It would be better if they cast off their
kippah and Shabbat [observance] and show their
true faces,' the rabbi said,” Haaretz, July 24, 2019.
[Excerpt: "The Sephardi chief rabbi of Jerusalem
said gay people cannot be religious Jews and
called homosexuality “a wild lust that needs to
be overcome.” Rabbi Shlomo Amar made the
remarks last week during a sermon.”]
Ginsburg, Mitch. “Army’s ‘gay soldiers’ photo was staged,
is misleading: Male soldiers holding hands in IDF’s viral
photograph are not a couple, only one is gay, and they
both serve in spokesman’s unit,” Times of Israel,
June 12, 2012.
Abunimah, Ali. “Chicago Dyke March
accuser A Wider Bridge has record of
fabrications,” Electronic Intifada,
June 26, 2017.
Marom, Yael. “LGBTQ Israelis come out against occupation
and homophobia: In response to online homophobic
attacks, over 50 LGBTQ left-wing activists and NGO
workers in Israel-Palestine release a statement
condemning the occupation, racism and
pinkwashing,” +972, June 5, 2017.
Wise, Rabbi Alissa. “JVP: Reactions To Our Parade Protest
Were ‘Cruel,’ ‘Homophobic,’ and ‘Hyperbolic,’ The Forward
[Scribe], June 7, 2017. [Excerpt: "To be absolutely clear:
JVPers did not target vulnerable youth; they targeted a
jingoistic, nationalist parade to defend and celebrate a
state that denies equal rights for all its citizens, brutally
controls Palestinian life and land and fits the international
definition of an apartheid state. / Yesterday, the 50th year
to the day of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza,
and East Jerusalem, the JVP staff began our weekly staff
meeting by asking each other to answer a simple yet
difficult question: “Why is the Israeli occupation still
ongoing?” The discussion that followed was profound,
particularly in the wake of the backlash from our actions.
Reflecting on the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., the answer that emerged for me was not Donald
Trump or Netanyahu. It was the moderates in the
Jewish community.”]
Maikey, Haneen. “Why We Should
Boycott Gay Pride in Tel Aviv,”
Newsweek, June 9, 2017.
Boggio Éwanjé-Épée , Felix, and Stella
Magliani-Belkacem, "The Empire of Sexuality:
An Interview with Joseph Massad,” Jadaliyya,
March 5, 2013. [Excerpt: “(W)hat I insist on is
that “sexuality” itself, as an epistemological
and ontological category, is a product of
specific Euro-American histories and social
formations, that it is a Euro-American
“cultural” category that is not universal
or necessarily universalizable.”]
alQaws. "alQaws Statement re: media response to
Israel's blackmailing of gay Palestinians.” September
19, 2014. [Excerpt: "we are dismayed by what we
have noticed in the tone of some critical responses
to these revelations of Israeli Intelligence Unit 8200’s
practices. These responses have a disappointed air,
as if they were saying, ‘Behave, Israel, we know you
are better than this,’ and more, a triumphant tone in
pointing out the hypocrisy of Israeli pinkwashing, but
only on a superficial level, ‘Israel isn't all that
progressive on gay issues, if they're running around
extorting gay Palestinians.’ But this is misleading.
The fact is, Israel is a military colonial power that
lacks good intentions toward any Palestinian people
it controls and such practices of surveillance and
entrapment are central to, even constitutive of, the
Israeli military state. This chiding discourse
re-colonizes our bodies by implicitly suggesting
that queer Palestinians look to Israel as our savior,
another repetition of a familiar and toxic colonial
fantasy - that the colonizer can provide something
important and necessary that the colonized cannot
possibly provide for themselves.”]
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural
Boycott of Israel (PACBI). “Surge in Support for Boycott
of Israeli LGBT Film Festival Shows Growing Respect for
Palestinian Picket Line: Fourteen filmmakers and other
artists declared their support for boycotting Israeli
government sponsored TLVFest,” BDSmovement.net,
June 9, 2017.
Maikey, Haneen. "Why We Should Boycott
Gay Pride in Tel Aviv,” Newsweek, June 9, 2017.
Fox, Anna. “I’m a queer Jewish student. Is my acceptance
in organized Jewish communities conditional?” Jewschool,
June 14, 2017. [Excerpt: “Jewish institutional support for
queer Jews is conditional on their adherence to the
partyline on Israel-Palestine.”]
pinkwatcher. “Campaigners complain to IGLTA [International
Gay and Lesbian Travel Association] about complicity of
Israeli travel agencies,” Pinkwatching Israel, June 19, 2017.
rad fag. “Happening Now: Trans-led Coalition Shuts
Down Chicago Pride Parade," radfag.com, June 25, 2017.
Gupta, Amith. “Anti-Semitism accusations against
‘Dyke March’ prove pro-Israel lobby will torch LGBT
rights for marginalized people,” Mondoweiss, July 4, 2017.
Marom, Yael. “No more waiting: LGBTQ Israelis
must take the rights they deserve: The Israeli
government doesn’t believe LGBTQ Israelis should
be able to adopt children, yet continues to tell the
world what a wonderful place Israel for the queer
community,” +972, July 18, 2017. [Excerpt: "The time
has come to understand that between the
Nation-State Law, attacks on the “left-wing media,”
and Netanyahu’s corruption scandals, the LGBTQ
community is one of the last remaining fig leafs
propping up the deceitful image of Israel as a
Western, liberal country. The community has
great deal of power, and it’s time to stop playing nice.”]
Abunimah, Ali. “Video: Israeli pinkwashing protested
at Berlin pride parade,” Electronic Intifada, July 25, 2017.
[Excerpt: “Pinkwashing is the public relations strategy
that deploys Israel’s supposed enlightenment toward
LGBTQ issues to deflect criticism from its human
rights abuses. It often involves gross exaggerations
of Israel’s progressive policies, accompanied by outright
lies about Palestinians.”]
Farsakh, Leila, Rhoda Kanaaneh & Sherene
Seikaly. "Special Issue: Queering Palestine,
Introduction,” Journal of Palestine Studies,
47:37-12, 2018.
Elia, Nada. “Don't try to stop us from denouncing Israel’s
pinkwashing. Criticising the Israeli propaganda tactic
does not get in the way of activism against society’s
many other oppressive systems,” Middle East Eye,
April 19, 2018. [Excerpt: “Israeli snipers with orders
to shoot anyone who approaches the illegal “border”
do not stop to inquire about their target's gender
identity before pulling the trigger.”]
Kelleher, Patrick. “LGBT performers to boycott
Eurovision in Israel with online broadcast,”
PinkNews, April 24, 2019. [Excerpt: “A number
of artists—including LGBT+ and drag performers
—will be boycotting this year’s Eurovision Song
Contest with an alternative online broadcast. The
broadcast, which is called Globalvision, will air
online at the same time as the Eurovision final
in Tel Aviv as a part of the Boycott, Divestment,
Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.”]
Alqaisiya, Walaa. “Decolonial Queering: The
Politics of Being Queer in Palestine,” Journal
of Palestine Studies 47, no. 3 (2018): 29–44,
Marom, Yael. “LGBTQ activists block Tel Aviv Pride
March: 'There is no pride in occupation’ / The
activists were protesting what they called the Israeli
government’s cynical exploitation of the LGBTQ
community to appear liberal and progressive and
cover up its violation of Palestinians’ human rights
in Gaza and the West Bank," +972, June 8, 2018.
Abunimah, Ali. “LGBTQ filmmakers refuse to let Israel
use them to pinkwash its crimes,” Electronic Intifada,
June 8, 2018.
Shezaf, Hagar, and Jonathan Jacobson. “Revealed:
Israel's Cyber-spy Industry Helps World Dictators
Hunt Dissidents and Gays; Haaretz investigation
spanning 100 sources in 15 countries reveals Israel
has become a leading exporter of tools for spying on
civilians. Dictators around the world – even in countries
with no formal ties to Israel – use them eavesdrop on
human rights activists, monitor emails, hack into apps
and record conversations, Haaretz, October 19, 2018.
Schulman, Sarah. "How the BDS movement convinced
‘Transparent’ creator Jill Soloway to shoot in L.A.
instead of Israel,” Mondoweiss, October 20, 2018.
Abdulhadi, Rabab. “Israeli Settler Colonialism in
Context: Celebrating (Palestinian) Death and
Normalizing Gender and Sexual Violence,”
Feminist Studies 45, no. 2 (2019): 541–73.
Ghanayem, Eman. “Colonial Loops of
Displacement in the United States and
Israel: The Case of Rasmea Odeh,” Women’s
Studies Quarterly 47, no. 3 (2019): 71–91.
Hylton, Riri. "LGBTQ groups call for Eurovision boycott,”
Electronic Intifada, February 1, 2019. [Excerpt: “The
organization alQaws for Sexual and Gender Diversity
in Palestinian Society contends that Israel is engaged
in pinkwashing – the cynical use of LGBTQ rights by
states and corporations to downplay their negative
activities. Haneen Maikey, director of alQaws, said
that “Israel is using Eurovision as pop culture
diplomacy” and is seeking to “exploit” the
competition’s LGBTQ fans. Maikey alleged that
Israel was “feigning support for gay rights while
it incarcerates millions of indigenous Palestinians
in bantustans.”]
Skora, Stephanie. "A Wider Bridge: the “gay rights”
group funded by homophobes,” Electronic Intifada,
February 25, 2019. [Excerpt: "A Wider Bridge receives
funding directly from organizations with a long and
troubling pattern of giving to groups that could be
classified as right-wing, anti-gay, anti-Muslim,
pro-settlement; campus-specific organizations
dedicated to those causes; or agents and politicians
in the Republican Party. All eight of their publicly
available institutional funders have repeatedly
given to organizations that fit these categories.”]
Also see Stephanie Skora, “Pride with Prejudice:
Exposing a Wider Bridge’s Right Wing Funding,”
36 page pdf readable and downloadable here.
Fem Newsmagazine. "Feminism 101: What
is Pinkwashing?” March 2, 2019. [“Excerpt:
Perhaps the most noted example of
pinkwashing is Israel’s public relations
campaign to promote itself as the “gay mecca”
of the Middle East. This campaign emerged
in direct response to “bad press” it received
for human rights violations, particularly
following global media coverage of the Sabra
and Shatila Massacre. / Activists have
problematized pinkwashing efforts as
an attempt to mask and legitimize Israel’s
human rights abuses against Palestinians,
regardless of sexuality. Queer Palestinians
are not spared when Palestinians are
bombed en masse, nor are they given a
free pass out of Gaza. They are not exempt
from marginalization under Israeli apartheid,
and in fact suffer compounded violences as
hyper-transgressive individuals. Palestine’s
queers suffer the violences of settler colonialism
and occupation alongside homophobia and
transphobia. / Furthermore, queer Palestinians
are subject to epistemic violence as their
identities are routinely erased and manipulated.
Under a narrative that relegates queerness to
non-Arab spaces, Israel binarizes their identities
into the mutually exclusive categories of
“Palestinian” and “queer,” while obscuring
violence against Palestinians as a whole.
Alternatively, Israel posits itself as the savior
of Palestinian and Arab queers. Under this
inherently orientalist and Islamophobic
rhetoric, Palestinian society is deemed
backwards and Palestinian queers in need
of saving (by Israelis). / Israel’s campaign
is particularly ironic in light of its lacking
LGBT rights record. For instance, due to
Orthodox religious law, Israel bans gay
couples from participating in marriage
and adoption. Along this vein, pro-Israel
lobby AIPAC boasts the State’s progressive
stance on LGBT rights, but invited renowned
homophobe, Vice President Mike Pence, to
speak at their annual conference. The
premise of queer liberation is not used in
earnest, but rather as a strategy to distract
from other oppressions. Pinkwashing is not
exclusive to Israel, however;”]
Maikey, Haneen and Hilary Aked. "Eurovision has
turned into a ‘pinkwashing’ opportunity for
Israel – the LGBT+ community should boycott it,”
The Independent [UK], March 3, 2019.
Hylton, Riri. "LGBTQ groups call for Eurovision
boycott,” Electronic Intifada, February 1, 2019.
Barrows-Friedman. "Podcast Ep 5:
How "gay rights" group uses right-wing
funding to promote Israel,” April 18,
2019. [“An organization [A Wider Bridge]
with links to anti-gay, anti-Muslim and
Republican groups has no place
representing LGBTQ Jewry, and no
place calling itself ‘progressive,’”
she explains. The group, she adds,
is “essentially a propaganda and
backlash creation arm of the
Islamophobia industry that is
targeted at LGBTQ people.”]
Magid, Jacob. "As rest of right unites,
Kahane disciples declare merger with anti-LGBT
party,” The Times of Israel, July 28, 2019.
Queers for Palestine. "Our Lives, Our Streets!
— Palestine solidarity and the 2019 Berlin
Radical Queer March,” Mondoweiss, July 29,
2019. ["We are here. We are queer. We are
internationalists marching for intersectional
feminist politics, for trans liberation, for sex
workers rights, for freedom of movement and
the right to stay, for a free Palestine, in
solidarity with LGBTQI communities in Turkey,
Russia and everywhere, for freedom and justice
for all. And we will not be silenced!.”] Also see
"Our Lives, Our Streets! Palestine Solidarity
in the Radical Queer March Berlin 2019.”
Ashly, Jaclynn. "PA rescinds ban on LGBTQ
group after protests,” Electronic Intifada,
August 27, 2019. ["The Palestinian Authority
has rescinded a ban on a gay and transgender
advocacy group that caused outrage among
human rights organizations and fear among
some of its members and after a huge
backlash….On 17 August, Palestinian Authority
police spokesperson Louai Irzeqat issued a
statement targeting Al-Qaws (“The Rainbow”
in Arabic), claiming the group goes against
“traditional Palestinian values” and called on
citizens to report “suspicious figures attempting
to provoke and harm the Palestinian social fabric.”
It also accused the group of being “foreign
agents.” The statement came even though
Palestinian law does not consider homosexuality
a crime. “It makes all of us scared,” said
23-year-old Ahmad, who also wanted to remain
anonymous and is from the northern occupied
West Bank. “The PA should be the ones protecting
its citizens from violence, and now they are the
ones who are encouraging it.”]
Ashly, Jaclynn. "A burgeoning drag scene
challenges stereotypes,” Electronic Intifada,
September 5, 2019. ["Kawsar is part of a
burgeoning Palestinian drag scene in Jaffa
and Haifa, involving Palestinians from all
over historic Palestine – from Jerusalem to
Umm al-Fahm, in present-day northern
Israel. “I am prouder than ever to be
Palestinian and a drag queen in this
political situation,” Kawsar said, noting
that her shows and visibility are challenging
Israel’s attempts at pinkwashing decades of
colonization and its more than half-century
occupation of Palestinian territory.”]
Dommu, Rose. "This Israeli Artist’s
Transition Helped Lead Her to
Anti-Zionism,” Out, September 27, 2019.
["Most queer American Jews need to
understand that Israel/Palestine is their
problem, especially those who benefit
from publicizing the intersection of being
Jewish and queer but never talk about
their complicity with Israel/Palestine.
To me, that’s doing a disservice to the
truth and to their true position in the
world. We need to see a mass
organization of queer Jews making
sure that Palestinian solidarity and
Palestinian freedom and antizionist
Jewish identiy is on the agenda in
our workplace, in our social circles,
in our family dinners, everywhere
we go. There are very direct tiesbetween
queer issues andIsrael/Palestine issues….
Obviously the state of Israel pays a lot of
money to present itself as a queer-friendly
haven, what’s known as pinkwashing, so
any state propoganda that as a queer person
you see in your space, and festival you’re
invited to in Israel, every time you go to a
march and you see and Israeli flag, unpack
that shit and refuse to accept it as part of
your queer paardigm.” — Ita Segev]
Barrows-Friedman, Nora. "Israel uses
Latino HIV activist to pinkwash apartheid,”
Electronic Intifada, October 18, 2019.
["Dozens of Latino scholars are urging
a major HIV/AIDS justice organization
to stop helping Israel whitewash its
abuses of Palestinians. In July, Guillermo
Chacón, executive director of the Latino
Commission on AIDS, traveled to Israel
on a propaganda tour. It was hosted by
Project Interchange, a program of the
American Jewish Committee, a prominent
Israel lobby group.”]
Marshood, Hala and Riya Alsanah. “Tal’at:
A Feminist Movement that Is Redefining
Liberation and Reimagining Palestine,”
Mondoweiss, February 2020.
Barrows-Friedman, Nora. “LGBTQ
filmmakers boycott Tel Aviv film fest,”
Electronic Intifada, March 10, 2020.
["More than 130 queer filmmakers and
film artists from around the globe are
pledging to boycott TLVFest, the Tel
Aviv International LGBT Film Festival.
Palestinian and Arab LGBTQ activists
have called on artists to not participate
in the annual festival scheduled in
early June. “As filmmakers, film artists
and production companies committed
to LGBTQIA+ liberation, we understand
that our liberation is intimately connected
to the liberation of all oppressed peoples
and communities,” the pledge states.”]
Atshan, Sa’ed. Queer Palestine and the
Empire of Critique. Stanford University
Press, May, 2020. ["Sa'ed Atshan asks
how transnational progressive social
movements can balance struggles for
liberation along more than one axis.
He explores critical junctures in the
history of Palestinian LGBTQ activism,
revealing the queer Palestinian spirit
of agency, defiance, and creativity,
in the face of daunting pressures and
forces working to constrict it.”]
Alqaisiya, Walaa. "Palestine and the
Will to Theorise Decolonial Queering,”
Middle East Critique 29:1,
pp. 87-113.
Arria, Michael. "‘Progressive’ NY
primary winner Ritchie Torres
participates in pinkwashing
pride event featuring an IDF
commander,” Mondoweiss,
June 26, 2020.
Maikey, Haneen. “A rallying cry for
Palestinian queer liberation,”
Mondoweiss, July 30, 2020. [“We’ve
come to put an end to the Israeli
occupation’s attempts to exploit
our pain and “pinkwash” our struggle.
Over the past two decades, the
colonial propaganda of pinkwashing,
although persistent and well-funded,
hasn’t been able to erase us! If
anything, the failures of pinkwashing
have only emphasized that queer
liberation necessitates the liberation
of Palestine and all Palestinians!”]
["This speech was originally published
by Al Qaws on July 29, 2020.”]
Jackman, Michael Connors and Nishant
Upadhyay. "Pinkwatching Israel, Whitewashing
Canada: Queer (Settler) Politics and Indigenous
Colonization in Canada,” Women's Studies
Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 3/4, SOLIDARITY
(FALL/WINTER 2014), pp. 195-210. [“In
this essay, we ask how critics of Israeli
pink-washing—known as pinkwatchers—
varyingly challenge, engage, negotiate,
perform, or reproduce settler colonialism
on Indigenous lands…. By focusing on
these debates, we seek to critically explore
how certain queer praxes have worked to
normalize and invisibilize settler colonialism
in the Canadian context and to reproduce
Canada as a progressive queer-friendly
liberal state.”]
Elia, Nada. "How Palestine is a critical
feminist issue. Newly formed Palestinian
Feminist Collective is promoting a truly
intersectional and decolonial vision” Middle
East Eye, March 25, 2021. ["More than a
mere lip-service statement of solidarity,
the pledge lists six concrete steps and
commitments towards advancing a truly
intersectional and decolonial feminist
vision in Palestine. These include
embracing Palestinian liberation as a
critical feminist issue; pledging support
for Palestinian rights to free speech and
political organising; rejecting the
conflation of anti-Zionism with
antisemitism; endorsing the boycott,
divestment and sanctions (BDS)
movement; divesting from militarism;
and calling to end US political, military
and economic support to Israel.”]
Qutami, Loubni. “Why Feminism?
Why Now? Reflections on the ‘Palestine
is a Feminist Issue Pledge,’” Spectre
Journal, May 3, 2021.
Raza-Sheikh, Zoya. "Why the
LGBTQ+ community should care
about Palestine. Breaking down
the biggest questions surrounding
Palestine and how the LGBTQ+
community can show solidarity,”
Gay Times, June 29, 2021
Ben David, Tamar and Lilach Ben David.
"‘I’d rather die in the West Bank’: LGBTQ
Palestinians find no safety in Israel. Israel
markets itself to the world as an LGBTQ
paradise, but testimonies from asylum-seeking
queer Palestinians show it sentences
them to a life of hell,” +972, September
17, 2021.
Ihmoud, Sarah. "Palestinian Feminism:
Analytics, Praxes and Decolonial
Futures,” Feminist Anthropology 3, no.
2 (2022): 284–98.
Students for Justice in Palestine at
UCLA. "Purple-Washing: Israel’s Faux
Feminism Through the Lens of
Medical Apartheid,” Fem Magazine,
March 22, 2022. [Excerpt:
"Appropriating and capitalizing on
progressive conversations to benefit
their own agenda is a common
tactic settler states use to distract
from their own human rights
violations. The process in which
the state appeals to women’s rights
to propagate harmful agendas is
called purple-washing. In the context
of the Middle East and North Africa,
purple-washing rhetoric often plays
on tropes of civilized Europeans and
Americans rescuing Muslim women
from their oppressive surroundings.
The case with Israel is similar, where
they claim Israelis have “saved”
Palestinian women from “inherently
evil” Palestinian men. These tropes
are rooted in racism and Orientalism
— an imperialist philosophy that
upholds white supremacy by
stereotyping, exoticizing, and
generalizing Middle Eastern
communities. This is connected
to misogyny, which the occupying
state of Israel is not exempt from.
Israel employs purple-washing to
craft a state-controlled narrative
of gender equality for the
international community and the
US, but their settler colonial
practices towards Palestinian
women, such as medical apartheid,
are violent and do not reflect this
faux liberal jargon.”]
Alalami, Tara and Rawan Nabil.
“The Birds Shall Return: Imagining
Palestinian Feminist Futurities,”
Briarpatch, May 4, 2022.
Alqaisiya, Walaa. Decolonial
Queering in Palestine (Theorizing
Ethnography). New York: Routledge,
2023. ["This book provides a vivid
account of the political valence of
weaving queer into native
positionality and the struggle
for decolonisation in the settler
colonial context of Palestine,
referred to as decolonial queering.
It discusses how processes of
gender and sexuality that privilege
hetero-colonising authority shaped
and continue to define both the
Israeli-Zionist conquest of Palestine
and the Palestinian struggle for
liberation, thus future imaginings
of free Palestine. This account
emerges directly from the voices
and experiences of Palestinian
activists and artists; particularly,
it draws on fieldwork with
Palestine’s most established
queer grassroots movement, alQaws
for Sexual and Gender Diversity in
Palestinian Society, and a variety of
artistic Palestinian productions
(photography, fashion, music,
performance, and video art). Offering
a comprehensive and in-depth
engagement with the situated context,
history, and local practices of
Palestinian queerness, scholars,
students, and activists across
(de)colonial, race, and
gender/sexuality studies would
appreciate its unique insights; its
empirical focus also reaches to those
academics in the wider fields of
Middle Eastern, anthropological,
and political studies.”]
Freedman, Eliyahu. “‘Queerness is
part of Palestinian culture. We’ve
existed forever’ Elias Jahshan,
editor of the anthology ‘This Arab
is Queer,’ discusses sexuality in
the Arab world, Israeli pinkwashing,
and his dream of a liberated Jaffa,”
+972, January 18, 2023.
Jahshan, Elias. "How Tel Aviv became
a battleground for queer accountability.
From music festivals to Pride events,
Palestinian-Australian journalist Elias
Jahshan calls for LGBTQ+ artists to do
better for the community,” Gay Times,
March 24, 2023.
Queers in Palestine. "A Liberatory
Demand from Queers in Palestine,”
November, 2023. ["During these
times, and in line with its long-standing
exploitation of liberal identity politics,
Israel has been weaponizing queer
bodies to counter any support for
Palestine and any critique of its
settler-colonial project. Israelis
(politicians, organizations, and
“civilians”) have been mobilizing
colonial dichotomies such as
“civilized” and “barbaric,” “human”
and “animal,” and other
dehumanizing binaries as a
discourse that legitimizes the
attacks on Palestinians. Within
this settler-colonial rhetoric,
Israel seeks to garner and
mobilize support from Western
governments and liberal
societies by portraying itself
as a nation that respects
freedom, diversity, and human
rights, that is fighting a
“monstrous” and oppressive
society, illuminated clearly
through the declaration of the
Prime Minister of Israel “There
is a struggle between the
children of light and children
of darkness, between humanity
and law of the jungle.”]
alQaws. Website. ["a Palestinian queer organization
that takes part in a great deal of political activism,
including anti-pinkwashing campaigns, as well as
working within the Palestinian queer communities
in Palestine, Israel and the diaspora. Their site has
a wealth of information on queer issues in
Palestine/Israel”]
Aswat. Website. ["Palestinian Feminist Center
for Gender and Sexual Freedoms’ mission is to
fuel our feminist-queer movements and shift
power to LBTQI women by investing in capacity
building, fostering collective feminist action,
advocating for sexual diversity and gender
justice, amplifying LBTQI+ women voices and
propelling queer-feminist organizing through
leadership development.”]
Extreme(ly Queer) Muslims Episode 3: Izzaddine talks Islam, Palestine, and Pinkwashing [6/19/17]
Homophobia and Pinkwashing: Part 9 of "The Bullet, The Ballot & The Boycott" by David Sheen
[at Emory University 12/12/15]
SHEFITA - Pink [Aerosmith cover] - Tel Aviv Official Pinkwash 2016 "Contrary to popular belief,
there's nothing fashionable about the occupation, so please, stop pinkwashing it!"
Ali Abunimah, co-founder of electronicintifada.net, discusses David Sheen's reporting on Israel's
treatment of African refugees, in a short segment from his lecture "Pinkwash, Greenwash,
Hogwash.” [2013]
“What is Queer BDS? Pinkwashing, Intersections,Struggles, Politics" (Angela Davis) [2012]
“In the past few years the Israeli government
and its supporters have been actively
promoting the country as the only nation
in the Middle East to support lesbian and
gay rights, and advertising their beaches
to the gay community as an ideal vacation
spot. Across the west lesbians and gays
have adamantly rejected this campaign on
the grounds that the Israeli government
is using gay and lesbian issues, and gays
and lesbians themselves, to cover up or
“pinkwash" their actions, deemed “criminal"
by the United Nations, against Palestinians.
In this talk, historian Elise Chenier offers
an overview of the history of queer politics
in the west to put the current movement
of queers against Israeli apartheid in
context.” [2014]

Image by Micah Bizant. Micah is “a trans
visual artist who works with social justice
movements to reimagine the world.”
“No to Eurovision Pinkwashing.
More Than 60 LGBTQ+ Groups Call
for Boycott of Song Contest in Israel.
Queer and trans liberation
organizations from nearly 20
countries across Europe and
beyond are calling on global
LGBTQIA communities to take
a stand for Palestinian human
rights and boycott the 2019
Eurovision Song Contest in
Israel.” [PinkwatchingIsrael.com,
1/29/2019]
Photo from Leil Zahra Mortada / Oumaima Dermoumi

Activists march in a Pink-Black Block, protesting against PInk-Washing
and against the Israeli occupation, during the Jerusalem Pride Parade,
June 6, 2019. Photo by: Keren Manor and Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org

“The members of the Shin Bet put a
cruel choice before gay Palestinians:
betray their people by spying for the
regime and risk being cruelly put to
death – all in exchange for keeping
their secret – or have their secret
exposed and be ostracized from their
families, exposed to violent attacks
and perhaps even murdered.”
[Haaretz, 9/23/14]
Click here to go to the ei podcast

Anti-Pinkwashing Activists Take Over London Pride


"More than 130 LGBTQIA+ filmmakers and film
artists from 15 countries have signed a groundbreaking
pledge committing not to participate in TLVFest,
the Israeli government-sponsored LGBT film
festival in Tel Aviv."


Anti-pinkwashing protestors demonstrate in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square
in reaction to the city's annual Pride rally [June, 2020 / +972]
“From Madrid to Berlin – Queer BDS will fight.
Queer BDS will win!💪🏽” — Orgullo Crítico Madrid
Liberation in Palestine, A Queer
Issue - Haneen Maikey, February 28,
2014 [Haneen Maikey is founder &
director of alQaws for Sexual and
Gender Diversity within Palestinian
Society.]
Sharona Weiss in +972: "A Palestinian trans
woman’s story peels away Israel’s pinkwashing
veil. From oppressive institutions to social prejudices,
MC's ordeal embodies the dark reality of
LGBTQ Palestinians who thought they could
find safety in Israel.” [6/8/23]

“Filmmakers are pulling out of the
Tel Aviv LGBT film festival.
Citing accountability in the
queer community to communities
of colour, Puerto Rican filmmaker,
André Pérez, joins Ana Čigon
(Slovenia) and withdraws from
the festival.”

Kohl: A Journal for Body and Gender Research

"This is a time of emergency, argues Thau,
and “Just as when there is existential danger
to the body we don’t observe laws of manners
and respect… all the more so at a time of danger
to the life of the soul,” adding that "There is no
avoiding going out to war and sometimes even
making extreme and shocking statements.” To
put it directly, "There is no place for weakening
the Torah rebellion because of conventions of
politesse.”
Say No to #pinkwashing, Yes to #BDS
(Boycott Divestment & Sanctions)! 🌈💖💪
A special musical appeal to BBC Eurovision
Song Contest-host The Graham Norton
Show, starring drag king Beaujangles, in
support of the Palestinian call to
#BoycottEurovision2019.

“Our Lives, Our Streets! —
Palestine solidarity and the
2019 Berlin Radical Queer March"
Anti-Zionist Israeli Trans Woman Artist Says
Queer Jews Must Stand With Palestinians,
Support BDS

Izzy Mustafa is “a Brooklyn-based
Palestinian transgender man who
grew up in the Diaspora.”
"A left-wing activist holds up a Palestinian flag
at Tel Aviv Pride, June 28, 2020 (Oren Ziv/Activestills)”
/ Shai Gortler and Haokets: "Why I brought a Palestinian
flag to an Israeli Pride rally. I reject the
government's exploitation of the LGBTQ+ struggle
to further its supremacist goals" [+972,
July 17, 2020].
Pinkwatching Israel’s Pinkwatching Kit [2012]

"Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem
and former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of
Israel Shlomo Amar said that recent
earthquakes in Israel are a direct result
of the rise in rights and freedoms for
LBGTQ+ people during his weekly lesson.
Using a passage from the Talmud to
demonstrate his claim, Rabbi Amar
made the case that the earthquakes
that have struck Israel in the aftermath
of the devastating earthquakes in
Turkey and Syria can be attributed to
the rise in gay marriages in Israel."
"On Wednesday, July 29th [2020], alQaws for Sexual
and Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society
along with other queer and feminist Palestinian
organizations will hold a protest in occupied
Haifa to raise our voices against the patriarchal,
colonial, and capitalist oppressions on LGBT
and queer Palestinians, and to demand an
end to violence against our bodies and lives."


“There is no pride in the occupation” // "My name is Ayelet.
I’m a 16 years old trans teen and an activist in the Mesarvot
network, an Israeli Network supporting war resisters and
political objectors. Last Friday (June 10th), at the Israeli
pride parade in Tel Aviv, I was arrested for holding the
Palestinian flag with the slogan “there is no pride in the
occupation” in Hebrew….I made this sign not only to show
my objection to the Israeli occupation of the West bank
and the Gaza strip, but also to protest the way the Israeli
government uses the LGBTQ+ community to justify the
occupation. The government uses Pinkwashing - displaying
superficial support for LGBTQ+ rights in order to justify
horrible actions.” [6/16/22]

"This Lesbian Day of Visibility, we’re holding
close the memory of movement transcestor
Leslie Feinberg Z”L, a trans lesbian Jew who
stood in lifelong solidarity with Palestinians
and viewed her/hir work for LGBT and
Palestinian liberation as deeply connected.
As Leslie observed in a speech to the
Palestinian queer women’s group
أصوات - Aswat in 2007, countries from the
US to Israel “use the experiences of women,
of gays, of transgenders as pretexts for
imperialist war,” even as they support
anti-LGBT policies and countries that serve
their interests. She/zie believed that the
rights of LGBT people “should not be
placed in competition with the long
struggle of the Palestinian people, including
Palestinian LGBT people, for
self-determination, for the right to return to
their homes, and the struggle against
apartheid and the occupation of their
lands.” In fact, she/zie thought that LGBT
liberation was not possible without the
liberation of all people oppressed by
imperialist war and racism, particularly
Palestinians. Your memory is a blessing,
Leslie." — JVP, 4/26/21












Queers for Palestine march in Berlin,
Germany on July 27, 2019. (Photo:
Montecruz Foto) / Mondoweiss

"Israeli activists block the Tel Aviv
pride parade to protest against
pinkwashing and in solidarity with
the Great March of Return in
Gaza, June 8, 2018. (Activestills
/Keren Manor)
alQaws: “5 Ways to Support Palestinian Queers”
1) Center Palestinian LGBTQ voices in your reporting
We are constantly talked about but our voices are rarely heard.
When reporting on issues that pertain to LGBTQ Palestinians,
just ask yourself: whose voice does this story center? If it
doesn't center the voices of LGBTQ Palestinians, then your
actions might lead to more harm even if your intentions are
to help. Come talk to us and hear our perspective. Do not
simply copy and paste translated Hebrew/Israeli media to tell
our story. alQaws activists and staff always provide our names
when interviewed, so if you read an article/post with a claimed
quote from us with no name attributed, you should know it is
not from us.
2) Realize that colonialism, patriarchy and homophobia
are all connected forms of oppression
Singling out incidents of homophobia in Palestinian
society ignores the complexities of Israel's colonization
and military occupation being a contributing factor to
Palestinian LGBTQ oppression. We have been living under
more than 7 decades of Israel's military occupation. We see
the Israeli occupation of our land and bodies as connected
to and amplifying the diverse forms of oppression
experienced in every society around the globe. alQaws
believes the way to truly counter homophobia in Palestine
is by understanding and applying the broader political
context in any solidarity activities. We ask that you situate
Palestinian LGBTQ oppression within the larger context
of Israeli occupation, colonialism, patriarchy and
homophobia at large.
3) Steer clear of pinkwashing
Perpetuating tiresome tropes of presenting Palestinians
as inherently oppressive and Israel as a liberal state
that protects LGBTQ rights is counter-productive and
factually baseless. Israel is a settler-colonial state that
offers no rights to Palestinians, queer or otherwise. Our
struggle as queer Palestinians is against Israeli colonialism
as much as it is against homophobia and patriarchy in
Palestine. Israel uses pinkwashing tactics to lie about
“saving” LGBTQ Palestinians from their society. We ask
that you steer away from these lies that are intentionally
used to justify their colonization of Palestine. alQaws
and our allies in Palestine will continue to amplify our
message as well as provide protection and a political
home for LGBTQ Palestinians. Israeli LGBTQ groups do
not have a say in the work that should be done to fight
patriarchy and homophobia in Palestine, including the
incitements led by the Palestinian police.
4) Understand our commitment to our local
community organizing
alQaws has been organizing in historic Palestine to
educate Palestinian society on sexual and gender
divesity since 2001. We are a small team of
dedicated activists who believe change comes
from working within our local context. We put
enormous daily and strategic efforts in our local
grassroots advocacy organizing in Palestine.
Therefore, and especially in such a crisis, we
prioritize providing education and safety to our
communities first. Please be patient with us as
we respond to your media inquiries.
5) Support our work and vision
We believe in the power of people to make social
change possible. Some practical ways you can help
amplify our vision for change is by educating
yourself and your networks on the work that we do
at alQaws. Follow us on social media, share our
resources, talk to your friends and family about
the importance of standing up against bigotry
towards LGBTQ people, and make sure that your
vision of liberation and freedom in Palestine
includes us all.

On “Greenwashing":

From IsraeliLaundry.org
Abu Ata, Alex. “Water apartheid leaves Palestinian
children ill,” Electronic Intifada, May 23, 2012.
Abulhawa, Susan. "Israel’s desalination
miracle, Santa Claus and other fairy
tales," Middle East Eye, August 12, 2016.
Abunimah, Ali. “Activists burst occupation profiteer
SodaStream’s “feel-good” bubble,” Electronic
Intifada, November 20, 2013. [Also see Amena
Saleem, "Israel steps up SodaStream marketing
in attempt to greenwash Israeli settlement crimes,”
Electronic Intidada, February 3, 2013.]
Abunimah, Ali. “Are Israeli arms sales hiding
behind “agriculture” in South Sudan?” Electronic
Intifada, July 25, 2019. [“When Ziv first came
to South Sudan he said his goal was to help
the country “recover from war,” using – as
OCCRP puts it – “Israel’s experience in
agricultural development as a model.”
The claim that Israel has expertise in
irrigation and cultivation to share with
African countries is a major part of the
propaganda accompanying its effort to
win diplomatic support on the continent.
But as with most Israeli propaganda,
it’s a sham. What Israel has really sown
across the continent are atrocities and
suffering including by arming South
Africa’s apartheid regime and supplying
weapons during the genocide in Rwanda.”]
Abunimah, Ali. “If it’s against Jewish law, then
why is Israel doing it?” Electronic Intifada, January
28, 2004. ["The Israeli army has destroyed
hundreds of thousands of Palestinian olive and
citrus trees throughout the Occupied West Bank
and Gaza Strip in recent years. Yet in a startling
admission, a staffer at the Jewish National Fund
for Israel (JNF) has written that, “it is against
Jewish halachic law to uproot fruit bearing
trees….Nowhere on its website or in its
fundraising literature does the JNF mention that,
in fact, Israel has engaged in the massive,
systematic destruction of Palestinian fruit-bearing
trees, all over the occupied territories, and in parts
of Palestine in which Israel was established in
1948.”]
Abunimah, Ali. "Israel wants to protect environment
as it massacres Gaza marchers,” Electronic Intifada,
April 5, 2018. [Excerpt: "Israel is trying to present
itself as environmentally friendly as it prepares
once again to massacre civilian marchers in the
occupied Gaza Strip. Its propaganda is all the
more cynical, given the environmental catastrophe
its decade-long siege has imposed on the two
million Palestinians in the coastal enclave.”]
Abunimah, Ali. “New “Green Israel” ads on CNN
greenwash sewage of occupation and apartheid,”
Electronic Intifada, June 22, 2012.
Agha, Zena. "Climate Change, the
Occupation, and a Vulnerable Palestine,”
Al Shabaka, March 26, 2019. [Excerpt:
"Although Palestinians and Israelis inhabit
the same physical terrain, Palestinians
under occupation will suffer the effects
of climate change more severely. The
ongoing Israeli occupation – now in its
fifty-second year – prevents Palestinians
from accessing resources and pursuing
measures to support climate change
adaptation, which is understood here
as the adjustment in human or natural
systems in response to the effects of
climate change.”]
Ahmed, Sanjidah and Hadeel Abdelhy.
"Environmental justice, not dialogue, for
Palestinians,” The Chronicle [Duke], October
24, 2018. [Excerpt: “Frankly, we find J Street
U Duke and Duke Environmental Alliance’s
celebration of this event as a “peacemaking
event” to learn about Arava’s efforts to “loosen
the tension between even the oldest of feuds”
to be both ludicrous and shameful. We reject
the premise that dialogue between Israelis and
Palestinians can solve environmental problems
when Israeli violence is responsible for
Palestinian environmental degradation and
unbearable living conditions. As we have
clarified, this not a mere “feud.” The
environmental degradation in Palestine
is the result of Israel inflicting decades
of environmental violence as a method
of collective punishment to ensure the
complete domination and annihilation
of Palestinian people.”
Al-Haq. "In the Aftermath of COP26: A
Rights-Based Solution to Climate Change
is Needed to Counter Israel’s Greenwashing,”
November 21, 2021. ["The Preamble of the
Paris Agreement requires that due
consideration is given to human rights
obligations when addressing climate change.
It is urgent to adopt an intersectional approach
to climate change-related challenges,
as loss and damage are mostly felt
by the most vulnerable communities,
and ensure that self-determination
and participation are placed at the
core of the humanity fight against
climate change.”]
Al-Haq. "World Water Day: Israel’s
Discriminatory Policies in Palestine
Constitute a Systemic Attack on the
Palestinian People’s Right to Water
and Sanitation at a Time of
Unprecedented Global Pandemic,”
Alhaq.org, March 22, 2021. [“The
ongoing pillage by Israel, and with
the complicity of corporate actors,
of Palestinian water resources in the
occupied West Bank is having a
disproportionate affect on Bedouin
and herder communities and
Palestinian farmers. These
communities depend fully or
partially on water for their survival
and livelihoods, and are particularly
severely affected by Israeli and
corporate pillage of their natural
resources including water.”]
Alikhan, Zubayr. "The devastating
environmental effects of Israeli
settler-colonialism in the West Bank.
Israeli settlement expansion is not only
illegal, it is also destroying Palestine’s
environment through the urbanization
of the West Bank,” Mondoweiss,
January 31, 2022. [Excerpt: “Israeli
settlements embody urbanization and
the immense harm it poses. First,
Israeli settlements are almost entirely
built on confiscated Palestinian
agricultural or grazing lands and
are only erected after clear-cutting
and uprooting local flora, namely
olive trees: a primary source of
food and income for Palestinians.”]
Alliance for Water Justice in
Palestine. “Greenwashing Israel:
Water Firms in California,” June 6, 2016.
Al-Sammak, Ahmed. “Gaza:
Palestinian farmers suffer from
climate crisis, occupation. Water
shortages, heatwaves and open
conflict have taken a toll on
agriculture in the besieged enclave,”
Middle East Eye, November 28, 2021.
["Abu Saeed has seen Israeli forces
bulldoze his land three times over
the last decade - a practice done by
the army under the pretext of
flattening terrain near the separation
fence in order to give troops better
visibility into the Palestinian territory.
“Climate change and the occupation
are too much,” Abu Saeed said. Even
before the siege, Abu Matwy saw 130
dunams (32 acres) of land he cultivated
with plums, peaches, almonds and
citrus east of the village of al-Msader
flattened by Israeli bulldozers in 2000,
at the beginning of the Second Intifada.
He received a paltry $1,400 in
compensation. The siege has also had
a dire impact on water supplies in Gaza,
affecting agriculture.”]
Amnesty International. “Troubled
Waters: Palestinians Denied Fair Access
to Water,” October 30, 2009. ["Israel is
denying Palestinians their right to access
to adequate water by using discriminatory
and restrictive policies.”]
al-Qedra, Fedaa. "Pollution on tap in Gaza,”
Electronic Intifada, March 14, 2022.
["Access to water is among the many
issues examined by Amnesty International
in its recently published report
documenting how Israel runs an apartheid
system. The report states that “Israel has
consolidated complete control of all water
resources and water-related infrastructure
in the Gaza Strip, including the coastal
aquifer, which is the only freshwater resource
in Gaza.” Due to over-extraction and
pollution, more than 95 percent of water
from the coastal aquifer is unfit for human
consumption. No transfer of water from
the occupied West Bank to Gaza is
allowed by Israel, the Amnesty report
adds. Israel, the occupying power,
charges hefty sums to supply Gaza
with water. The annual bill paid to
Israel is around $20 million.”]
Ashly, Jaclynn. "Drowning in the waste of
Israeli settlers. Some 19 million cubic
metres of wastewater from Israeli
settlements flows through the occupied
West Bank each year,” Al Jazeera,
September 18, 2017.
Baroud, Ramzy. “Gaza’s forthcoming
crisis might be worse than anything we
have ever seen. When almost all of Gaza’s
water is not fit for human consumption
because of a deliberate Israeli strategy,
one can understand why Palestinians
continue to fight back as if their lives
are dependent on it; because they are,”
Common Dreams, April 1, 2022.
Baroud, Ramzy. “War on nature: How Zionist
colonialism has destroyed the environment in
Palestine.” Middle East Monitor, February 11, 2019.
Baroud, Ramzy and Romana Rubeo.
“Israel's'environmental crisis' is of its own making.
Israel's destruction of the environment in
Palestinian territories is now threatening
Israeli lives,” Al Jazeera, July 7, 2019.
B’Tselem. “Olive harvest, 2018: Israeli settlers injure
Palestinian farmers, harm trees and steal olives,”
December 6, 2018.
Barghouti, Dr. Mustafi. “Israel seizes 87% of our water
and wants to sell us sea water in return,” Palestine
Monitor, July 27, 2017.
Baroud, Ramzy. “War on nature: How Zionist
colonialism has destroyed the environment in
Palestine,” Middle East Monitor, February 11, 2019.
[Excerpt: “Palestine contains vast colonisation
potential which the Arabs neither need nor are
qualified to exploit,” wrote one of Israel’s founding
fathers and first Prime Minister, David Ben
Gurion, to his son Amos in 1937.”]
Beiler, Ryan Rodrick. “The sun also shines … but not
equally on all,” Electronic Intifada, May 6, 2017.
B’Tselem. “Olive harvest, 2018: Israeli
settlers injure Palestinian farmers, harm
trees and steal olives,”
December 6, 2018.
B’Tselem. “Parched: Israel’s policy of water
deprivation in the West Bank,” May, 2023.
[Executive Summary / downloadable PDF
of full report]
B’Tselem. “Water Crisis,” section on B’Tselem
website, accessed March, 2019. [Excerpt: "In 1967,
Israel seized control of all water resources in the
newly occupied territories. Israel retains exclusive
control over all the water resources between the
Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, except
for a small section of the coastal aquifer in the Gaza
Strip. Israel uses the water as it sees fit, ignoring the
needs of Palestinians in the West Bank and in the
Gaza Strip, subjecting them to a mostly man-made
watershortage. Neither area is supplied enough water.
In Gaza, even the water that is supplied is
substandard and not potable.”]
Butmeh, Abeer. "Palestine is a climate justice issue.
The fight for climate justice for all is directly
connected to the Palestinian struggle,” Al
Jazeera, November 28, 2019. [Excerpt:
"Israel cultivates an image worldwide as
“green”, but the reality is dramatically
different. Israel relies on unsustainable
agricultural and water use practices that
depend upon the exploitation of
Palestinians’ land and water.
Additionally, 97.7 percent of Israel’s
electricity production comes from
fossil fuels, and Israel is seeking
to export natural gas and electricity
generated from fossil fuels to Europe.”]
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle
East (CJPME), “Factsheet," August, 2018.
[Downloadable fact sheet. “This
factsheet discusses how the Israeli government
uses "greenwashing" by pretending to be
environmentally-friendly in order to deflect
attention from its human rights abuses
against Palestinians.]
Chhaya, Meeraj. "Greenwashing the Naqab,”
The Nakba Files, November 19, 2018. [“…
based on two reports published by Who Profits
Research Center in February 2017
entitled, “Greenwashing the Occupation: The
Solar Energy Industry and the Israeli Occupation
”and “Greenwashing the Naqab: The Israeli Industry
of Solar Energy”. Who Profits is a research center
dedicated to exposing the role of the private sector
in the Israeli occupation economy.”]
Considine, Meghan Clare and Max
Gruber. “Notes on the Palestine Poster
Project Archive: Ecological Imaginaries,
Iconographies, Nationalisms and
Knowledge in Palestine and Israel,
1947–now,” Third Text, November 10, 2022.
Cook. Jonathan. "Israel greenwashing the “war on terror,”
Electronic Intifada, March 30, 2010.
Cooper, Therezia. "SodaStream: Greenwashing the
Israeli occupation,” Palestine Monitor, October 3, 2012.
Corradin, Camilla. "Israel: Water as a tool to dominate
Palestinians. Israel deliberately denies Palestinians
control over their water sources and sets the ground
for water domination,” Al Jazeera, June 23, 2016.
Cronin, David. "Water apartheid in Gaza and Flint,”
Electronic Intifada, March 18, 2016. ["The letter
from Gaza to Flint — signed by various activists,
including the prominent doctor Mona el-Farra —
notes that Israel controls Palestinian water. The
Israeli occupation steals from the coastal aquifer
that is Gaza’s main source of water, prevents
Palestinians from building sewage treatment
facilities and forces them to buy water at prices
they cannot afford. Ordinary people in Flint do
not enjoy any sovereignty when it comes to
water, either.”]
Deprez, Miriam. "Even animals are divided by Israel’s
Wall and occupation threats to the local environment,”
Middle East Monitor, August 20, 2018.
Elia, Nadia. "Israel's 'greenwashing' now extends to
co-opting vegetarianism in its 'moral' army of
occupation,” TheNewArab, September 19, 2017.
Environmental Justice Atlas. “Greenwashing
by the Jewish National Fund, Israel,” May 30, 2019.
Forensic Architecture. “Herbicidal Warfare
in Gaza,” January 16, 2020. ["Since 2014,
the clearing and bulldozing of agricultural
and residential lands by the Israel military
close to the eastern border of Gaza has
been complemented by the unannounced
aerial spraying of crop-killing herbicides.
This ongoing practice has not only
destroyed entire swaths of formerly
arable land along the border fence,
but also crops and farmlands hundreds
of metres deep into Palestinian territory,
resulting in the loss of livelihoods for
Gazan farmers.”]
George, Alan. “Making the Desert Bloom” A Myth
Examined,” Journal of Palestine Studies 8.2,
1979: 88-100. ["The major conclusions
which thus emerge are: 1. That only about
half of Palestine has a true desert climate;
2. That expansion of the cultivated area
was already under way before the
occurrence of mass Zionist immigration;
3. That by about 1930 all those areas
which could be cultivated by the
indigenous Arab population were
already being farmed by them; 4.
That the area within what became
Israel actually being farmed by Arabs
in 1947 was greater than the physical
area which was under cultivation in
Israel almost thirty years later; 5. That
the impressive expansion of Israel’s
cultivated area since 1948 has been
more apparent than real since it
involved mainly the "reclamation” of
farmland belonging to the refugees;
this is probably as true for the Negev
desert as for the rest of Israel.”]
Gisha. "New multi-media
investigation proves herbicide
spraying by Israel near Gaza
fence damages lands and crops
deep inside the Strip,” July
21, 2019.
Handmaker, Jeff, Adri Nieuwhof and Phon
van den Biesen. "Greenwashing event glosses
over Israel’s atrocities,” Mondoweiss, May 12, 2020.
Hass, Amira. "Israel Incapable of Telling Truth
About Water It Steals From Palestinians. Water
is the only issue in which Israel (still) finds it
difficult to defend its discriminatory, oppressive
and destructive policy with pretexts of security
and God,” Haaretz, June 22, 2016.
Hawari, Yara. "Resisting greenwashing in the
Naqab: Unity Intifada continues. Israel’s relentless
land theft in the Naqab is serving to bring
Palestinians closer together,” Al Jazeera,
January 28, 2022.
Hendrix, Steve. "The famed ‘Jericho banana’
is vanishing. Under Israeli occupation, there’s
not enough water,” Washington Post, September
25, 2020. ["The end of the banana era represents
the broad shift in Palestinian agriculture over
the course of Israeli control of the West Bank
and its water. At the time of the 1967 war,
the area around Jericho was known for
lemons, oranges and bananas. But over
the decades, as Israel sank more deep
wells to supply growing Israeli settlements
in the occupied territory, the springs began
to dry out earlier and earlier each year,
according to studies by the World Bank and
other international organizations. Palestinian
surface wells grew brackish as water tables
dropped, the sweet water becoming too
mineralized for citrus and bananas.”]
Holm, Julie. “Greenwashing the Occupation,”
MIFTAH, February 1, 2012.
Horowitz, Adam. "‘If you’re for justice for
Palestinians, you’re for climate justice’: Zena
Agha on climate change and the future of
Palestine,” Mondoweiss, April 29, 2019.
Hughes, Sara. “Greenwashing” the Occupation:
The role of environmental governance and the
discourse of sustainability in sustaining the Israeli
occupation of Palestine,” paper presented to
American Association of Geographers Annual
Meeting, April 10, 2018.
Institute for Palestine Studies. “Israeli
Greenwashing: Quasi-Governmental Agency
Displaces Palestinians in the Naqab/Negev
Desert,” IPS Digital Project, March 17, 2022.
["The IPS Palestine Chronology provides a
day-to-day account of events in, and related
to, Palestine going back to 1982. The
database offers a wealth of information
for everyone interested in the Palestinian
question. This featured entry for the newly
released month of January 2022 focuses on
how Israel through the Jewish National Fund
use greenwashing to divert from its
displacement of Palestinians living in Israel.”]
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.
"Greenwashing Apartheid: Stop the JNF" /
The Jewish National Fund’s Environmental
Cover E-Book V. 4, May 15, 2011.
Downloadable pdf. [Contributing authors include
Salman Abu-Sitta, Corey Balsam, Jesse Benjamin,
Max Blumenthal, Judy Deutsch, Coya White
Hat-Artichoker, Sara Kershnar, Joel Kovel,
Mich Levy, Akram Salhab, Eurig Scandrett,
David Schwartzman, Ismail Zayid]
Jewish Voice for Peace. “Greenwashing
Introduction,” IsraeliLaundry.org,
November 23, 2011.
Jewish Voice for Peace. “Greenwashing,”
2011. [Archive of Israeli Laundry.org].
Kate. "Eight EU countries tell Israel to
pay up after destroying solar panels
donated to Bedouin village,” Mondoweiss,
October 23, 2017.
Kattenburg, Daniel. “Adapting to
climate change under ‘water apartheid,’
Mondoweiss, September 9, 2019.
["‘Water apartheid’, it’s called: Jewish
settlers receive copious volumes for
cheap, Palestinians scrape and scratch
to get what they need, at great cost.
A highly asymmetrical, discriminatory
and exploitative regime formalized in
law, achieved through physical separation
and enforced by soldiers and police.
The very definition of apartheid.”]
Koppelman, Susan. “Veolia, Mekorot and
the struggle for Palestinian water rights,”
Mondoweiss, March 22, 2014.
Levidow, Les. "Holding the Green
Line: Israeli Ecological Imperialism,”
Matzpen, February 10, 1990.
Lorber, Ben. “Covering up crimes with
trees; the greenwashing of Israel’s apartheid,”
Earth to Earth, July 17, 2012. [Originally
posted to International Journal of Socialist Renewal.]
Lorber, Ben. "Israel’s environmental
colonialism and eco-apartheid,” Links, July
12, 2012. [Excerpt: "Today, as Israel portrays
itself as a “green democracy”’, an eco-friendly
pioneer in agricultural techniques such as drip
irrigation, dairy farming, desert ecology, water
management and solar energy, Israeli factories
drain toxic waste and industrial pollutants down
from occupied West Bank hilltops into Palestinian
villages, and over-pumping of groundwater
aquifers denies Palestinians access to vital water
sources in a context of increasing water scarcity
and pollution.”]
Ma’an News Agency. “Israeli forces spray
weed killers near Gaza border, burn
Palestinian crops,” January 24, 2017.
McKernan, Bethan. “Israel seizes solar panels
donated to Palestinians by Dutch government,”
Independent [UK], July 3, 2017. [“Of particular
note is that Jubbet al-Dhib is very close to
Israeli outpost villages – settlements illegal
under both Israeli and international law –
which enjoy a full connection to the main
power grid.”]
Middle East Monitor. “Israel army cuts
water supply to Jordan Valley village,”
September 19, 2019.
Middle East Monitor. "Israel turns West
Bank into toxic waste dump,” August
18, 2018. ["According to Palestinian
experts, Israeli disposal of its wastes is
a clear violation of international laws
related to environmental protection.
Speaking to Anadolu, head of the
Palestinian Environment Authority
Adala Al-Atira said: “There are 98
Israeli landfills across the occupied
West Bank.” This is in addition to the
scores of landfill sites which are used
by the illegal settlements but have not
been officially recognised or allocated.”]
Middle East Monitor. "Israel settlers dump
sewage on Palestinian school in Qalqiliya,”
November 2, 2018. [Also see Middle East
Monitor, "Israel settlers flood Palestinian
farmland with sewage,” May 9, 2018.]
Middle East Monitor. "Israel settlers
flood Palestinian farmland with
sewage,” May 9. 2018.
Middle East Monitor. "Nearly 1,600
trees vandalised by Israel settlers in
the West Bank since start of 2020,”
March 20, 2020.
Miller, Anna Lekas. "Settlers Dump
Sewage On Palestinian Land. Anna
Lekas Miller reports on a protest
in the West Bank village of Sebastiya,
where Israeli settlers from Shavei Shomron
have started dumping their sewage,”
Daily Beast, March 8, 2013, updated
July 12, 2017.
Murphy, Maureen Clare. “Apartheid
tech is no climate change solution,”
Electronic Intifada, August 13, 2021.
["Israel is finding a new opportunity
for “climate diplomacy” following a
foreboding new report published this
week by the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change, a scientific group
assembled by the UN. This “diplomacy”
involves Israel greenwashing its
oppression of the Palestinians and
bolstering its international reputation
by promoting the civilian application of
technologies developed in the context
of military occupation and colonization.”]
Murphy, Maureen Clare. "Herbicide warfare
against Gaza farmers,” Electronic Intifada,
July 23, 2019. [“Israel’s military propagandists
are at it again. A video recently tweeted by
COGAT, the bureaucratic arm of Israel’s
military occupation, celebrates its efforts
to teach Palestinian farmers in the West Bank
about hybrid fruits and vegetables. What
the military doesn’t boast of in its cheerful
short video is its systematic poisoning of
besieged Gaza’s most fertile
agricultural land.”]
Murphy, Maureen Clare. "A tree-hugging
“peace” film detached from Palestine’s
reality,” Electronic Intifada, April 17, 2014.
Murray, Nancy. "Farming while Palestinian:
a World Water Day outrage,” Mondoweiss,
March 22, 2019.
Nassar, Tamara. "Israel “drastically
escalates” destruction of EU-funded
energy projects,” Electronic Intifada, March
26, 2018. [“There is no realistic avenue for
Palestinians living in Area C to ‘legally’ install
or maintain solar panels,” the report states.
This reality forces Palestinians to either leave
the area or build without permits and live in
constant fear that their homes will be
demolished and their solar panels
confiscated.”]
Nassar, Tamara. "Israel uses Palestinian
land to illegally dump toxic waste,” Electronic
Intifada, December 7, 2017. ["Israel has
turned the occupied West Bank into a
dumping ground for its waste in violation
of international law. “Israel’s environmental
policy in the West Bank, including situating
polluting waste treatment facilities there, is
part and parcel of the policy of dispossession
and annexation it has practiced in the West
Bank for the past 50 years,” a new report by
human rights group B’Tselem says.”]
Nieuwhof, Adri. "Israel is world’s leading
practitioner of water apartheid,” Electronic
Intifada, March 29, 2017. [Excerpt: “Israel
markets its water expertise as an agent of
change internationally but uses water as a
weapon of war against the Palestinians,
according to South Africa’s minister of water
and sanitation, Nomvula Mokonyane.”]
Palestinian BDS National Committee.
"Palestine is a climate justice issue –
Israeli apartheid is not ‘green’,”
Mondoweiss, December 4, 2019.
[Excerpt: "Israel’s racist and false claim,
“making the desert bloom,” is intended
to hide its violent destruction of
Palestinian society and its unsustainable
agricultural and water use practices. /
97.7% of Israel’s electricity production
comes from fossil fuels, including natural
gas extracted in part by illegally exploiting
Palestinian gas resources. / Israel is
seeking to export energy to Europe to
create dependency upon its fossil
fuel-based and illicitly generated
energy sources. / Israel generates
wind and solar energy in illegally
occupied Palestinian and Syrian land.
/ Warfare, a pillar of Israel’s economy,
is one of the world’s most polluting
industries.”]
Palestinian Information Center. “Israeli
settlers poison Palestinian wheat fields
in Jordan Valley,” February 24, 2020.
Patel, Yumna. "'Agricultural terrorism’:
Palestinian crops face destruction by Israeli
settlers. Palestinians farmers are left without
a source of income as settlers destroy crops
just months before harvest,” Middle East Eye,
May 27, 2018.
Patel. Yumna. "UN expert: ‘Israel’s policy
of usurping Palestinian natural resources
has robbed the Palestinians of vital assets’,”
Mondoweiss, March 19, 2019. [Excerpt: “The
report reads: For the almost five million
Palestinians living under occupation, the
degradation and alienation of their water
supply, the exploitation of their natural
resources and the defacing of their
environment is symptomatic of the lack
of any meaningful control they have over
their daily lives as Israel, the occupying
power, exercises its military administrative
powers in a sovereign-like fashion, with
vastly discriminatory consequences.]
PNN. "Israel floods Gaza with rainwater,
again,” January 19, 2020. Excerpt: “For
the third time in the past week, Israeli
Occupation on Saturday opened the
dams collecting rainwater towards
farmland east of Gaza City, flooding
hundreds of dunams of agricultural
land. According to WAFA, Israel opened
the dams and drained the collected
rainwater toward the Gaza Strip flooding
and damaging hundreds of dunams of
land planted with wheat, barley, peas,
cabbage, and cauliflower.”]
Rothchild, Alice. "Climate Justice and
Palestine: The New Intersectionality,”
Grassroots International, February 19,
2016. [Excerpt: “[G]roups like Grassroots
International, an organization mobilizing
resources from progressive US donors,
look to the climate justice movement in
Palestine as a source of information and
inspiration. “They are advancing a powerful
vision of climate justice, by developing
sustainable livelihoods, protecting the
environment and fighting against the
Israeli occupation, all at the same time.
As the just transition movement grows
in the US, calling for a transition from
the extractive, exploitative economy to
resilient, thriving communities, stronger
solidarity with Palestine’s climate justice
movement will be key to achieving
that vision.”]
Sasa, Ghada. "Israel: Greenwashing
Colonialism And Apartheid,”
MES Major Paper, York University,
2017. ["This paper combines scholarly
research with personal narrative,
drawing on my personal experience,
as a Palestinian who witnessed Israel’s
injustices first-hand.”]
Schivone, Gabriele. “Countering
Israeli greenwashing at the
People’s Climate March,”
Electronic Intifada, September
21, 2014.
Shezaf, Hagar. “120 olive trees
belonging to Palestinians destroyed
in West Bank. Every year, olive
picking season sees an increased
incidence of destruction of trees
in Palestinian villages,” Haaretz,
November 11, 2019.
Silver, Charlotte. "How the Jewish
National Fund bluewashes Israeli
apartheid,” Electronic Intifada,
June 18, 2014. [Excerpt: “This
“bluewashing” agenda seeks to
extract the issues of water in
Palestine from the broader
political circumstances, focusing
on technical solutions to water
scarcity and emphasizing Israel’s
conservational approaches to
wastewater and agricultural
practices. The salient facts are
ignored — Israel exercises total
control over all the natural water
sources in the region, deliberately
gives Palestinians insufficient water
and even denies their ability to
collect it, and thus maintains a
system of water apartheid.”]
Silver, Charlotte. “Israel’s
hydro-apartheid keeps
West Bank thirsty,” Electronic
Intifada, August 1, 2016.
[Excerpt: "Of course there
is no water scarcity in the West
Bank. What we suffer from is
induced scarcity – it’s called the
occupation. This is the regime
imposed on Palestinians
immediately after the war in
June 1967. Israel rules through
military orders, which have the
direct and intended result of
keeping Palestinians short on
water. It is not an ongoing
gradual dispossession as with
land and settlements, but was
done in one sweep by Military
Order No. 92,in August 1967.”]
Silver, Charlotte. "Silicon Valley
accord recycles myth of Israel’s
green record,” Electronic
Intifada, March 7, 2014.
Stop the JNF. "Stop the Jewish
National Fund Greenwashing,”
BNC, January 27, 2012.
Stop the Wall. "Israeli Shepherd
Settlements-Ecological
Colonialism in the Jordan
Valley,” STW website, July
25, 2022. ["an account of
the brutalization of the
Jordan Valley by Israeli
settler-shepherds who,
along with the violent
Hilltop Youth and the
Israeli military, are ranging
against pastoral Palestinian
communities.”]
Sweiden, Ruqyah. “Israel’s
Green Washing Campaign,”
The Jerusalem Fund, November
1, 2021.
The Palestine Project. “Israeli
violations biggest threat to
Palestinian biodiversity,” WAFA,
June 4, 2020.
Trade Union Friends of Palestine.
"The Histadrut: Its History and Role
in Occupation, Colonisation and
Apartheid,” May 2011. [Excerpt:
"Unfortunately the Histadrut is
not only part of this process
of domination but has utilised
its supposedly left wing credentials
to pose as the acceptable face
of the Israeli occupation.”]
United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development. “The
Beseiged Palestinian Agricultural
Sector,” 2015. [Forty five page
report downloadable here.]
United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs in the occupied Palestinian
territories [OCHA]. “The humanitarian
impact of the takeover of
Palestinian water springs by
Israeli settlers – OCHA
factsheet,” March 2012.
Weiss, Philip and Adam Horowitz.
“Global Earth Day coalition drops
SodaStream over complicity in
Israeli occupation,” Mondoweiss,
April 22, 2014.
Westbrook, Stephanie. “EarthDay
in Israel: Apartheid Showing
Through the Greenwash,”
Mondoweiss, April 24, 2010.
Westbrook, Stephanie. “Earth
Day In Israel: Apartheid Showing
Through The Greenwash,”
Countercurrents, April
24, 2010.
Westbrook, Stephanie.
"Italian-Israeli water
conference is showcase for
international law violations,”
Mondoweiss, October 2, 2016.
Who Profits. “Greenwashing
the Golan: The Israeli
Wind Energy Industry in the
Occupied Syrian Golan,”
March, 2019. [Downloadable
fourteen page pdf]
Who Profits. “Greenwashing
the Naqab: The Israeli
Industry of Solar Energy,”
February 2017. [Downloadable
twenty four page pdf]
Who Profits. “Greenwashing the
Occupation: The Solar Energy
Industry and the Israeli Occupation,”
January, 2017. [Downloadable
eighty page pdf]
Winstanley, Asa. “Greenwashing:
Israel’s latest colonial tool against
Syria,” Middle East Monitor,
November 30, 2016.
Yaghi, Amjad Ayman. “Desperate
work for desperate people. Israel’s
attacks continue to harm health
and the environment after the
bombing stops,” Electronic
Intifada, October 15, 2019.
[Excerpt: "The UN accepted the
invitation but Israel refused to
cooperate with the UN, during
or after the attack, and the
delegation never entered Gaza,
according to Hilles. “The Israeli
occupation doesn’t want the
world to see its crimes,” Hilles
said.”]

From the Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation
of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since
1967 [March 15, 2019]


For a larger version of the pdf [where you can read the
footnotes]: https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/
cjpme/pages/4388/attachments/original/
1539275897/210-En-Israeli_Greenwashing_v02.pdf?1539275897
Farming Without Water: Palestinian Agriculture in the Jordan
Valley [EWASH Palestine, 7 minutes, 2014.] "This short film
introduces the strain under which Palestinian farmers continue
to live in the Jordan Valley. Water shortages prevent farmers
from growing productive crops, while right next door the
Israeli water company Mekorot pumps millions of gallons
from the ground in order to supply water to illegal
settlements. Palestinians have systematically been denied
their right to dig wells or build water infrastruture since
1967, when the Israeli army completed its occupation of
all of historic Palestine. No Palestinian has received a permit
to build a water structure since 1967, and “illegal” water
infrastructure is routinely demolished.” — Teaching Palestine
"Context: Mekorot” from Alliance for Water
Justice in Palestine
Parched: Israel’s policy of water deprivation in
the West Bank / "The Israeli apartheid regime
works to promote and perpetuate Jewish
supremacy in the entire area it controls from
the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea,
deliberately creating a huge disparity in water
consumption between those who enjoy the
luxuries afforded by a first-world water
superpower and those – all of them Palestinian
subjects – who suffer a chronic water shortage.
This cruel, systematic exploitation of a basic
resource towards political ends is especially
damaging to the most vulnerable Palestinians
communities, who live in the hottest, most arid
areas of the West Bank, as part of a policy
aimed at dispossessing them of what little
property and land they have."
Gaza Water Crisis: Political Solution Needed,
not a Technological One [10/23/18]
Images from @CorpOccupation [9/28/19]:
“Palestine solidarity groups protest Israeli
land grabs in Jordan Valley & the exploitation of water
and other natural resources. Peaceful protest suppressed
by military. 2 detained and later released. 1 girl from Youth
of Sumud injured when soldier hit her arm with a gun. #BDS"



Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine
Israeli sewage-dumping affects Palestinian villages [July, 2010]
Haaretz, February 14, 2020.

B’Tselem [The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in
the Occupied Territories]: "Water in Gaza: Scarce, polluted and
mostly unfit for use," August 17, 2020
DecolonizePalestine: Resources about Greenwashing
Gisha: "Stop the aerial herbicide
spraying” [July 18, 2019]
Uprooted: the Destruction of Olive Trees by Israel
Not Enough Water in the West Bank?

200 Trees Uprooted by Israeli Army West of Salfit
["Israeli bulldozers uprooted on Saturday 200
trees in the town of Bidya, west of Salfit. The
uprooted trees vary between olives, figs, grapes,
peaches, lemons, and fruit and perennial
almonds….The Israeli occupation forces had
uprooted more than 200 olive trees in the town
of Derastia, northwest of Salfit, two months ago.
Meanwhile, Jewish settlers began razing and
vandalizing farmers' lands two days ago in
Khillet Alayyan and Khillet Hassan in Bidya town
under the protection of the IOF soldiers. Local
sources reported that settlers uprooted olive,
fig and grape trees, removed stone chains,
demolished agricultural rooms, and caused
great damage to the area."]
"Gaza farmers: ‘Israel destroyed all of our crops’" — Middle
East Monitor, January 16, 2020. [Excerpt: "After the dams
which were built in areas controlled by Israel to block
rainwater streaming through valleys crossing the Gaza
Strip had been opened twice, Gazan farmers claim
that all of their crops were completely destroyed….“The
opening of the water dams destroyed all of our crops,
our infrastructure and irrigation network.” Thousands
of dunams of agricultural land in the east of
Al-Sheja’ea, an eastern neighbourhood of Gaza City,
were left damaged.”]

A Palestinan woman protecting an olive tree
from destruction. Photo: intifada.de via
Palestinians 'devastated' after Israeli
settlers destroy olive trees / “Israeli
human rights group Yesh Din, which
documents settler attacks on Palestinians
and their farmland across the occupied
West Bank, notes that such attacks are a
daily reality, and "are part of a calculated
strategy for dispossessing Palestinians
of their land”. "The settlers are doing
this to push us off the land," Salah said.
"They think that if they keep making us
tired through these attacks and financial
losses, that we will leave and it will make
it easier for them to take the land.” “But
that will never happen," he said."
"Mekorot builds water networks in Israel's illegal settlements
& manages water stolen from Palestinians. By refusing the
construction of water networks in 45 Bedouin villages, Mekorot
collaborates with Israel in implementing “water apartheid."

From Visualizing Palestine
Who Profits Research Center: "As Israel continues to
position itself as a global leader in “friendly"
environmental solutions, let's keep remembering
the ways in which this trend is based on the continued
de-development and colonization of the Palestinian
people and is used to greenwash Israeli occupation.
Solar energy, wind energy and agritech projects all
happen at the expense of the Palestinians in all their
geographies, and the Syrian communities in the Golan,
facilitating deprivation, exploitation and land grab.
For more, check out our reports:
Agribusiness as Usual-
https://whoprofits.org/report/agribusiness-as-usual/
The Solar Energy Industry and the Israeli Occupation-
https://whoprofits.org/report/greenwashing-the-
occupation-the-solar-energy-industry-and-the-
israeli-occupation/
Greenwashing the Naqab- https://whoprofits.org/
report/greenwashing-the-naqab-the-israeli-
industry-of-solar-energy/
Wind Energy in the Golan- https://whoprofits.org/
flash-report/greenwashing-the-golan/ "
"Israel Declares War on Palestinian Water,” Haaretz, 9/30/2021
Jonathan Ofir: "New report outlines how Golda Meir’s
Israel poisoned Palestinian land in ethnic cleansing
operation. In the early 1970s, Golda Meir’s
government poisoned the lands of Aqraba in the
West Bank to force out its Palestinian inhabitants
and clear the way for an illegal Jewish settlement.”
[Mondoweiss, June 25, 2023]
Zochrot: "As far as Zochrot is concerned,
marking the location of Palestinian
communities that were destroyed in
1948 is part of the effort to make
recognize its responsibility for the
Nakba ("The Catastrophe"; the
Palestinians' term for the 1948 war),
and for the right of the refugees to
return to their villages. This goal is
unacceptable to most Israelis. But
providing information about these
villages also contributes to knowledge
of the country's history and culture,
and to greater awareness of the factors
that have shaped the Israeli landscape.
This has taken on added importance
mainly in light of recent efforts by
planners and environmental protection
groups to preserve "cultural landscapes”
- in other words, areas whose landscape
was shaped by human activity."
"On Sunday, November 20th 2022 the Green Olive
Collective joined in conversation with human rights
activists Maya Rosen and Daniel Roth, whose recent
report shed light on the greenwashing tactics of the
Jewish National Fund (JNF) and the way its deliberately
opaque structure facilitates the expropriation of
Palestinian land for Jewish settlement. / The JNF
owns the land where over half the population of
the state of Israel lives. It is best known around
the world for its forestation, tree planting, and
environmental conservation efforts. This ethical
image is contrasted by the central role the JNF
plays in the ongoing dispossession of Palestinians
on both sides of the Green Line."

Gideon Levy, "The pathological sadism of
Israeli settlers,” Haaretz, January 24, 2019.
[Excerpt: "Who are the human scum who
drove all-terrain vehicles down to the
magnificent olive grove owned by Abed
al Hai Na’asan, in the West Bank village
of Al-Mughayyir, chose the oldest and
biggest row, and with electric saws felled
25 trees, one after another? Who
are the human scum who are capable of
fomenting such an outrage on the soil, the
earth, the trees and of course on the farmer,
who’s been working his land for decades?
Who are the human scum who fled like
cowards, knowing that no one would bring
them to justice for the evil they had
wrought?”] Accessible version.
"Israelis flood sewage into Palestinian olive groves": "Israeli
settler violence against Palestinians and their property is
a routine occurrence in the occupied West Bank, and most
acts of vandalism and attacks by settlers often go unpunished
by the Israeli authorities.” [Image: "A Palestinian
woman walks next to sewage water flowing from Israeli
settlements in the West Bank village of Kafr Thulth, near
Qalqilya, December 2012. Ahmad Al-Bazz / ActiveStills]


"Israel's water control” [Middle East Eye, 2021] / “The
extent to which the Palestinians can adapt to climate
change is heavily constrained by the situation of the
occupation.” London School of Economics (LSE)
professor Dr Michael Mason’s research into the
impacts of climate change on Palestinians in the
West Bank and Gaza gives us an insight into
Israel’s control of water resource."
"Environmental Justice Has No Borders: A Call to
the Environmental Justice Movement” / Sign the
Pledge: bit.ly/NoGreenwashingPledge
[ORGANIZATIONAL SIGNERS:
About Face Veterans Against The War
Adalah Justice Project
Adalah-NY
American Muslim Bar Association (AMBA)
Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC)
Australians for Palestine
Baltimore Nonviolence Center
Catalyst Project
Church Women United in New York State
Daarna
East Michigan Environmental Action Council (EMEAC)
Eyewitness Palestine
Global Environmental Justice Project
Gods' Grace Outreach Ministries, International
Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
Healing our Homeland, Gaza
Jewish Voice for Peace
Jewish Voice for Peace-Boston
Jewish Voice for Peace-Central Ohio
Jewish Voice for Peace-New Haven
Jewish Voice for Peace-Twin Cities
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Little Village Environmental Justice Organization
Lutherans for Justice in the Holy Land
Madison-Rafah Sister City Project
Minnesota BDS Community
Movement for Black Lives
Mujeres Unidas y Activas
NDN Collective
North New Jersey Democratic Socialists of America
Peace Action WI
Red Banner Anti-Imperialist Collective
Sari-Sari Women of Color Arts Coup
Showing Up for Racial Justice-San Francisco
Showing Up for Racial Justice-Toronto
St. Louis Friends of Bethlehem
Terra Advocati
The American Muslim Bar Association (AMBA)
The Art Odyssey
Uprooted & Rising
US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR)
Vermonters for Justice in Palestine
Visualizing Palestine
Vote Climate
Yalla Indivisible]



"Israeli forces destroy irrigation ponds in the al-Jiftlik village,
in Jordan Valley.” / "Israel has severely restricted Palestinian
access to water in the area, particularly the 23 underground
wells used for agriculture. Local water springs are susceptible
to dryness and depletion as a result of Israel’s control over
water. The Israeli water company, Mekorot, has depleted the
wells and has been granted a monopoly on the drilling,
restoration, distribution and selling of Palestinian water.
In contrast, Palestinians have been forbidden from
constructing new wells or restoring existing ones."
"In the village of Jaba in Bethlehem district this month,
Israeli squatter settlers chopped down and destroyed 300
olive trees….Instead of preventing the settlers’ violence,
the Israeli army were filmed attacking journalists who
were covering the attack on Palestinian peasants."

Mekorot: "Apartheid in a Pipe” by Apartheid Adventures [2012]
Stop the Wall: "Factsheet: Cutting the lifeline – Stop the annexation
of Palestinian water ,” June 26, 2020.

Greenwashing Bingo: the winner … The Sierra Club
Visualizing Palestine, Nov. 2023
From South Africa BDS Coalition’s Rainbowwashing Series
"NABLUS, Nov 10, 2019, (WAFA News) -Israeli
occupation forces prevented Palestinians from
harvesting their olive crops in the village of
Sebastia, northwest of Nablus, according to a
local official. Mayor of Sebastia, Mohammed
Azem, told WAFA Israeli forces kicked farmers
out of their land under the pretext of lacking
prior coordination, despite the fact that their
lands are located beyond the fence that
surrounds the illegal Israeli settlement of Shafi
Shomron. He said farmers found dead pigs in
their land and were shocked to find that their
lands were flooded with sewage by settlers from
the nearby illegal settlement."

On “Disabilitywashing”:
"Disability occurs in all walks of life. Disability justice cannot
be separated from the rights of all people: Food, Water,
Medicine, Shelter, Breath, Sleep, Self-Determination.
Thousands of Palestinians have become permanently
disabled in the recent attacks on Gaza. We are not
burdens. We are beautiful. Because we are survivors.
The targeting of hospitals, ambulances, and rehabilitation
facilities are attacks on disabled people. Disability justice
means resisting together. From solitary cells to open air
prisons. We will be liberated as whole beings. We are far
greater whole than partitioned. To Exist is to Resist.
FREE PALESTINE.” — Sins Invalid
ASL DisabilityJusticeForPalestine
Abu Eltarabesh, Hamza. "How Israel stole
this fisherman’s sight and sense of smell,”
Electronic Intifada, February 18, 2020.
Abunimah, Ali. "Video: Settlers cheer as Israeli
soldiers attack disabled Palestinian child,”
Electronic Intifada, October 21, 2014. [“This
disturbing footage shot by Palestinian
videographer Samih Da’na and published
by the Israeli nongovernmental organization
B’Tselem documents the violent abuse of a
developmentally disabled Palestinian child.”]
Abusalama, Shahd. "Disabled Palestinians call
for solidarity with Khader Adnan from Gandhi’s
grandchildren and world,” Electronic Intifada,
February 16, 2012.
Abusalama, Shahd. "‘Don’t tell my mother
that I am blind’: Muhammad Brash grasps
for light in the darkness of Israeli jail,”
Electronic Intifada, July 28, 2012. [Excerpt:
Ever since his arrest, he has suffered from
medical neglect every day. It’s this that
left Muhammad in two forms of
darkness: His blind eyes that see no
colors but black, and his dark cell
where he dies every day and may spend
the last day of his life.”]
Agre, Deborah. "What is mental health when
trauma is ongoing?” Middle East Children’s
Alliance, January 22, 2019.
Akkad, Dania. "'Shoot to maim': How Israel
created a generation on crutches in Gaza.
Doctors tell MEE that Palestinian protesters’
crippling injuries, especially to lower limbs,
were inflicted deliberately,” Middle East Eye,
March 29, 2018. [Excerpt: "When you have
almost 90 percent of the people injured in
the lower limb, it means that there is a
policy to target the lower limbs -
Marie-Elisabeth Ingres, Doctors Without
Borders]
Alashi, Nura. "The John Silvers of Gaza,”
We are Not Numbers, December 5, 2016.
Algherbawi, Sarah. "When Israel bombed
disabled Palestinians,” Electronic Intifada,
July 15, 2019. [Excerpt: "A probe by
Human Rights Watch concluded there was
no evidence of the building being used by
armed groups around the time of Israel’s
attack. The fact that Israel had caused
immense damage to a charity working
for people with disabilities was omitted
from most, if not all, reports by
mainstream media on the May offensive.”]
Al Ghussain, Alia. "No access to education
for Bedouin children with disabilities,”
Electronic Intifada, February 17, 2016.
Alhaj, Mohammad. "The intifada’s lasting
injuries,” Electronic Intifada, July 6, 2015.
Alhajjar, Mohammed A, and Maha Hussaini,
"Shattered limbs, broken dreams: Life
for Gaza athletes after surviving Israeli
bullets. 'My life has completely stopped.’
Three athletes whose dreams were
interrupted by Israeli bullets tell their
stories to MEE ,” Middle East Eye,
September 1, 2018.
Al-Jadir, Raya. "Mohamed Dalo and the art of
living with disability in Gaza,” The New Arab,
February 22, 2018. [Excerpt: "Living in Gaza
is a real struggle for anyone - but if you are
disabled then it is an entirely different matter;
Palestinians have been suffering under the
occupation for more than 65 years, and people
with disability suffer the same fate of not knowing
or interacting with other countries, so they are
unaware of the opportunities and facilities that
are available for people with special needs, or
even what they want or need.”]
AlJamal, Yousef M. "Vital medicines run out in
Gaza,” Electronic Intifada, October 16, 2019.
[Excerpt: "Israel’s siege – imposed since 2007
– has affected Gaza’s healthcare system
enormously. A new report by the World
Health Organization states that of the 516
items on Gaza’s essential medicines list,
nearly half had less than a month’s stock
remaining in 2018.”]
Almasri, Abier. "Disability Rights Defender
in Gaza Addresses UN. Recounts Harrowing
Experience Fleeing during Latest Escalation,”
Human Rights Watch, June 30, 2021. [Excerpt:
"Abeer al-Harakli, a 28-year-old disability
rights defender from Gaza, addressed the
United Nations earlier this month at the 14th
session of the Conference of States Parties
to the Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities. She described in detail the
difficulties and fear that people with
disabilities in Gaza face when attempting to
flee hostilities. Fleeing an attack, she said,
“is the most difficult thing for us, people
with disabilities.”]
Alnaouq, Mahmoud. "One story: the cost of
protest,” We Are Not Numbers, December 19,
2018. [Excerpt: "Yaser, I learned, had been shot
while participating in the Great Return March.
His left leg had been shattered by one of those
exploding bullets we’d been hearing about that
struck fear into our hearts…. Yaser was sitting
on a sand dune, dreaming of returning to his
family’s historic homeland. Then, an explosion
ripped the air, sounding very close. At first, Yaser
thought it was the sound of a tear gas bomb.
"I tried to stand up, but I couldn't. I looked down
at my legs and saw that the left one was a mass
of blood and torn flesh…" Yaser told me, recalling
shock. He had been shot by a type of bullet that
explodes inside the body. His leg bones were
shattered and most of the flesh was pulverized.”]
Amer, Ruwaida. "Israel puts Gaza’s deaf
people in extreme danger,” Electronic Intifada,
October 29, 2021. [Excerpt: "The Atfaluna
Society for Deaf Children in Gaza City
conducted a survey of 102 people shortly
after a ceasefire brought an end to Israel’s
bombardment in May. More than 84 percent
of those surveyed had a disability. More than
38 percent of respondents replied that their
homes were slightly damaged. Another eight
percent stated that the damage to their
homes was severe. Almost 19 percent replied
that their movements were curtailed during
the attack and they could not fulfill their
basic needs as a result.”]
Asad, Mohammed. "Palestinian prosthetics
centre, providing limbs for those injured by
Israel. Prosthetic technicians make limbs for
Gazans who have lost theirs while taking part
in the Great March of Return,” Middle East
Monitor, March 6, 2019. [Excerpt: "Some 160
of those wounded during the protests have
lost limbs, statistics from the Ministry of
Health have revealed. This was a result of
the occupation’s targeting of demonstrators
with live ammunition and explosives, fragments
of which entered their bodies, tearing through
their joints and limbs.”]
Ashly, Jaclyn. "How Israel is disabling Palestinian
teenagers: Survivors of Israeli live fire speak about
Israel's 'kneecapping' practice of shooting youth
in their lower limbs," Al Jazeera, September 21, 2017.
Associated Press. "Israeli Forces Kill
Unarmed Autistic Palestinian Man.The
shooting death of an unarmed autistic
Palestinian man by Israeli forces is drawing
angry condemnations from Arab residents
and leaders and is further raising tensions
in the region as Israel prepares to annex
parts of the occupied West Bank,” May
31, 2020.
Barrows-Friedman, Nora. "Israeli captain: “I will
make you all disabled,” Electronic Intifada,
September 1, 2016.
Blumenthal, Max. "Evidence Emerges of Israeli
“Shoot To Cripple” Policy In the Occupied West
Bank: Israeli soliders use live fire and expanding
bullets to shatter the legs of West Bank protesters,”
Alternet, August 8, 2014.
B’Tselem [The Israeli Information Center
for Human Rights in the Occupied
Territories]. "If the heart be not callous.
On the unlawful shooting of unarmed
demonstrators in Gaza,” downloadable
pdf report, April 2018. [Excerpt: “Israel’s
position that it may use live and potentially
lethal fire against unarmed demonstrators
who are endangering no one undermines every
moral principle, contradicts the provisions
of international law and is unlawful. The
same holds true for Israel’s insistence on
continuing to apply the same directives
despite the resulting high number of
deaths and injuries.”]
B’Tselem [The Israeli Information Center for
Human Rights in the Occupied Territories]. “Seven
months of protests by Gaza fence: Over 5,800
Palestinians wounded by live Israeli gunfire,”
November 22, 2018. ["Approximately 2,300
of the casualties are minors. Doctors have
had to perform amputations on 90 protesters,
including 17 minors and one woman. In the
majority of cases (82), the amputations were
of lower limbs.”]
B’Tselem [The Israeli Information Center for
Human Rights in the Occupied Territories]. “Shoot
and abandon: 155 amputees and 27 paralyzed
in two years: How Israel punishes those who
dare protest the siege of the Gaza Strip,”
January 30, 2020.
Cannon, Suzanne. "Public Transportation in East
Jerusalem is Not Accessible,” BIZCHUT website,
April 2, 2012. [Excerpt: “ (I)n spite of the
obligations under the Equal Rights for People
with Disabilities Law and its regulations, the situation
in East Jerusalem is appalling and what have become
acceptable standards for accessibility to public
transportation in other locations around the country and in
neighborhoods in West Jerusalem, have been passed
over in the east of the city. The outcome of this
harsh violation of the law is a serious blow to the
rights of thousands of residents with mobility
and sensory impairments to freedom of movement,
and to the their right to be included in society and
live a life of dignity: the buses and minibuses do
not have room for people who use wheelchairs,
there are no ramps, no seats dedicated to people
with disabilities, no accommodations for people
with sight impairments, no public announcement
systems, no enlarged signs with contrasting
colors, as laid down in the regulations.”]
Cappellini, Flavia. "Riding, despite Gaza:
Palestinian cycling champion Alaa al-Dali.
Cycling champ Alaa al-Dali's leg was shot to
pieces by an Israeli sniper. Now he's making
a comeback as a para-cyclist,” Al Jazeera,
June 2, 2019.
CBM. “Palestine (Gaza),” CBM website. [Excerpt: In
the 1980s, the Intifada brought a sudden interest
in physical disability: The number of persons with
permanent disabilities due to war injuries rose.”]
Clare, Dr. Gerry. "Trump and Israel's 'Vision' for the
Palestinians Is to Blind Them. Literally; Working as
an eye doctor in East Jerusalem, I saw first-hand
how Israel maims Palestinians as a form of crowd
control. Now Trump is cutting U.S. funds to the
hospitals that treat them,” Haaretz, September
16, 2018. [Haaretz article behind paywall ... PDF
version.]
Cook. Jonathan. "Gaza’s disabled cut off
from payments,” Electronic Intifada, September
11, 2019. [Excerpt: “Israel has absolute control
not only over the physical borders of Gaza,
but also over our monetary system, too,” he
said. “We depend on the Israeli currency of
the shekel and Israel’s banks can turn on and
off the money supply at will….Abu Rahma said
the disabled workers included the poorest and
most vulnerable among Gaza’s population of
1.5 million, and many were in danger of
starvation if payments were not resumed
soon.”]
Copley, Theo Yang. "What Disability Justice
Has To Offer Social Justice,” Grassroots Instite
for Fundraising, November 1, 2011.
Dahman, Mohammed. "Gaza Strip’s amputees
face death, dashed dreams under blockade.
Thousands of Palestinians shot by Israeli forces
during protests this year are now languishing,
unable to provide for their families and at risk
of deadly infections,” Asia Times, December 11, 2018.
Defense for Children International [DCI]. “Stopped
at the door: Disability and the right to education
(Part 1),” December 16, 2016.
Defense for Children Intenational [DCI]. “Stopped
at the door: Disability and the right to education
(Part 2),” December 22, 2016.
Diakonia. "Call for action regarding disability
in Gaza,” December 4, 2012. ["In November,
the people of Gaza have lived under constant
threat due to the conflict in the region.
International agencies working with disability
in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) now
call for action to ensure the well-being of a
forgotten group in the conflict; people with
disabilities....Ensure that people with disabilities
have immediate access to all humanitarian
interventions in the Gaza Strip. This includes
protection, health and nutrition as well as
psychosocial support.”]
Doctors without Borders/ Medecins sans
Frontieres. “Gaza: Thousands of People Shot
during Protests Require Urgent Treatment,”
November 29, 2018. [“Thousandsof people
shot by the Israeli army during protests in
Gaza this year are overwhelming the Gazan
medical system with complex wounds,
infections, and disabilities, the international
medical humanitarian organization Doctors
Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières
(MSF) said today.”]
Estrin, Daniel and Abu Bar Bashir. “Inside
Gaza's Factory Making Prosthetic Legs For
Palestinian Protest Amputees,” National
Public Radio ["All Things Considered”],
October 31, 2018.
Gadzo, Mersiha. "'Life is all about trying’:
Disabled Palestinians defy challenges.
Despite the obstacles, Palestinians in Gaza
show a strong will to defeat their disabilities
and achieve their dreams,” Al Jazeera,
December 3, 2018. ["Artificial limbs made
in Gaza are typically of poor quality since
the blockade has disrupted imports of
prosthetic limbs and raw materials used
to make them.”]
Giacaman, Rita [Birzeit University]. "Mental health,
social distress and political oppression: The case
of the occupied Palestinian territory,” Global Public
Health 6(5):547-559, July 2011.
Glazer, Hilo. "'42 Knees in One Day': Israeli Snipers
Open Up About Shooting Gaza Protesters. Over 200
Palestinians were killed and nearly 8,000 were injured
during almost two years of weekly protests at the
Israel-Gaza border. Israeli army snipers tell their
stories,” Ha’artez, March 6, 2020. ["There was a
story about one sniper who had 11 knees all told,
and people thought no one could outdo him. And
then I (Eden, Golani Brigade) brought in seven-eight
knees in one day. Within a few hours, I almost
broke his record….My locator wasn’t supposed to
shoot, but I gave him a break, because we were
getting close to the end of our stint, and he didn’t
have knees. In the end you want to leave with the
feeling that you did something, that you weren’t a
sniper during exercises only. So, after I had a few
hits, I suggested to him that we switch. He got
around 28 knees there, I’d say.”]
Hacker, Emily. "Israel’s assaults on public
health infrastructure amount to war crimes,”
Electronic Intifada, June 2, 2022. ["Israel relies
on – among other strategies – the destruction
of Palestinian health infrastructure, the
targeting of medical personnel, and inhibiting
Palestinian access to health care to enforce
its regime of apartheid. Yet Western health
officials often overlook these acts, which are
nothing short of war crimes, and this passive
complicity violates our promise as health
care professionals to do no harm.”]
Hajjaj, Tareq and Pam Bailey. "'Blinding the truth’:
Israeli snipers target Gaza protesters in the eyes,”
The New Arab, December 20, 2019. [“Israeli sniper
targeting participants in Gaza's weekly Great Return
March protests have aimed for the legs – and eyes.
To date, Gaza's Ministry of Health reports that 50
protesters have been shot in the eye since the
demonstrations began March 30, 2018 – leaving
them permanently blind.”]
Helm, Sarah. "‘Will he lose his leg?’: Thousands
of Gaza protesters facing life-altering injuries
from Israeli high velocity bullets,” The Independent
UK], November 11, 2018. [Excerpt: "Human rights
groups dispute almost every element of this
[IsraeliDefense Forces] analysis. Amnesty International
has called Israel’s sniper fire “a murderous assault”
on the protesters, calling on governments world
wideto impose a comprehensive arms embargo on
Israel./ "It seems likely that, in order to defuse the
growing international criticism of the slaughter,
the rules of engagement were changed and Israeli
snipers came under new orders to shoot to kill
less and shoot to maim more, [Breaking The
Silence's Yehuda Shaul] suggests.”]
Hoyle, Charlie. "Mental health in Palestine among
world's worst,” The New Arab, May 12, 2017.
[Excerpt: "Political and social conditions endured
by Palestinians under Israeli military occupation
have left a scar on the psychological wellbeing of
civilians….A study of adolescents in the besieged
territory after the 2008-9 Israeli offensive found
that 30 percent reported symptoms meeting the
criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, according
to a report by Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP)
investigating the health impact of 50 years of military
occupation. / Among areas heavily bombarded
during the 2014 war on Gaza, 54 percent of children
were recorded as suffering from severe PTSD, whose
symptoms include flashbacks, nightmares, avoidance
behaviour, difficulty sleeping, and intrusive distressing
recollections of traumatic experiences. / Following the
52-day war, which killed more than 2,200 Palestinians,
the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that
more than 20 percent of the Gazan population may
have developed mental health conditions which
required psychosocial care.”] Also see Al Jazeera.
"Save the Children: Gaza children on brink of mental
health crisis: Research by the rights group found 95
percent of young people surveyed in Gaza showed
deep psychological distress,” June 4, 2018.
The Hub. "Resources for Social Justice
and Disability,” December 20, 2016.
Humanity and Inclusion. “Palestinian Territories,” 2018.
Humaid, Maram. "Gaza hospitals: 'Israel was
shooting to kill or cause disability’: Al Jazeera
speaks to doctors and Palestinians injured during
Gaza's Land Day protests at a hospital struggling
to cope,” Al Jazeera, April 3, 2018.
Humaid, Maram. "Palestinians launch first
national amputee football team in Gaza.
The squad of 20 amputee footballers from
Gaza hopes to play in the Amputee Football
World Cup next year,” Al Jazeera, December
3, 2021. ["Ahmed Alkhodari, 23, lost his leg
in March 2019 during the Great March of Return
three years ago. Hundreds of Palestinians
were killed, and tens of thousands were
wounded in Israeli firing as they attempted
to cross the fence demanding a return to
towns and villages located inside Israel from
where their ancestors were ethnically
cleansed in 1948. At least 156 of those
who were wounded faced amputations.”]
Human Rights Watch. “Gaza: Israeli Restrictions
Harm People with Disabilities. Neglect by Hamas
Authorities, Armed Conflict Cause Further
Hardship,” December 3, 2020. [Report]
Imani. "Relationships with Abled Allies Sometimes
Feels like Dating F–kBois: All About Them,” Crutches
and Spice [Blog], April 25, 2017. [Excerpt: “Some
movement that will accept us, and appreciate our
passion and diversity and genuinely include us.
We do not want least amount of inclusion necessary
so they can fall asleep congratulating themselves
for their efforts in the name of diversity.”]
International Middle East Media Center [IMEMC]. “On
40th Friday of Great March of Return and Breaking
Siege, Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Civilian With
Disability and Wound 18 Other Civilians, including
4 Children and 2 Paramedics,” December 28, 2018.
International Middle East Media Center [IMEMC].
"Al Mezan: Israel Claims Immunity from All Damages
Inflicted on Gaza Protestors,” February 13, 2019.
[Excerpt: "Adalah and Al Mezan appeal to Israeli
Supreme Court against lower court ruling finding
that Gazans may be denied compensation for
damages because Gaza is defined by law as an
‘enemy territory’. Israeli military forces shot
Palestinian high school student Attiya Nabaheen
on his 15th birthday in the front yard of his family
home in the Gaza Strip on 16 November 2014.
Nabaheen was returning from school. He was
not armed and was not involved in any violence.
As a result of the shooting, Nabaheen was
paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair for
the rest of his life.”]
International Middle East Media Center [IMEMC].
"Deterioration of the Palestinian Disabled Persons’
Conditions Continues,” December 5, 2013. [Excerpt:
"The above data indicates a steady rise in the number
of disabled persons in the oPt due to sustaining
injuries resulting from the Israeli military attacks
since the beginning of Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000
….In the Gaza Strip, the rights of disabled persons
have continued to deteriorate due to the ongoing
Israeli policy of imposing the illegal closure, which
is a form of collective punishment banned under
the international humanitarian law. Conditions of
the disabled persons have worsened due to the
deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the
Gaza Strip resulting from the Israeli-imposed
tightened restrictions on the freedom of movement
of people in addition to the serious and catastrophic
shortage of fuel and power supplies, medicines and
medical supplies, including assisting medical devices.
This affects the major services offered to disabled
persons and denies them access to services of health,
water, clean drinking water, environmental health
and education and rehabilitation. Care and
rehabilitation associations for persons with
disabilities suffer from ongoing crises due to
the daily outages of electricity for long hours
– around 12-16 hours daily.”]
International Middle East Media Center [IMEMC].
"Israeli MK [Deputy Knesset Speaker Bezalel
Smotrich]: Tamimi ‘Should Have Gotten Bullet,
at Least in Knee,’” April 24, 2018.
International Middle East Media Center [IMEMC].
"Mandela Institute: Palestinians taken to Israeli
prison hospital are not given medical treatment,”
December 28, 2016.
International Middle East Media Center [IMEMC].
"Mental Disability On the Rise Under the Israeli Siege.”
June 10, 2015. [Excerpt: "The number of mentally
disabled people in the Gaza Strip has increased
substantially in the last years. It so happens that
70% of the cases come from the communities located
near the fence that separates Gaza from the territories
occupied in 1948. The doctors and people responsible
for the care of these children believe that this is due to
the fact that these populations have been the most
attacked in the successive massacres committed by
Israel in Gaza.”]
International Middle East Media Center [IMEMC].
"Soldiers Assault A Blind Man in His Home, Near
Bethlehem,” February 20, 2019.
International Middle East Media Center [IMEMC].
"UN Special Rapporteur: Israel “In Profound Breach”
of Palestinians’ Right to Health,” March 26, 2018.
Israel Palestine Timeline. "Karam Mohammad
Fayyad,” December 28, 2018. ["Karam Mohammad
No’man Fayyad, 26, a disabled Palestinian man,
was shot in the head and killed by Israeli forces
at the Great March of Return east of Khan Younis
in Gaza. In addition to Karam, Israeli soldiers shot
and injured at least eight other protesters with
live ammunition, including a medic and a
photojournalist, during the Great March Of
Return processions in the besieged Gaza Strip.”]
Jabr, Samah. "What Palestinians experience
goes beyond the PTSD label. In Palestine,
traumatic threats are ongoing and enduring,
with no ‘post-traumatic’ safety,” Middle East
Eye, February 7, 2019. [Excerpt: “The
psychiatric definition of trauma does not
accommodate the most commonplace
experience for Palestinians: humiliation,
objectification, forced helplessness, and
daily exposure to toxic stress….In Palestine,
traumatic threats are ongoing and enduring.
There is no “post-traumatic” safety. The
phenomena of avoidance and
hyper-vigilance are considered to be
dysfunctional psychological reactions
in a soldier who has returned to the
safety of his hometown. But for tortured
Palestinian prisoners, such symptoms
are reasonable reactions, insofar as
the threat lives on; they may be
re-arrested and tortured again at
any time.”][Also see Goldhill, Olivia.
"Palestine’s head of mental health
services says PTSD is a western
concept,” Middle East Eye, January 13,
2019. / “I question the methodology.
I think they’re measuring social
psychological pain and social
suffering, and they’re saying this
is depression,” she says. “What is sick,
the context or the person? In Palestine,
we see many people whose
symptoms—unusual emotional
reaction or a behaviors—are a
normal reaction to a pathogenic
context.”]
Jaffee, Laura Jordan. "Disrupting global disability
frameworks: settler-colonialism and the geopolitics
of disability in Palestine/Israel,” [abstract], Disability
and Society, March 11, 2015.
Kate. "60% of the 10,500 protesters treated for
injuries in Gaza were shot by Israeli forces in the legs,”
Mondoweiss, December 14, 2018. [See: “Pitman, Todd.
"In Gaza protests, Israeli troops aim at the legs,”
Associated Press, December 9, 2018.}
Khatib, Alaa and Silvester Kasozi. "Disability and
Explosive Remnants of War in Gaza,” three page
downloadable pdf, This Week in Palestine, July, 2014.
Kubovich, Yaniv [and Associated Press]. “Disabled
Palestinian Protester Killed in Clashes Was Shot in
the Head, Gaza Medical Records Say,” Haaretz,
December 29, 2017.
Lamm, Nomy. "This Is Disability Justice,”
The Body is Not an Apology, September 2, 2015.
Leichman, Abigail Klein. “Israel’s military
inclusion program inspires US Corps of Honor.
Chairman of the US President’s Committee for
People with Intellectual Disabilities plans to
implement revolutionary program based on
Israel's successful model,” ISRAEL21c, October
6, 2020. ["Less than a year later, Neeley
accompanied the task force to Israel. He
visited some of the 28 bases where about
450 Special in Uniform soldiers are stationed.
“I was blown away,” Neeley tells ISRAEL21c.
“I talked to the commanders about how the
integration has helped relieve some of the
garrison responsibilities like logistics, food
services, medical services, transportation
and administrative jobs so you can move
soldiers without disabilities to the frontline.
I saw how the IDF trains young people with
autism to read satellite imagery and see
things you and I can’t see.” … JNF-USA
National Vice President Alan Wolk also is
helping Neeley plan the Corps of Honor.
“It’s not a JNF project but we’re providing
guidance and cobranding,” says Wolk,
chairman of the Special in Uniform
taskforce and a board member of
JNF-USA’s Task Force on Disabilities.”]
Levy, Gideon. "Bleeding, blindfolded and cuffed,
Osama tried to run. Then came the second shot.
Osama Hajajeh, a Palestinian shepherd boy, is in
the hospital with serious gunshot wounds to both
his legs. Photos of him being shot while trying to
flee Israeli commandos, bound and blindfolded,
illustrate just how low the IDF has come. 'He's not
a hero. He just wanted to live,' his father says,”
Haaretz, April 24, 2019. [Excerpt: They shot the
momentarily blind and handcuffed boy even though
they could have easily grabbed him without incurring
any injury. They were standing next to him, at zero
range. How fast can a bound and blindfolded youth
run? But no. They didn’t try to catch him. Why would
they? Commandos, you know: First you shoot, then
you shoot again, and only then do try to clarify what
happened.”]
Levy, Gideon. "Israel condemned this Gazan
fisherman to life in eternal darkness. Let the
sailors in their white uniforms know what
they do in the name of the rite of security
to helpless fishermen who endanger no
one and who have done no harm,”
Haaretz, October 5, 2019. Also see Levy,
Gideon and Alex Levac, "A Gazan blinded
by Israeli navy gunfire loses a final glimmer
of hope. Seven months after a Gaza
fisherman was shot in the eyes by Israeli
navy troops and lost his sight, he was
finally allowed into Israel for an
examination, after repeated refusals.
The news was not good,” Haaretz,
October 4, 2019.
Levy, Gideon. "The Israeli Military First Took His Legs,
Then His Life: On Friday, a sharpshooter shot and
killed Ibrahim Abu Thuraya, a Gazan double amputee,
as he protested from his wheelchair near the Israeli
border,” Haaretz, December 17, 2017.
Levy, Gideon and Alex Levac. "The Disabled
Palestinian Slowly Walked Away. Then, Israeli
Troops Shot Him in the Back of the Head. Mohammad
Khabali started to retrace his steps. Security camera
footage shows three soldiers moving ahead, to within
80 meters of him. Suddenly two shots are heard. The
mentally disabled young man collapses, dead,”
Haaretz, December 13, 2018.
Liebowitz, Cara. "At the Intersection of White
Privilege and Disability,” The Body is Not an
Apology, November 29, 2017.
McIntyre, Jody. "From isolation to disability
union leadership,” Electronic Intifada, August
23, 2010. [Excerpt: "As a disabled person, if
you need to get medical treatment outside of
Bethlehem, in Ramallah or in Nablus, you
have to pass through checkpoints and possibly
face hours of waiting and delays, which can
be especially difficult for people with
mobility difficulties.”]
Médecins Sans Frontières [MSF]. “Gaza: A
long ordeal awaits hundreds of wounded
from the March of Return,” August 8, 2018.
[Excerpt: "For the past four months, the March
of Return demonstrations in Gaza have been
met with lethal force by the Israeli army.
While the numbers of protesters and
casualties have now decreased, the
violence is not over – fresh gunshot
wounds occur every week.”]
Médecins Sans Frontières [MSF]. “Treating
resistant infections in Gaza under the blockade,”
September 2, 2019. [Excerpt: "Médecins Sans
Frontières (MSF) is dealing with immense
challenges while treating many people who
have developed bone infections after having
been shot by the Israeli army during protests
in Gaza, Palestine over the last year. These
infections are adding to the already
complicated path to recovery that these
injured people must tread. Their serious
and complex wounds require months –
if not years – of dressing, surgery and
physiotherapy. Infections prevent recovery,
and to make matters worse, many of them
are resistant to antibiotics.”]
Médecins du Monde [MdM]. "Mental health and
psychosocial impacts of occupation-related violence
in Palestine,” November 16, 2017. [Excerpt: “most
of these problems are nurtured by harmful
occupation policies which clearly affect the
foundations of the Palestinian society and
prevail its fulfilment. While 2017 marks anniversary
of 50 years of occupation and 10 years of blockade in
Gaza, it is more than time for the international
community to take concrete action to have these
daily violations on right to health immediately ceased.]
Medical Aid for Palestinians [MAP]. “Hairdressing
and hope: realising the rights of people with
disabilities in Gaza,” November 24, 2017.
[Excerpt: "Occupation, blockade and closure
have detrimentally impacted the employment
opportunities of Palestinians with disabilities.
Gaza has the world’s highest unemployment
rate – around 43% – which makes it even more
challenging for people with disabilities to gain
and keep jobs. In December 2016, the Palestinian
Non-Governmental Organizations Network stated
that 90% of people with disabilities in in Gaza
were unemployed.”]
Medical Aid for Palestinians [MAP]. "Voices from Gaza:
Living with a disability under blockade,” MAP website,
July 21, 2017. [Excerpt: "Last month, Medical Aid for
Palestinian’s (MAP) team in Gaza met Palestinians with
disabilities who participate in our ‘Inclusive and
Accessible Society’ project to discuss the barriers they
face in attaining full and equal participation in society.
/ The group first talked about the harm caused by
Israel’s military offensives to people with disabilities
in Gaza. / They highlighted the increase in the number
of Palestinians with a disability as a result of Israeli
military offensives on Gaza, with a quarter of the
group disabled directly or indirectly by the actions
of the Israeli military, including shelling of civilian
areas. During Israel’s 2014 offensive more than
2,000 Palestinians were killed and 11,000 injured,
10 per cent of whom received permanent disabilities.
/ The group also talked about the consequences of
Israel’s failure to protect health facilities and
personnel and other civilians and civilian infrastructure
during its military offensive, including their responsibility
to take all necessary measures to ensure the protection
and safety of persons with disabilities in situations
of risk.]
Medical Aid for Palestinians [MAP]. "MAP joins
call for the blockade and closure on Gaza to be lifted,”
MAP website, July 13, 2018. ["Joint letter on behalf
of 23 International, European, Israeli and Palestinian
human rights and development organisations,
calling on the European Union to urge Israel to
immediately and unconditionally lift the closure
and blockade on Gaza, 12 July” / Excerpt: “We
are writing regarding the alarming situation in
the Gaza Strip, to call on you to urge the Israeli
authorities to lift the more than a decade-long
closure and blockade imposed on the 2 million
Gaza Strip residents….Financial assistance alone
will not reverse this accelerating trend and will
not fulfill the basic rights of Palestinians in Gaza.
As interest for increased humanitarian relief grows
internationally, we fear that there can be no effective
development and humanitarian aid as long as
Israel maintains its illegal closure….As
representatives of international, European, Israeli
and Palestinian human rights and development
organisations, we urge European leaders to clearly
recognise Israel’s primary responsibility over the
unlawful closure and blockade of the Gaza Strip,
which is the root cause of its continuous
de-development and amounts to a form of
collective punishment prohibited by
international law.”]
Medecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without
Borders. "Gazans’ injuries risk permanently
shattering lives,” November 29, 2018.
Medecins Sans Frontières / Doctors
Without Borders. “In half of the injured
we received… the bone has literally been
turned into dust,” May 10, 2018.
Medecins Sans Frontières / Doctors
Without Borders. "MSF teams seeing
unusually severe gunshot wounds in
Gaza,” April 19, 2018. [Excerpt: “Half of
the more than 500 patients we have
admitted in our clinics have injuries where
the bullet has literally destroyed tissue
after having pulverised the bone”, said
Marie-Elisabeth Ingres, MSF’s country
manager in Palestine. “These patients
will need to have very complex surgical
operations and most of them will have
disabilities for life.”]
Middle East Monitor. "41% of disabled Palestinian
children suffer more than one disability, reveals
UNICEF,” December 14, 2016. [Excerpt: “Israel’s
military offensive against the Palestinians in
Gaza two years ago led to more than 2,260
people being killed; a further 11,000 were
wounded. According to the General Union for
Disability in Gaza, 40 per cent of the Palestinians
wounded in the 2014 war have long-term disabilities.”]
Middle East Monitor. "Book on Israel’s deliberate
maiming of Palestinians wins top academic prize,”
September 17, 2018. [Excerpt: "A US scholar has
won a prestigious prize for a book which argues
that Israel intentionally maims Palestinians under its
control. Rutgers University Professor Jasbir Puar
was awarded the National Women’s Studies
Association’s Alison Piepmeier Book Prize for
“The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability”.]
Middle East Monitor. “English MSF doctors struggle
with ‘bones pulverised by Israel bullets’ in Gaza,”
January 25, 2019. [Excerpt: "Doctors working with
international charity Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors
Without Borders) have described their grim task of
“replacing the centimetres of bones pulverised by
Israeli bullets in the bodies of protesters” in the
occupied Gaza Strip…. According to MSF, “in protests
held along the fence that separates Gaza from Israel
since 30 March 2018, 6,174 people have been injured
by live bullets fired by the Israeli army”, with “nearly 90
per cent of those were injured in the lower limbs”.]
Middle East Monitor. "UN: over 1,400 Palestinian
Protesters May Suffer Long-Term Disability,”
July 13, 2018.
Middle East Monitor. "WHO: 3 children a month
in Gaza left disabled for life,” June 3, 2019.
[Excerpt: "The report by the WHO, released on
Friday, cited data collected between March
2018 and March 2019, and stated that in the
past year alone, a total of 172 Gazans were
injured in such a way that they were left
disabled for life, 36 of whom were children,
meaning that one person is affected every
other day. Amputations make up an
overwhelming proportion of permanent
disabilities, with the most common cause
being high-intensity gunshot wounds
resulting in 121 amputations. Health
agencies and organisations have warned
that the number could rise if Gaza’s
medical services are not urgently upgraded.”]
Mohaisen, Doaa. "Disabled Gaza woman finds
joy in mens work,” We are Not Numbers,
January 2, 2015. [Excerpt: "If she really allows
herself to dream, despite the eight-year Israeli
blockade, Samah wishes she could held
exhibitions abroad or at least export her
handmade products. Palestinians from the
West Bank and Arabs from other countries
have promised to buy from Samah once the
blockade is over, but it has been years now.
"People with disabilities often are able to
perform better than normal people when they
get the opportunity,” she said. She tells other
people with handicaps, “Don't ever feel
disability is the end. It is not. If you wake up
and an idea pops into your head, go for it.
Write it on paper and hang it on a wall as
inspiration.”]
Moore, Jack. "Gaza’s walking wounded:
Israeli snipers have shot 6,392 protesters
in lower limbs this year. A wave of sniper
fire has left Palestinians of all ages
incapacitated or permanently disabled,”
The National, December 9, 2018.
Murphy, Maureen Clare. "Israel claims
self-defense after paralyzing Palestinian,”
Electronic Intifada, November 25, 2018.
[Excerpt: "It is not surprising that Israel’s
system of oppression and injustice would
clear itself of wrongdoing in the shooting
of Abu Aram. As human rights groups stated
this week, Israelis responsible for war crimes
against Palestinians “have not been subject to
any independent legal investigation in Israel.”]
Murphy, Maureen Clare. "Israel has injured
24,000 Gaza protesters,” Electronic Intifada,
November 25, 2018.
Murphy, Maureen Clare. "Israel kills
and “honors” people with disabilities,”
Electronic Intifada, December 3, 2021.
["To mark International Day of Persons
with Disabilities, the Israeli military
tweeted a photo of its communications
tower in Tel Aviv lit in purple on Friday.
The military claimed that the gesture was
“in honor of people with disabilities in
Israel and around the world.” Twitter
users quickly seized on the irony and
hypocrisy by highlighting Israel’s myriad
crimes against Palestinians with disabilities.
/ Earlier this year, Israeli occupation forces
demolished a disabled Palestinian man’s
home for the sixth time. The man, Hatem
Abu Riyala, was paralyzed after he fell while
protesting the demolition of his home in
2009. https://t.co/e6IxHpaoAl — Human
Rights Watch Watcher (@queeralamode)
December 3, 2021."]
Murphy, Maureen Clare. "Israeli forces
kill Palestinian mother, disabled man,”
Electronic Intifada, January 1, 2016.
Murphy, Maureen Clare. "Israeli military
absolves itself of killing disabled protester,”
Electronic Intifada, May 17, 2019. [“Abu
Thurayya was sitting in his wheelchair
and holding a Palestinian flag “when he
was shot in the forehead in what appears
to have been a deliberate act of killing,”
according to the human rights group Al-Haq.
“Under international humanitarian and human
rights law, [Abu Thurayya] was entitled to
special protection not only as a civilian
under the control of the occupying power,
but also as a person with disability who
moreover lost his legs as a consequence
of a prior assault by Israel on the Gaza
Strip,” Al-Haq adds. “The perspective of
persons with disabilities must be taken
into account in the assessment of whether
certain conduct amounts to prohibited
inhuman acts. As such, the killing of
Ibrahim Abu Thurayya may not only
amount to an arbitrary deprivation of
life but also an act of torture or
ill-treatment.” The United Nations
human rights chief at the time
condemned Israel’s killing of Abu
Thurayya, calling it “incomprehensible”
and a “truly shocking and wanton act,”]
Murphy, Maureen Clare. "No access
to education for Bedouin children with
disabilities,” February 17, 2016.
[Excerpt: "The Bedouin town of Shaqib
al-Salam, or Segev Shalom, in the
southern Naqab region, is — unlike
many other such towns in Israel —
officially recognized and was
government-planned. However,
like so many members of their
community, the Bedouin residents
of Shaqib al-Salam are subjected
to institutionalized neglect from
the Israeli government.”]
Murphy, Maureen Clare. “Palestinians
lose legs as Israel punishes them by
denying medical care,” Electronic
Intifada, April 12, 2018. [Excerpt:
"The legs of two Palestinians were
amputated on Wednesday after
Israel refused to allow them to
leave the blockaded Gaza Strip for
treatment. Human rights groups
had appealed to the Israeli
authorities to allow for the transfer
of Yusif Karnaz, 20, and
Muhammad al-Ajouri, 17, to a
hospital in the occupied West
Bank for surgery that would save
their limbs. The youths were shot
during the launch of the Great
March of Return protests along
the Gaza-Israel boundary on 30
March. But COGAT – the
bureaucratic arm of Israel’s military
occupation that postures as a
humanitiarian body – denied
their requests for permission to
travel for specialized surgery
unavailable in Gaza. Israel
admitted that it refused the
request as a form of punishment
for protesting.”]
Murphy, Maureen Clare. “Police
execution of disabled Palestinian
is a war crime,” Electronic Intifada,
June 9, 2020. [Excerpt: “…[H]uman
rights groups have long dismissed
Israel’s self-investigations as
whitewashing mechanisms, the true
purpose of which is to discourage
international judicial scrutiny. /
Palestinians with disabilities killed /
For example, Israel absolved itself
over the killing of Ibrahim Abu
Thurayya, a double-amputee who
was shot during protests in the Gaza
Strip in December 2017. Occupation
forces killed several other Palestinians
with disabilities during the Great March
of Return protests that were launched in
Gaza a few months after Abu Thurayya
was killed. One of them was Fadi Abu
Salmi who, like Abu Thurayya, had lost
his legs during Israeli airstrikes years
earlier.”]
Namey, Isra. "Palestinian amputee
children find freedom in football.
Promising amputee football juniors
train hard to present Palestine in
international tournaments,” The
National, November 17, 2019.
[“Like many of her teammates on
the teams sponsored by the
International Committee of the
Red Cross, Aisha was injured during
the 2014 Gaza War. The conflict
lasted 50 days and killed 1462
Gazan civilians and six Israeli
civilians.”]
Noor Society for Disabled. Website accessed 2018.
["Noor Society for People with Disability is a a
non- profit organization works in both sectors
(Aida and Al Azza camp). it works to rehabilitate
people with disability, share awareness for parents
and community, and merge them in the society
through occupational, physiotherapy, speech
therapy, and learning difficulty program.”]
Ofir, Jonathan. "‘I remember the knee in the
crosshairs, bursting open’ – Israeli snipers
boast of shooting ‘ducks’ in Gaza,”
Mondoweiss, March 8. 2020.
Palestinian Center for Human Rights. “Israeli
forces kill elderly disabled Palestinian during
demolition of 34 homes in Khan Yunis,”
Electronic Intifada, July 12, 2004.
Palestine Chronicle. "UN: 1,400 Palestinian
Protesters May Suffer Long-Term Disability,”
July 13, 2018.
Patel, Yumna. "Israeli soldiers shoot and kill
a disabled Palestinian man on International Day
of Disabled Persons,” Mondoweiss, December 5, 2018.
Physicians for Human Rights—Israel. “Amputees: The
challenges faced by Gaza Strip amputees
seeking medical treatment,” PHR Report,
May, 2016. ["Israel runs a colonial occupation
regime in the West Bank and continues
to be the effective sovereign of the Gaza
Strip as well. It is the entity that prohibits
or permits the entry and exit of individuals
into and out of the Palestinian territories
—including patients leaving in order to
seek medical care.”]
Puar, Jasbir K. "The Right to Maim:
Debility, Capacity, Disability (ANIMA:
Critical Race Studies Otherwise),” Duke
University Press Books, 2017. ["In The
Right to Maim Jasbir K. Puar brings her
pathbreaking work on the liberal state,
sexuality, and biopolitics to bear on our
understanding of disability. Drawing on
a stunning array of theoretical and
methodological frameworks, Puar uses
the concept of “debility”—bodily injury
and social exclusion brought on by
economic and political factors—to
disrupt the category of disability.
She shows how debility, disability,
and capacity together constitute an
assemblage that states use to control
populations. Puar's analysis culminates
in an interrogation of Israel's policies
toward Palestine, in which she outlines
how Israel brings Palestinians into
biopolitical being by designating them
available for injury. Supplementing its
right to kill with what Puar calls the right
to maim, the Israeli state relies on liberal
frameworks of disability to obscure and
enable the mass debilitation of Palestinian
bodies. Tracing disability's interaction with
debility and capacity, Puar offers a brilliant
rethinking of Foucauldian biopolitics while
showing how disability functions at the
intersection of imperialism and racialized
capital.”]
Rahman, Anjuman. “Disabled,
underage or critically-ill in
hospital, Israel soldiers’ abuse
with no limits. Al-Ajlouni, 25,
suffered from a state of shock,
as well as severe pain in the neck
and shoulders following his abuse
at the hands of the Israeli
officers,” Middle East Monitor,
February 24, 2022.
Roberts, Rachel. "Ibrahim Abu Thuraya: Disabled
Palestinian activist shot dead by Israeli troops in
Jerusalem protest. Outrage after double amputee
among of eight Palestinians killed since Donald
Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital,”
The Independent [UK]. December 16, 2017. Also
see Abusalama, Shahd, "Ibrahim Abu Thurayya: an
icon of dignity and defiance,” Electronic Intifada,
December 18, 2017.
Rothchild, Alice. "IARPP [International Association
for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy]
clamps down debate on Palestinian mental health
at its conference in NY,” Mondoweiss, June 1, 2018.
[Excerpt: "A professional, international organization
that is focused on the social and relational aspects
of mental health might be expected to welcome a
conversation that explores the impact of longstanding
human rights abuses, military occupation and siege
on a captive civilian population. Indeed, even the
diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder may
not be applicable to a society where the trauma
is ongoing and rarely “post”…. But some staff at the
IARPP responded more like an arm of the Israeli
government than a professional mental health
organization.”]
S., Aaron. "How Israel Changes the Lives of The
Disabled,” Jerusalem Online, November 18, 2018.
[Hasbara excerpt: "Israel’s commitment to protecting
the rights of those with disabilities, influences all
aspects of Israeli society. From (…) to “Special
in Uniform”, a unique project which helps those
with special needs enlist in the Israel Defense
Forces, to (…) Israel is proud to advocate on
behalf of those with disabilities and will
continue to work to advance equality and
tolerance on a global scale.” (… as long as it
is not equality for non-Jews in Israel, the oPt,
or the Palestinian diaspora— ML)]
Sayrafi, Imad. "Invisible People: Women and Girls
with Disabilities and access to Rights Organizations
to in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Palestinian
Refugee Camps in Lebanon,” downloadable pdf,
Birzeit University, 2013.
Strickland, Patrick O. "How Israel’s “smart”
weapons killed a disabled Gaza teen,” Electronic
Intifada, February 9, 2015. [Excerpt: “Israel
targeted a medical facility for the disabled
on 12 July, the day before the Abu Jayab
home was struck. At least four persons were
killed and dozens injured when bombs
crushed the Mabaret Palestine Society, a
center for people with disabilities, in Beit
Lahiya, a town in northern Gaza. / On 21
July, Israeli tanks shelled the al-Aqsa
hospital in Deir al-Balah, killing three
people and injuring forty more, the human
rights group Al-Haq reported. / Israel
bombed the al-Wafa hospital in the Shujaiya
neighborhood of Gaza City two days later,
on 23 July. / Doctors were forced to
evacuate at least fourteen patients who
were paralyzed or in a coma at the time,
Ma’an News Agency reported. / The Israeli
army claimed that Palestinian armed groups
used the hospital as a base. However it was
revealed that Israel used fabricated satellite
images to “justify” its bombing of al-Wafa.”]
Synenko, Alyona. "He thought if he just ran
fast enough, he could get out of Gaza. There
are some 1,600 amputees in Gaza. Here’s the
story of one,” Haaretz, May 19, 2019.
Tayeh, Asmaa. "UN funding cuts jeopardize deaf
children,” We are Not Numbers,” October 20, 2018.
Ullah, Areeb. "Disabled Palestinian man killed
by Israeli soldiers in Gaza. Ibrahim Abu Thuraya
lost his legs and a kidney in 2008 during an
Israeli air strike on a refugee camp in Gaza,”
Middle East Eye, December 15, 2017.
United Nations Development Program of Assistance
to the Palestinian People. "Children with Disability:
Restoring their Right to Education in Gaza; Shams
Al Amal’s School [for the Physically Disabled] Allowed
around 160 students children with Disability return
to their School After its Reconstruction.” [Excerpt:
"Shams Al Amal School is one of the only few schools
caring for children with disability in Gaza and was
almost completely destroyed during the 2014 hostilities.
This has led to the displacement of more than 160
students and teachers with physical disabilities.
Determined not to close its doors despite the
numerous challenges; the school operated in
tents and temporary shelters until it was
reconstructed….According to Palestinian Central
Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Around 1,134 individuals
injured in the war on Gaza Strip in 2014 are
expected to be left disabled. Following the 2014
hostilities, 24 schools were completely destroyed
and 190 schools, including 70 UNRWA schools and
120 government schools, have been damaged in Gaza.
12 higher education institutions were damaged, in
addition to tens of kindergartens, according to the
Palestinian Ministry of Education.”]
United Nations News. "Hundreds of wounded Gaza
protesters risk limb amputation without immediate
help, warns top UN official,” Masy 8, 2019.
United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs [OCHA]. "Addressing rehabilitation
needs of Palestinians seriously injured during Gaza
demonstrations: Over 1,400 may suffer long-term
disability,” Posted on 10 July 2018 as part of The
Monthly Humanitarian Bulletin | June 2018. ["This
article was contributed by the World Health
Organization and the Disability Working Group”]
United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs [OCHA]. "Excessive use of
force and lack of accountability ,” Posted on 4
July 2017 as part of The Monthly Humanitarian
Bulletin | May-June 2017. [Excerpt: "In 2016,
19 Palestinians were killed and over 3,200 injured
during such clashes; nearly 14 per cent of these
injuries were from live ammunition. Serious injuries
often result in long-term disability, rendering young
Palestinians in constant need of medical treatment
and humanitarian assistance, and disrupting the
lives of their entire families.”]
United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs [OCHA]. "Gaza Emergency
Humanitarian Snapshot (as of 20 August 2014, 8:00 hrs),”
OCHA website, August 21, 2014. [Excerpt: “An
estimated 1,000 children injured will suffer from
a disability for life, and a further 6,000 children
will have a parent with a life-long disability.”]
United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs [OCHA]. "Gaza: people
with disabilities disproportionately affected
by the energy and salary crisis,” OCHA website,
Posted on 11 October 2017 as part of The
Monthly Humanitarian Bulletin | September
2017. [Excerpt: "The Palestinian Ministry of
Social Development estimates that over 49,000
individuals in the Gaza Strip (or 2.4 per cent
of the population) suffer from some type of
disability, a third of them children. More than
1,100 of these people, including about 300
children, became disabled as a result of
injuries incurred during the 2014 hostilities,
including approximately 100 amputees.”]
United Nations Program of Assistance to the
Palestinian People. "Children with Disability:
Restoring their Right to Education in Gaza;
Shams Al Amal’s School Allowed around 160
students children with Disability return to their
School After its Reconstruction.” [2014?]
World Health Organization. “Gaza: Waiting for
Treatment, Thousands of patients in Gaza
cannot access much-needed health care,”
WHO in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
November 16, 2018.
World Health Organization. “Health Access:
Barriers for Patients in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory,” Monthly Report, May, 2018. [“According
to the WHO’s monthly Gaza healthcare access report,
in May 2018 Israel approved permits for just 59% of
all patients seeking to exit Gaza for treatment in East
Jerusalem, the rest of the West Bank or abroad. These
permits are critical for many patients unable to access
the medical treatment they need within Gaza. Israeli
authorities denied 201 Gaza patients (including six
children) permission to cross Erez for healthcare in
May, including 37 cancer patients. In addition, 718
patients (including 164 children) missed appointments
due to Israeli delays, 23% in need of cancer treatment.
Due to Israeli forces’ violence response to the “Great
March of Return” demonstrations, more than a thousand
patients in Gaza require specialist limb reconstruction
care. The WHO’s report however, shows that only 36%
of orthopaedic applications were approved to exit Gaza
for medical treatment….The accessibility of healthcare
is a fundamental element of the right to health. As the
occupying power, Israel has an international legal
obligation to ensure humanitarian assistance to the
population under its control, including access to
medical care.” — MAP.]
YMCA Jerusalem. "The International Day of People
with Disabilities,” press release, December 3, 2016.
[Excerpt: “(We, at the East Jerusalem YMCA - Rehabilitation
Program) believe that the following issues needs to
be further addressed at this stage:….Opposing the
practices of the military occupation against the
Palestinians, generally, and people with disabilities,
specifically, namely those held in Israeli prisons as
well as those experiencing ill-treatment whether in
their houses, on the streets or at checkpoints, given
that similar unjust practices are incompatible with
the basic rights and most importantly, the right
to live and the right to a dignified living.”]
Sins Invalid. "10 Principles of Disability Justice,” September 17, 2015.

Abu Eltarabesh, Hamza. "How Israel Stole this Fisherman’s Sight
and Sense of Smell,” Electronic Intifada, Ferbruary 18, 2020.

Abu Eltarabesh, Hamza. "Gaza’s Team of Champions,” Electronic
Intifada, July 5, 2018.

"Palestinian double amputee killed by Israeli sniper.
Gaza funeral for Ibrahim Abu Thurayyah, who was
killed while protesting US move to name Jerusalem
as Israel's capital,” Al Jazeera, December 16, 2017.
Chart from Physicians for Human Rights—Israel.
“Amputees: The challenges faced by Gaza Strip
amputees seeking medical treatment,” PHRI Report,
May, 2016.
"Israeli army commander: I will make all the youth of Al-Duheisha
camp disabled,” Middle East Monitor, August 26, 2016. For more
information about the notorious “Captain Nidal”: Barrows-Friedman,
Nora. "Israeli officer threatens to kill Palestinian youth and his
family,” Electronic Intifada, December 23, 2016.
"Israeli prison authorities denied Hassan Tamimi his medication, which
made him fall into a coma and lose his eyesight.” [7/19/18
Or Kashti. "Israel Is Violating the International
Convention on Disabled Rights, Report Finds.
A coalition of [30] rights groups submitted an
alternative report to the UN Committee on the
Rights of Persons after dismissing the
government's version as 'very partial and
lacking’ Haaretz, December 6, 2020.

Disabled Palestinians take part in a rally demanding their rights
in front of the UNRWA headquarters. Gaza City, April 11,
2019. Photo by Mahmoud Ajjour [photo from Electronic Intifada]

"Hundreds of Palestinian citizens of Israel protested in the city of
Haifa, Israel, on Tuesday, 2 June, 2020 against the Israeli police
killing of an unarmed autistic Palestinian man just days earlier.
Israeli police shot and killed Iyad el-Hallak in Jerusalem on 30 May,
2020 as he made his way to his special needs school. The Palestinian
protesters also expressed support for American citizens protesting
the police killing of African American man George Floyd on 25 May,
2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Mati Milstein/NurPhoto
via Getty Images)"

Facebook page of The General Union of Disabled Palestinians
"A new project in Gaza is giving hope to Palestinian amputees
who want to continue playing football….This unique
programme, organised by the International Committee of
the Red Cross, is giving some Palestinians another shot at
the sport. Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom reports from
Gaza.” [4/10/19]

"Gaza City, Gaza - September 03 [2018]: Palestinian student
Mohammed Abu Hussain from Gaza, who lost his leg after
being shot by an Israeli sniper during "Great March of Return”
demonstrations, sits on a chair holding his crutches at the
playground of his school in Gaza City, Gaza on September
03, 2018. (Photo by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)”
[via The Atlantic]

Oliver Holmes, "'Palestinian lives matter': Israeli
police killing of autistic man draws US comparison.
Caregiver for Iyad Halak says she told police he
was disabled shortly before he was shot,” The
Guardian [UK]. June 1, 2020. Also see Maureen
Clare Murphy, "Police execution of disabled
Palestinian is a war crime,” Electronic Intifada,
June 9, 2020.
"Gaza: Nine out of ten children suffering from PTSD
after Israel's May offensive / Israel’s air offensive on
the besieged Palestinian enclave has caused far-reaching
trauma amongst children, according to a human rights
monitor [Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor]” {"if the
symptoms of PTSD are so severe that they affect
your ability to function in society or in the workplace,
then this would be considered a disability}

"When Israel bombed disabled Palestinians”
[article by Sarah Algherbawi in ei]
"Two organizations – Parents Against Child
Detention and PsychoActive: Mental
Health Professionals for Human Rights –
have obtained the signatures of 300 mental
health professionals calling for an end to
sweeping detentions of Palestinian children
and an honoring of the right to dignity from
childhood to old age for everyone between
the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.”
Ha’aretz, May 28, 2023.
Gideon Levy: "Abdel Nasser Halawa
is deaf from birth, and he also suffers
from intellectual disabilities. (He was
shot by Israeli soldiers because he)
couldn’t hear the calls to stop. They
shoot deaf people, don’t they – and
mentally impaired middle-aged men.” /
Accessible version: https://archive.is/sf3yK
[Haaretz, 8/28/20]
See: "Gaza protest deaths: Israel may have committed
war crimes - UN.” BBC News, February 28, 2019.
Excerpt: "A double amputee in a wheelchair, a
person using crutches... they have been shot at
by snipers, who also have spotters available with
them who have very high-level technology to
see who is out there in the field."

Palestinian wheelchair users take part in a dabke
class at a club in Gaza City. Dabke is a Levantine
folk line dance widely performed at weddings and
other joyous occasions. Gaza City, April 28, 2019.
Photo by Mahmoud Ajjour [photo from Electronic
Intifada]

"Disabled Palestinians who lost their legs from
Israeli troops fire during clashes at
Gaza-Israel border wait to receive crutches
funded by Viva Malaysia, in Gaza city,
on July 19, 2018. (Photo by Ashraf
Amra/APA Images)" Mondoweiss, December
14, 2018.
Ynet News, November 12, 2018.
"Martial arts help people everywhere improve
their physical fitness and self-confidence. But
in Gaza, judo is offering particular benefits to
young people without sight. Here, We Are Not
Numbers reporter Rakan Abed El-Rahman hits
the mats with the Gaza team. Thanks to Yousef
Basman for the masterful camera work and
editing.” — We Are Not Numbers

"'Shoot to maim': How Israel created a generation on
crutches in Gaza: Doctors tell MEE that Palestinian
protesters' crippling injuries, especially to lower limbs,
were inflicted deliberately.” Article by Dania Akkad,
Middle East Eye, March 29, 2018.)
Screen shot from the film “Jenin, Jenin"

"50 Palestinian protesters have been blinded by shots
to the eye at Gaza fence protests. Mohamed al-Naccar
was shot in his right eyes with a tear gas canister fired
by Israeli soldiers during “Great March of Return” protests
on January 11, 2019. He is seen with his mother in Khan
Yunis, Gaza on February 6, 2019. (Photo by Abed
Zagout/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)"
"Video: Israel kills dreams of Gaza boxing
champion,” The Electronic Intifada, January 15, 2019.
"The document had not been known to
exist before this time, and scholars of the
mass immigration from Poland to Israel
that took place from 1956 to 1958 were
unaware of Israel's intent to impose a
selection process on Jews leaving
Poland - survivors of the Holocaust
and its death camps…."This is a very
cynical document," he [Rudnicki] said. “It
is known that Golda was a brutal
politician who defended interests more
than people.” Katz died more than 20
years ago, and no proof has been
found that anything was done
regarding the foreign minister’s
query. ” [Haaretz, December 9, 2009]
"Gaza artist explores disability through
cartoons,” The Electronic Intifada. February 5, 2019.

Abu Eltarabesh, Hamza. "Israeli bombs crushed
footballer’s “first and last option,” Electronic Intifada,
August 29, 2017.
“Special in Uniform / The Israeli military has a secret
weapon — a highly trained squad of elite soldiers that’s
entirely made up of disabled and autistic teens. Special in
Uniform is a Jewish National Fund-USA program that
integrates young adults with disabilities into the Israel
Defense Forces (IDF) and, in turn, into Israeli society.
Its core belief is that everyone belongs and has the right
to reach his or her full potential….Why the IDF? The IDF
is known as the people’s army. The significance of this
model is that beyond its military duty to ensure Israel’s
security, it also plays an important social role. It is a
melting pot that brings together all sectors of Israeli
society."
"Speaking with Haaretz, Hallaq family members said
“he wasn’t capable of harming anyone” and was autistic
and classified as disabled. Hallaq's body was transferred
to the Institute of Forensic Medicine. Hallaq's family
demanded that a Palestinian representative be present
at the autopsy. The family later said that the Palestinian
pathologist was prevented from entering. Hallaq's father
said that his son would go to the special needs school
every day. “He never had problems with the police. In
the morning we received a call from the special needs
facility, telling us our son had been killed.”
.
‘
.
See Maureen Clare Murphy in Electronic Intifada:
"Police execution of disabled Palestinian is a war
crime,” June 9, 2020. [“The Israeli police killing
of a Palestinian man with disabilities in Jerusalem
last month amounts to an extrajudicial execution,
the group Al-Haq stated in an urgent appeal to
United Nations human rights experts on Tuesday.
/ Iyad Hallaq “posed no threat to the lives of those
around him at the time” of his slaying in Jerusalem’s
Old City on 30 May. His killing is a war crime giving
rise to “individual criminal responsibility,” the
Palestinian human rights group added….Warda
Abu Hadid, Hallaq’s caregiver, saw Hallaq running
and shouted at the police, telling them in Arabic
and Hebrew that Hallaq was disabled. The police,
who claimed to have believed that Hallaq was armed,
ignored Abu Hadid’s calls and shot Hallaq with live
fire as he continued running. / When an officer
asked Abu Hadid, “Where is the pistol?” the
caregiver stated again that Hallaq was disabled.
Shot in the foot, Hallaq pointed at Abu Hadid
and told the officer she was his teacher. /
“Then, after five minutes of apparent
premeditation, the Israeli Border Police
officer shot three live bullets at Iyad, from
a distance not exceeding five meters.” /
Hallaq was holding nothing in his hands
when he was killed, according to Al-Haq’s
investigation. / Israeli occupation forces
failed to provide Hallaq with medical
treatment immediately following his injury.
/ Twenty minutes later, after the director of
the Elwyn Center arrived at the scene and
said that Hallaq was one of her students,
Israeli forces allowed an ambulance to reach
the injured man. / Hallaq’s caregiver, Abu
Hadid, was assaulted by police and taken to
a nearby station, where she was forced to
take off her head covering and clothing.”]
'Shoot to maim': How Israel created a generation
on crutches in Gaza. Doctors tell MEE that Palestinian
protesters' crippling injuries, especially to lower limbs,
were inflicted deliberately” [3/29/19]
Judy Maltz in Haaretz [August 25, 2023]: “Jewish
Students at Princeton Defend Professor Slammed
for Promoting anti-Israel Book. Members of a
progressive Jewish organization on campus have
attracted nearly 400 signatures in an open letter
backing Satyel Larson, after she included the
controversial book ‘The Right to Maim: Debility,
Capacity, Disability’ on her fall syllabus. The
book's author has been accused of promoting
an antisemitic blood libel.” ["It argues that “the
Israeli state relies on liberal frameworks of
disability to obscure and enable the mass
debilitation of Palestinian bodies.”]
[Article archived here; download the
book's introduction here.]
"When I came back from the field, they would ask,
‘Well, how many today?’ You have to understand
that before we showed up, knees were the hardest
thing to rack up. There was a story about one sniper
who had 11 knees all told, and people thought no
on could outdo him. And then I brought in
seven-eight knees in one day. Within a few hours,
I almost broke his record.” [Haaretz, March 5, 2020]
"Palestinians with disabilities are, however, determined
to practice sports despite the lack of resources. “Karate
teaches us many things. It strengthens the body, it
stimulates circulation. But it also enhances self-confidence,”
Muhammad al-Mahani, another team member, tells The
Electronic Intifada. “To be able to speak to anyone, to go
about your life normally, to have inner strength and for people
to see you as someone who practices karate and is active,
just like anyone else,” al-Mahani says.”
"MSF: 1,000 Gazans shot by Israel at risk
of fatal infection” [Middle East Monitor,
November 29, 2018]
From We are Not Numbers
From Defense for Children International - Palestine
Mor, Sagit. "Tell My Sister to Come and
Get Me Out of Here" — A Reading of Ableism
and Orientalism in Israel's Immigration Policy
(The First Decade)," September 2007,
Disability Studies Quarterly,
DOI:10.18061/dsq.v27i4.43
"Riding, despite Gaza: Palestinian cycling champion Alaa al-Dali.
Cycling champ Alaa al-Dali's leg was shot to pieces by an Israeli
sniper. Now he's making a comeback as a para-cyclist."
"Video: Life after losing a limb in Gaza” / Israeli snipers
shot Muhammad Eleiwa while he was protesting along
the Gaza boundary fence east of Gaza City on 9 November
2018. His right leg had to be amputated as a result….Israeli
snipers have killed more than 200 Palestinian civilians,
including more than 40 children, during demonstrations.
Some 8,000 have been injured by live ammunition, with
thousands more suffering other injuries."


"Mohamed Aliwa, a Palestinian youth whose leg was amputated
near the knee in 2018 after he was hit by Israeli army fire during
protests along the fortified border separating the Gaza Strip from
Israel, shows off his parkour skills despite his disability and while
on crutches in Gaza City on January 4, 2021. - Parkour, an extreme
sport also known as free-running, originated in France in the 1990s.
Young people in the Gaza Strip have been practising parkour for
years…. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP) (Photo by MAHMUD
HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)"
"This sweet factory in Gaza is run by workers who are
deaf or hard of hearing. The Hanan Sweet Factory
produces Arab candies and desserts in Gaza City.
“At first I thought it would be difficult, I didn’t know
how I would communicate with him,” Muhammad
al-Ghazali, the owner of the factory, told The
Electronic Intifada about hiring the first worker.
“But when he came to work I found he had high
concentration and very good talent.” “When I first
came here, my job was to put nuts on sweets. But
I learned and developed new skills and started
making them from scratch,” says Mouin al-Siksik,
worker at the factory. Video by Mohammed Asad.
Music: https://www.purple-planet.com
See: https://electronicintifada.net/content/
video-gaza-sweet-factory-integrates-deaf-workers/27181
Dreams in the Crosshairs [14:26; Dir.
Ahmed Sultan; Produced by We Are Not
Numbers with support and funding from
the Freedom Flotilla Coalition; 2019] / “When
Israeli snipers target people participating
in or even located near Gaza's Great Return
March, it's not just their bodies they kill or
maim, it's their dreams. This is the story
of Alaa al-Dali."

"Palestinian artist Muhammed Tutah, who
lost his leg during an Israeli attack in 2008,
draws 2022 on the sands of the beach ahead
of the new year in Gaza City, Gaza on 28
December 2021 [Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency]"
Marathon of #Peace in #Gaza for amputees. [2019]

"Palestinian wheelchair users protest against an Israeli
order to stop the building of a sports facility for them
in the West Bank town of Salfit on 28 October. Shadi
Jarar’ah APA images” [h/t Electronic Intifada]


On “Vegan Washing”:
"Big in Israel: Vegan Soldiers” [Debra Kamin in The
Atlantic, December 2015]
"The Israeli soldier who arrested me wore
faux leather army boots" [Ariel Gold in
VegansAgainstTheOccupation.org] [Excerpt:
"I explained that for me veganism is not
simply about the liberation of animals
but part of a principled stance against
all forms of oppression. I told her that
I consider it contradictory to be opposed
to the oppression of animals while
condemning ... working to end sexism,
racism, islamophophia, antisemitism,
occupation, and more. I told her that
for me vegan principles compel me to
recognize and work for the equality
of all beings and all people,
including Palestinians.”]
"No Veganwashing Israeli Crimes!" ["A panel responds
to the use of veganism to propagandize the occupation.
Organized by Animal Liberation Currents and Vegans
for BDS….What notion of veganism is being
appropriated here and what are the realities of animal
rights in Israel? How prevalent is Zionism in the global
animal advocacy movement? What are the realities of
animal liberation struggle in the Palestinian context?
What are the possibilities of Palestinian solidarity work
in the global animal liberation movement?” Recorded
in Toronto, 8 August 2019.]
Abunimah, Ali. "Israel’s killer vegetarians (and vegans).
A brief history,” Electronic Intifada, November 2, 2012.
Ahronheim, Anna. "The most vegan army in the world.
10,000 IDF soldiers are vegan, including Deputy Chief
of Staff Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi,” Jerusalem Post,
October 3, 2018.
Addario, Michael. “Palestinian Solidarity AND
Animal Liberation with Michael Addario,” radio
interview on KZFR “People Powered Radio,” June 22,
2018. ["Michael John Addario, founder and editor
of Animal Liberation Currents, discusses the
intersections between the Israeli occupation
of Palestine, animal liberation, and the left.”]
Addario, Michael. "Vegans for BDS Launches
Toronto Organizing,” August 13, 2019. [“Vegans
for BDS is an international network of animal
activists that emerged in the period following
the Palestinian Animal League (PAL)’s first
international solidarity conference held in
Ramallah, West Bank, Palestine, in the
spring of 2018.”]
Alloun, Esther. "Animal Activism in
Palestine/Israel,” Freedom of Species
Team, 3CR 855AM Community Radio on
PlayerFM, October 14, 2018. ["This show
features the talk ‘Veganwashing Israel’s
Dirty Laundry? Animal Politics and
Nationalism in Palestine-Israel’ by
scholar-activist Esther Alloun….
Esther’s talk is from the conference
‘Animal Nationalisms: Multispecies cultural
politics, race, and nation (un)building
narratives’, organised by the Deakin
Critical Animal Studies Network.”]
Also available on iROAR.
Alloun, Esther. "Fur PETA’s Sake! The politics of animals
in the Zionist state,” Animal Liberation Currents,
June 12, 2017.
Alloun, Esther. "‘That’s the beauty of it, it’s very
simple!’ Animal rights and settler colonialism in
Palestine–Israel,” Settler Colonial Studies, Volume
8, 2018 - Issue 4, December 18, 2017. [Abstract
excerpt: "The article argues that human–animal
relationships constitute a significant dimension
through which settler colonialism is expressed,
engaged with, and resisted. As such, drawing on
ethnographic material, it explores how different
approaches to animal activism can obscure or
reveal the racial and colonial relations they are
bound up with. It considers how Jewish Israelis
frame animal rights in non-intersectional ways,
as a simple, single-issue movement that can be
abstracted from human politics and power
relations, while the Palestinian Animal League
in the occupied West Bank weaves animal activism
with the decolonial struggle for Palestinian
self-determination in an intersectional spirit.”]
Alloun, Esther. "Veganwashing Israel’s Dirty Laundry?
Animal Politics and Nationalism in Palestine-Israel,”
Journal of Intercultural Studies, DOI:
10.1080/07256868.2019.1617254
[Abstract excerpt: “… animal welfare and
veganism have been enrolled as a device to narrate
the Israeli nation within terms of Jewish Israeli sovereignty.
The contemporary cultural politics of veganism in Israel
circulate and reinforce national myths of exceptionalism
tethered to a Zionist exclusionary ideology, including
claims to unique victimhood, pioneering achievements
and moral rectitude, which further entrench Jewish Israeli
belonging and Palestinian unbelonging.”]
Danielle. "A White Vegan Feminist in Palestine
(Danielle),” Collective, March 29, 2018.
Doyel, Sarah. "‘The Most Vegan Army in the World’:
How Israel co-opts veganism to justify Palestinian
oppression,” Mondoweiss, September 9, 2019.
[Excerpt: "Make no mistake: Israel is using veganism
as a calculated facade to justify its military’s program
of terror, gloss over its occupation of Palestine, and
appropriate regional culture and traditions that predate
Israel by hundreds if not thousands of years. Far from
being a politically neutral “lifestyle,” true veganism is
a radical anti-oppression philosophy, and yet one of
the most oppressive governments in the world is
co-opting veganism for its own gains.”]
Doyel, Sarah. "Veganwashing: Israel, Palestine,
and Faux Compassion,” Sarahdoyel.com, August
19, 2019. [Excerpt: "Veganwashing is similar to
greenwashing, but has a particular flavor and
purpose due to veganism’s emphasis on
nonviolence. If greenwashing is a tactic to
appeal to an ethos of environmental
stewardship, then veganwashing appeals
to an ethos of nonviolence. It holds, then,
that veganwashing would be an especially
useful strategy for actors who have a vested
interest in concealing ongoing acts of violence
and appearing peaceful. Which brings me to
the most prominent example of veganwashing
that can be found today: Israel’s modern
colonial project in Palestine.”]
Goldman, Mordechai. "Likud offers vegans
a new political home,” AL-Monitor, September
15, 2019. ["Article summary: Tal Gilboa, one of
the most famous vegan activists in Israel, says
only Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “takes
account” of animals.”]
Gross, Aeyal. "Vegans for (And Against) the Occupation.
Those promoting a vegan diet deserve congratulation for
various reasons. But those enlisting it as a conscience-
cleaning device to help hide their role in perpetuating the
suffering of others do not,” Ha’aretz, November 14, 2013.
Guimaraes, Sandra. “Vegan-Washing.” [“Article on on
the vegan-washing phenomenon in Israel.”]
Hendricks, Chris. "Veganwashing and the Lie of Vegan
Unity,” Collectively Free, June 7, 2018. [Excerpt: “Probably
the most widely-reported example of Israeli veganwashing
is the 2015 initiative by Anonymous for Animal Rights
(Israel’s largest animal-rights organization) to re-brand
the Israeli Defense Forces….”]
Israeli Vegans Against Apartheid. "Israeli vegans to
Tel Aviv Healthy Vegan Conference speakers: Please
cancel your participation,” Boycott!, October 2019.
Matar, Haggai. "Can animal rights take precedence over
human rights?” +972, November 12, 2013. [Excerpt: “When
veganism becomes a tool to improve the IDF’s image, or
that of Israel as a whole – which is what Megged suggests
– and when attempts are being made to cover up the fact
that the IDF operates an occupation mechanism that denies
people their basic human rights, veganism is being
appropriated for propaganda purposes.…The conclusion
to be drawn from this observation is not to abstain from
veganism, but rather to appropriate it as yet another
element in the general struggle against oppression –
of any kind.”]
McAlpin, Nick. "How Israel uses animal rights to
'veganwash' the occupation,” The New Arab, July
18, 2019. [Excerpt: "Ahmad Safi is the co-founder
of the Palestinian Animal League (PAL). PAL is a
collective of animal rights activists operating
throughout the West Bank. They are also ardent
advocates of Palestinian self-determination. PAL
previously operated the first vegan café in the
Arab world and, amongst other projects, works
with the City of Tulkarm on a trap, neuter,
vaccinate, and release (TNVR) programme for
stray dogs. For Safi, the successful propagation
of the Israeli pinkwashing narrative has spawned
what he terms "veganwashing.”]
Mondoweiss Editors. "It’s easier to be a
vegan than an anti-Zionist in Israel,” October, 2017.
Palestinian Animal League. "Defending Palestine: Liberating
the People, the Land, and Animals,” August 7, 2017.
Palestinian Animal League. “Don’t say GO VEGAN.
Respond to the local context and challenges of your
people,” November 28, 2018. [Excerpt: "I can’t afford
to be a single-issue vegan / I asked Wotko what he
thought about single-issue veganism – fighting only
for justice for animals. “Systems of oppression in my
life aren’t experienced as separate. They are part of
my daily fight to survive. I don’t think I can afford to
be just a single issue vegan. I always say that I’m
queer, and indigenous, and anti-speciesist. We can’t
just pick veganism to talk about, because we can only
do that because of our privilege. It’s so important to
challenge white men who are very privileged and not
even seeing that.”]
Palestinian Animal League. "Israel, the first world
country with vegan washing?” March 28, 2018. [Excerpt:
“[T]he moral price we pay for disconnecting the struggle
for animal rights from the struggle for human rights
is reproducing, reinforcing and making other
oppressions sustainable.”]
Palestinian Animal League. "Palestine Animal League
Conference: Defending Animal and Human Rights,”
May 30, 2018.
Palestinian Animal League. “Vegans for BDS,”
November 28, 2018. [Excerpt: "Vegans for BDS
is a group calling for animal activists worldwide
to show solidarity with humans and other animals
in Palestine by supporting the BDS movement and
speaking out against Israeli veganwashing.”]
Palestine News Network. "Over 20 vegan and
Palestine solidarity groups oppose PlantX
expansion into Israel,” February 24, 2021.
["More than twenty solidarity, human rights
and animal rights organizations have signed
an open letter demanding that Vancouver-based
e-commerce company PlantX cease plans to
expand to Israel, designated an apartheid
state currently being investigated by the
Hague for war crimes and crimes against
humanity. Vegans for BDS, supported by
Palestine solidarity groups, are protesting
Canadian company PlantX’s expansion into
Israel, citing complicity in the crime of
apartheid. In their letter to PlantX, Vegans
for BDS and their signatories write, “As
vegans, we are cautious about our
consumption choices. We aim to do the
least harm to animals, the environment,
and humans. Neither are we mere
consumers,” the group stated in their
open letter to the company.” We strive
to shape our world in accordance with
these values. This is why we feel obligated
to point out the harm that PlantX will
cause, should you continue with your
plans in Israel.” The letter goes on to
cite Israeli and international human
rights organizations who have identified
Israel’s policies and permanent military
occupation of Palestine as apartheid.”]
Powell, Dylan. "The Myth of Vegan Progress in Israel,”
Dylan Powell blog, February 15, 2015.
Qadi, Renan. "Our Palestinian vegan food has been
also stolen!” Palestinian Animal League, September
21, 2018.
Safi, Ahmad. "On the “IDF’s vegan warriors”: A
vegan Palestinian’s perspective,” Palestinian
Animal League, May 2, 2016. [Excerpt: "I am
someone who has had family members and
friends killed, abused, arrested and held without
charge or trial by the Israeli armed forces. I am
someone whose own home was destroyed by the
IDF as part of Israel’s ongoing (illegal) policy of
collective punishment and I am someone who,
myself, was beaten so badly by a sergeant in the
Israeli army when I was ten years old that I
coughed up blood from internal injuries. Would
my experience, or that of my friends, family,
fellow countrymen and women be different if
the boot that kicked me was vegan, or the hat
on the sniper’s head who took my uncle’s life
was made from polyester, not wool? No, of
course not.”]
Starostinetskaya, Anna. "Israeli Army Introduces
Vegan Combat Rations. 50,000 IDF soldiers can now
enjoy vegan food packs that include hummus, tahini,
beans, cocoa spread, halva, olives, and fruit,” Veg
News, April 3, 2017.
Tanenbaum, Julia. “Renouncing Vegan Birthright,”
Collectively Free, Sept. 22, 2017. [Excerpt: “We
must reject the vegan washing model and instead
follow the example of anti-Zionist vegans like
the members of the Palestinian Animal League
or Anarchists Against the Wall, which began as
the pro-intersectional human and animal rights
organization ‘One Struggle’. We must follow the
example of vegans like Haggai Matar, who spent
two years in prison for refusing the draft in2002….
Decolonizing Veganism is the only way
for non-human animals to become free, because
history teaches us that solidarity is the strongest
weapon in the face of injustice. Vegans must
choose whether to continue our community’s
endorsement of colonial violence and white
supremacy, or stand for the lives and liberty
of all sentient beings.”]
The Vegan Vanguard. "11. The Vegan-Washing
of Israel Continues (Brand Israel, Palestine, and
Occupation),” Podcast, April 12, 2018. [Excerpt:
"Marine interviews Laura Schleifer– a Jewish
pro-intersectional vegan and free Palestine
solidarity activist who spent time in the
Palestinian West Bank on a theatre tour. Israel
wants to grow its reputation as “The Vegan
Capital of the World” and is using diverse tactics
to spread this message (Vegan Birthright,
vegan army gear, vegan conferences, vegan
food tours). Brand Israel has long used social
justice causes to promote itself as a cool,
progressive, innovate hub, in order to distract
us from looking at its atrocious human rights
track record. After gay rights (Pink Washing),
the environment (Green Washing), we discuss
how veganism is being leveraged to
“Vegan-Wash” the Israeli occupation.”]
Vegans for BDS. "Petition: Boycott Tel Aviv
Healthy Vegan Conference,” Change.org,
October 31, 2019. [Excerpt: "There are
more meaningful ways to support animal
liberation and veganism without either
corporatizing the movement or lending
direct support to the crimes of the Israeli
state. The occupation is not in any way
“vegan”. We are appealing to you, as
speakers scheduled to particiis
convention, to respect the Palestinians’
non-violent boycott and to not lend your
name to vegan-washing Israel’s crimes.”]
Who Profits. "Made in Israel: Agricultural
Export from Occupied Territories,”
April, 2014.

Mondoweiss: "A photo posted by the Israeli Air Force to
Twitter on November 1, 2016 with the tweet:
"#Worldveganday fact: In the IDF, #vegan soldiers
receive vegan boots and berets. Pictured: a #smiley
vegan soldier, with her vegan beret!"
From Palestinian Animal League’s 2018 Conference Report

"VEGANS FOR BDSPAL is proud to support the independent campaign
group Vegans for BDS.” // Petition: "Boycott Tel Aviv Healthy Vegan
Conference; Veganism is Not “Healthy” When it Violates the Rights
of Palestinians, October 31, 2019”
PODCAST: The Vegan-Washing of Israel Continues
(Brand Israel, Palestine, and Occupation) [2:03:36]
"In light of the recent Vegan Vibes tour organized in Israel,
Marine interviews Laura Schleifer– a Jewish pro-intersectional
vegan and free Palestine solidarity activist who spent time in
the Palestinian West Bank on a theatre tour. Israel wants to
grow its reputation as “The Vegan Capital of the World” and
is using diverse tactics to spread this message (Vegan
Birthright, vegan army gear, vegan conferences, vegan
food tours). Brand Israel has long used social justice
causes to promote itself as a cool, progressive, innovate
hub, in order to distract us from looking at its atrocious
human rights track record. After gay rights (Pink Washing),
the environment (Green Washing), we discuss how veganism
is being leveraged to “Vegan-Wash” the Israeli occupation.”



"Join Vegans for BDS in asking PlantX to stop their
expansion and investments into Israel.” Write a letter here.


On “Art Washing”:
The cultural boycott of Israel
is inspired by the South African
anti-apartheid struggle….(During
the 1980s) international artists
refused to play Sun City in response
to the calls of Black South Africans
not to do ‘business as usual’ with
apartheid. Art-washing is the use
of art and culture to cover up
oppression and present “a false
sense of normalcy in a situation
of grave repression”….An artist’s
politics and personal view of the
Israeli government matter little
once they’ve agreed to perform
in Israel….The Israeli government
will endorse their performance
and use it to undermine Palestinians’
non-violent resistance to Israel’s
occupation, colonisation, and
apartheid policies.
~ Stephanie Adam, PACBI
We are seeing culture as a hasbara
tool of the first rank, and I do not
differentiate between hasbara and
culture.
~ Nissim Ben-Sheetrit, Director General
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel
[former Deputy Director General for
Asian Affairs]
If you're asked to play in Israel then
you have to acknowledge that their
cultural programme is propagandistic.
It has a role in maintaining the status quo.
Culture is part of Israel's public image
and if you're playing there you're part
of that system.
~ Brian Eno, musician
We will send well-known novelists and
writers overseas, theater companies,
exhibits,” said Arye Mekel, the ministry’s
deputy director general for cultural affairs.
“This way you show Israel’s prettier face,
so we are not thought of purely in the
context of war.”
~ Ayre Mekel, Israeli Foreign
Ministry Deputy Director General
for Cultural Affairs
We have a list of people who have
performed in South Africa because
of ignorance of the situation or the
lure of money or unconcern over racism.
They need to be persuaded to stop
entertaining apartheid, to stop profiting
from apartheid money and to stop
serving the propaganda purposes of
the apartheid regime.
~ Enuga S Reddy, director of the
UN Centre Against Apartheid [1984]
The term [art washing] appears to
have first been used in mainstream
media in 2014 by Feargus O’Sullivan
of The Atlantic, in an article about a
tower in once-destitute East London
that had been redeveloped for
high-paying tenants. They were
being enticed, in part, by suggestions
that they wouldn’t be gentrifiers but,
rather, original members of a new
artistic community. “The artist
community's short-term occupancy
is being used for a classic profit-driven
regeneration maneuver,” O’Sullivan
wrote. He labeled the process “artwashing.”
~ Alexander Nazaryan, senior
writer, Newsweek
Adalah-NY. "‘No Art for ApARTheid’s Sake’:
New York human rights advocates protest Israel
Philharmonic Orchestra,” Mondoweiss, February 5,
2019. [Excerpt: "The IPO, a self-proclaimed
“cultural ambassador” representing the state of
Israel, orchestrates a positive image of Israel to
divert attention from its human rights abuses,
as part of the “Brand Israel” initiative launched
in 2006. An Israeli Foreign Ministry official
explained Israeli government efforts to rebrand
Israel through the arts in 2009, saying, “We will
send well-known novelists and writers overseas,
theater companies, exhibits” to “show Israel’s
prettier face, so we are not thought of purely in
the context of war.” The IPO website proudly
states that the Orchestra “represent[s] the State
of Israel across the world.”]
Al Jazeera. "Gaza artists urge Eurovision singers
to boycott Israel. The Palestinian Artists Association
said Israel is using the event to 'whitewash a brutal
apartheid regime’,” May 8, 2019. [Excerpt: “Earlier
in the year British cultural figures - including
Vivienne Westwood, Peter Gabriel and Mike Leigh
- also signed a letter calling on British broadcaster
BBC to cancel its coverage of Eurovision.”]
Al Yafai, Faisal. "The art of art-washing: how Israel’s
propaganda machine swings into action every time
an artist boycotts the country. Israel is so incensed
every time anyone take a political stand against its
modus operandi that the government has created
an entire department to oppose it, writes Faisal
Al Yafai,” The National, April 24, 2018.
Almasri, Abier. "Israel’s Eurovision: ‘Dare to
Dream’ Unless You’re Caged in Gaza. Just an
Hour’s Drive Away, Palestinians Yearn for
Freedom & Equality,” Human Rights Watch,
May 16, 2019.
Artists for Palestine. "DJs, producers, electronic
musicians join boycott of Israel en masse,” September
12, 2018. [Excerpt: “Today a stream of DJs, producers,
record labels, electronic musicians are speaking up for
Palestine and endorsing the cultural boycott of Israel.
Using the hashtag #DJsForPalestine, these artists and
cultural producers say they are supporting the
Palestinian call for boycott as a peaceful protest
against the occupation, “for as long as the Israeli
government continues its brutal and sustained
oppression of the Palestinian people”. This collective
action follows the pattern of a similar wave of bands,
including Portishead and Wolf Alice, who came out
in protest using the hashtag #ArtistsForPalestine,
shortly after Israel’s massacre of unarmed
Palestinian protesters in Gaza this May.”]
Artists for Palestine UK. "Thousands of artists
call for an end to complicity with Israeli apartheid,”
AFP website, May 30, 2021. [Excerpt: "Half a century
ago, there was massive support for a cultural boycott
of apartheid South Africa. Now, artists and cultural
workers are mobilising on a similar scale against Israel’s
system of apartheid, calling variously for boycotts,
practical acts of solidarity with Palestinians and, in
particular, an end to co-operation with cultural
organisations that are complicit with apartheid.”]