A dear friend sent me Jasbir Puar’s intriguing editorial from the July 1rst Guardian, Israel’s Gay Propaganda War, about the Brand Israel Campaign, a public relations (aka state propaganda) campaign designed to bring positive attention to the state of Israel by boasting the “gay friendly” nature of the country and contrasting it to the homophobia the Israeli state claims is inherent amongst Palestinians. In claiming to have a progressive stance on LGBTQ rights, Israel attempts to justify and “pinkwash” its genocidal aggressions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The last paragraph of the article sums up neatly the trouble with Israel ‘s use of tolerating LGBTQ people to justify mass brutality, particularly the state’s recent attack on the humanitarian-aid boat, the Freedom Flotilla:

While Israel may blatantly disregard global outrage about its wartime activities, it nonetheless has deep stakes in projecting its image as a liberal society of tolerance, in particular homosexual tolerance. These two tendencies should not be seen as contradictory, rather constitutive of the very mechanisms by which a liberal democracy sanctions its own totalitarian regimes.

What is brilliant about the article is not simply its analysis of Israel but rather Puar’s observation that liberal democracies justify their violence through tolerance. Since the dawn of the U.S. War in Afghanistan, initially waged as an international policing action against rogue terrorists, White House officials have cited the liberation of Afghan women as a motivating factor in continuing the brutal occupation. In escalating propaganda wars against Iran, the United States media, which often turns its head at the murder of LGBTQ people of color at home, widely publicizes images of violence against LGBTQ people suffering under that Islamic regime.

As people who have often been the victims of totalitarian regimes, as queers we have a obligation and historical debt to refuse to let violent states justify their terrorism with our liberation. Our ethical duty to fight for the liberation of Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan weighs heavier upon those of us LGBTQ people benefiting from those  Muslims, Jews, and others who have fought and risked their lives for our security.

LGBTQ liberation in the Middle East is inextricably linked to the liberation of Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Violent occupations, colonial regimes, and apartheid states should never be favored because they extend tolerance to our communities.