Inclusion of Israeli Propaganda will sour Pride Parade

By
Martyn Bradbury
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15
0

map-story-of-palestinian-nationhood

The inclusion of the Israeli Embassy in tonights Auckland Pride Parade will lead to a sour taste and it is sad that organisers have allowed themselves to be used in this manner.

Israel is desperately trying to battle the apartheid label that has been tagged to their brutal occupation and racial cleansing tactics inside Palestinian land. They are doing this by jumping on Pride rallies around the world as some sort of evidence that Israel is liberal and progressive.

The gay community of NZ shouldn’t allow their message of tolerance, equality and human rights to be corrupted by the participation of Israel which is currently conducting one of the largest illegal occupations on the planet right now.

Letting Israel participate in the Pride Parade is like awarding Vladimir Putin a Nobel Peace prize.

Ugly and disappointing of the Auckland rainbow community.

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15 COMMENTS

  2. “This event, which celebrates people of all genders and ethnicities underpins Israel’s stance on democracy, tolerance and freedom of speech and proves to differ the argument of those who claim that Israel is an Apartheid State!”

    So while Israel is (on that website) being praised for it’s “stance on democracy, tolerance and freedom of speech”, how many gay and lesbian Palestinians from firstly “Israel Proper” (in the 1967 borders), and how many gay and lesbian Palestinians from the de-facto still occupied West Bank are going to be taking part under this participating group from the embassy?

    Yes, I know, Israel and Israelis are in part at least democratic, tolerant and free, particularly in places like Tel Aviv, but there is also the other side, which is not quite “the same”. The settlement policy for most of the Occupied Territories continues more or less unchanged, and by claiming “God given” “land rights” going back about 2,000 years ago, the state of Israel still allows the confiscation of land and the expansion of settlements, as if many of the people and descendants of them (Arab Palestinians), that lived there since about 2,000 years, do have NO rights.

    It may not be called “apartheid”, but some of the policies and practices followed in Israel are somewhat similar, it seems.

    • Well said. I did not attend the march nor will I ever again. Gays only care about THEIR human rights obviously and I couldn’t be more disgusted with them. DOWN WITH THE RACIST STATE OF ISRAEL.

  3. Marc…Israel occupies territories set aside for it by the UN. It has since occupied land it took from it’s Arab neighbours during subsequent attempts to wipe Israel off the map.

    • FFS – “set aside for it by the UN”, what world do you live in IV (incredibly void).

      There have been repeated “negotiations” for settlements of disagreements, and Israel has always maneuvred to sabotage any efforts, with extreme claims for “security” and whatever else “interests”.

      Likud and other right wing parties have always had key votes in governments, and for some time they are the dominant force in the state there, strongly supporting the settler movement and migration of jews from the diaspora:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Zionism

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliyah

      http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Leading-Jewish-researches-call-Libermans-aliyah-predictions-unrealistic-341931

      http://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=10&cad=rja&sqi=2&ved=0CFEQqQIwCQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jpost.com%2FJewish-World%2FJewish-News%2FLeading-Jewish-researches-call-Libermans-aliyah-predictions-unrealistic-341931&ei=k5EIU6PYDKmPiAe0w4GQBg&usg=AFQjCNETUar0wdMMDweX0cGAz4G6UNH-sg

      Avigdor Lieberman is talking of bringing over 3 more million jewish migrants into the country. Yeah, right, it must all be totally “legal”, and the UN is holding the door open, as there is so much space to settle on in the West Bank, right?!

      I am sure that Maori were also waiting and reserving the land for the pakeha settlers to come in the 19th century, that comes from your kind of “logic”.

      • “FFS – “set aside for it by the UN”, what world do you live in IV (incredibly void). ”

        The real one. The one in which the UN unanimously declared on July 24th, 1922: “Whereas recognition has been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.”

        The one in which Israel’s Arab neighbours refused to heed the subsequent UN Declarations affirming Israel’s right to exist, and attacked Israel in 1948, 1967, and 1973. Every time the Arab’s lost.

        Stop the invasions and you’ll stop Israel gaining more land. It’s simple.

      • Take a history lesson, AA. Israel legally inhabit their own Nation state as partitioned by the UN. The reason they occupy other territory is because the Arab’s won’t stop invading the,. and every time they do, they get their backsides kicked and lose more land.

        • It’s also true that the same U.N. has passed many resolutions since #181 calling on Israel to return all occupied land but, despite the overwhelming majorities of U.N. members voting in favour of the resolutions, the U.S. has always exercised its veto to defeat the vote.

    • The 1967 Six Day War was a major Israeli offensive against neighbouring Arab states which the Israelis regard as a “preemptive” strike.

      In the run up to the conflict there were many strategic disputes regarding agricultural land, water supplies and shipping routes along with both sides (Arab and Israeli) having tit-for-tat skirmishes, the international community condemning both sides. Along with misinformation, internal instability and plenty of sabre rattling complementing the volatile situation.

      With about half of the Egyptian army engaged in the Yemeni Civil War their equivalent of the Vietnam War and the remainder mobilised in Sinai deployed according to indecisive defense plans and many veterans claiming the army was trained to parade rather than be combat ready. Considering the overwhelming Israeli victory over a poorly equipped and prepared combined Arab force, raises many doubts upon the actual threat of an impending Arab attack.

      The alleged massacre of 1,000 – 1,500 Egyptian POW’s in Sinai and attack on an US electronics surveillance ship accepted as deliberate, certainly demonstrates the ruthless extent of their “preemptive” strike.

      • Couple of points for you to consider about the 1967.

        Nasser closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping.

        Nasser requested the UN peacekeeping force in the Sinai leave.

        These facts coupled with Egypt not acknowledging Israel’s right to exist and stated desire to wipe it out is more than a fair justification for a pre-emptive strike by Israel in my mind.

        • In my mind a lot of these events and rhetoric were a lot of spiteful bravado, rather doubtful Egypt was in any military position to be a significant threat to Israel. If anything this bravado only served as a blessing to justify Israel’s subsequent action which they took full advantage of. Israel had an extensive intelligence network throughout the Arab states that gave them an edge in conflict, while the Arabs had dodgy Soviet reports.

          Anyway, there’s not much point in discussing long dead times. Since Sadat, Nasser’s socialism was done away with in favour of the free-market and an alliance with the US and Israel whose hegemony continues until today.

          Besides all that’s found in the region is puppet governments, proxy battlefields and emerging and fleeting regional powers; with many regimes or movements who pick up the mantle of the Palestinian cause often treating the dispossessed Palestinians in a manner similar to the Israelis.

  4. Obama already has a Peace Prize. Is Vova Putin any less deserving?

    The way many people approach gay rights, as a personal issue, inevitably leads to considering IDF soldiers practising a bit of man love after they’ve shot at a few Palestinians in the invaded territories as an advance for human rights. It seems to me that the Pride Parade and Big Gay Out have been appropriated by the Business Rainbow Table, with a heap of gay Tories fawning over Key. Maybe if the unions and socialist militants, including those who worshipped at the feet of swanndri clad straight blokes like Waitakere man, hadn’t been so openly homophobic for so many years, this would not have happened.

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