Let's pretend the worst about "pinkwashing"

As we've discussed before, "pinkwashing" is the accusation that Israel treats gays so well purely in order to whitewash its many, many crimes against Palestinians. Therefore, the logic goes, Israel gets no credit for doing anything moral because even Israel's moral acts are ultimately immoral.

The haters who came up with this idiocy stretch the logic to everything else Israel does. If it looks evil, it is proof that Israel is evil; if it looks good and liberal and progressive, it is Israel hiding its evil.

When these definitions come up against reality, the haters look even more idiotic.

Jerusalem Post reports:

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s judiciary charged a female equality activist with violating its national security because she sought to “normalize same-sex relations” in a country that imposes capital punishment for homosexuality.

The Iranian Lesbian and Transgender network group 6rang wrote on its website in late February that Rezvaneh “Mohammadi’s charges include ‘collusion against national security by normalising same sex relations.’ This is the first time that an activist faces such an accusation in Iran. She may be sentenced up to five years imprisonment.”

Volker Beck, a leading German expert and activist on LGBT rights, told the Jerusalem Post on Monday “This case is not about homosexuality, it is about freedom.” He said the charge of  “collusion against national security by normalizing same sex relations’ as an accusation means that in Iran there is no freedom of expression, no freedom of science or press or religion. This is what the Iranian theocratic regime is standing for.”

Given the open attacks that Iran has against gays, and the open support for gays in Israel - no matter what the motivation - which should gay people be campaigning against?

The "Queers for Palestine" group apparently believes that, somehow, Israel's "pinkwashing" by treating gays well is worse than actual abuse of gays.

We see so much everyday hate for Israel that we forget how crazy it is. Even if you accept the worst possible spin about Israel from its enemies, Israel is still a better place to be from every liberal perspective - as a queer, as a woman, as a minority in religion, as an artist, as a journalist - than anywhere else in the Middle East.

The worst you can credibly say about Israel is still better than the best you can credibly say about all other countries in the region.

Yet all the publicity is about Israel's supposed abuses, with relatively little about the abuses of her Middle East neighbors.

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