Seattle, WA – Seattle came together Saturday, July 27, at the iconic Cherry Street Village, to discuss the relationship between queer oppression and the ongoing struggle for Palestinian liberation. The auditorium of the historic interfaith community space, which is located in the heart of the Central District, was filled with dozens of people eager to hear from a panel of speakers representing a number of organizations including Falastininyat, Issaquah Student League (ISL), Half the Sky, Samidoun Seattle, Song to Sea, Resist US Lead War and South Asians Resisting Imperialism (SARI).

The panel was moderated by a member of Falastinyat, who gave some background to the discussion with some historical context and read an excerpt from “Reflecting on Queerness in Times of Genocide,” a statement from Al Qaws. Al Qaws is a Palestinian organization that works on issues of gender diversity, investment in queer communities/organizing frameworks, and Palestinian liberation. A particularly memorably line was, “It is time to end LGBT organizations’ complicity with genocide and challenge performative queer global activism.” The full statement can be found @alQaws_org.

The discussion began around the historic roots of imperialism and colonialism and how these systems not only imposed their homophobic rhetoric but also used the oppression of gender and sexuality to gain further control and influence.

“Imperialism functionally harms queer people, both by imposing heteronormative and binary gender norms and by exacerbating conditions of poverty. And many of the countries in the world today that have laws criminalizing homosexuality only have this legislation in the first place due to colonization,” said a member of Resist US-led War.

“In terms of pink-washing that is directly carried out by Israel, in the early 2000s the Israeli government launched its ‘Brand Israel’ campaign intended to quite literally brand Israel as a modern and progressive country to global audiences, and in 2010 that strategy began to include marketing Tel Aviv as an epicenter of gay life and tourism,” said the member of Resist US-led War. “Even Israel's official Twitter account often features images of same sex proposals between IOF soldiers despite the fact that same sex marriage remains illegal in Israel.”

In a historic space such as Cherry Street Village, the discussion ended with lessons we can learn from our history here in Seattle.

“I just would like to reiterate that I believe that our organizations should be reading and analyzing history as well as learning from the elder organizers who've come before us,” said Ahmoy Lau from Song2Sea. “We have been fighting this fight for decades in order to accomplish our goal of a free Palestine. We need capacity and strong organizations. We can learn how to build these structures by looking at what has come before us and learning from their mistakes and gaining their wisdom.”

The panel ended with an invitation for the community to engage in discussion and connect with one another over a picnic outside.

The Cherry Street Village is a Seattle institution and is in need of community volunteers for repair. Please join organizers on August 17 for a Clean-up Day to keep this much needed community space alive.

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