Outright International Should Be Leading The Fight To Free Palestine

Today, June 3, 2024, marks the 240th day of Israel’s ruthless campaign in Gaza, which is part of a decades-long history of settler colonialism. Since October 2023, more than 46,000 Palestinians have died¹ at the hands of Israel and its backers. Funded by the United States and co-signed by Western powers, Israel’s assault on Gaza can no longer be considered anything but a genocide. From the razing of residential areas to the use of chemical weapons, to the brutal siege of hospitals and healthcare facilities, to massacres at food distribution sites, to the most ruthless targeting of journalists since WWII, Israel is committing atrocities in Gaza at a breakneck pace.

Despite an injunction on May 24 from the world’s highest court, Israel has continued to decimate the conditions of life in Gaza. Just last week, the world watched in horror as children burned alive in their tents, killed by an Israeli airstrike that ripped the earth apart and turned a refugee camp into ash. The ongoing genocide in Gaza will be recorded as one of the most vicious acts of collective punishment in history. With over 15,000 children dead, thousands trapped beneath the rubble, and 2.1 million people on the brink of death and starvation, it is no longer possible to remain silent.

Humanitarian work that does not include Palestine has an impaired vision of humanity.

Gaza is the defining human rights issue of our time. Outright International can no longer claim to strive to “end violence and discrimination” while standing idly by as Gaza burns. The whole world is watching.

As a broad coalition of queer activists, hailing from different faiths, neighborhoods, and nationalities, we know that bombs do not discriminate. There are no Pride parades in ruined cities. No galas over graveyards. We condemn Outright’s paralysis on the issue of Palestinian freedom. We demand that Outright International rise to the call issued by LGBTIQ Palestinians. We demand that Outright meets the urgency of this moment.

As the leading LGBTQI international organization, Outright International is best suited to join and help lead a coalition for justice in occupied Palestine. Instead, they have shirked their responsibilities. Outright is not ignorant; they have brainstormed and discussed potential responses to the genocide in internal conversations, among staff and the Board of Directors. And yet, their silence rings loud. Outright should shine a light on the ways that queer and trans Palestinians are particularly impacted by the bombardment and displacement at the hands of Israel’s indiscriminate violence. In a moment where Outright International should be leading the LGBTQ movement, they are missing in action.

For more than twenty years, queer rights have been used to sanitize Israel’s global reputation. LGBTQI New Yorkers will no longer be complicit in this narrative. While Israel claims to be a safe haven for queer people in the Middle East, it kills thousands in Gaza. It is Israel’s laundering of its public image via LGBTQI pandering that coined the term “pinkwashing.” As the leading global institution for LGBTQI rights, Outright International must reject this false promise of queer acceptance. Instead, we demand that Outright pursue a just and dignified future for all LGBTQI people—one that does not rely on cheap covers for racism, orientalism, and Islamophobia. The queer community will not stand on the broken bodies of our siblings in Gaza.

As a coalition of LGBTQ activists in New York, we condemn pinkwashing in all its forms and refuse to allow it to push false narratives in favor of Zionism that distract from Israel’s atrocities and violations of human rights. We demand Outright International no longer hide from its mission and find the courage to act now. Outright claims that “[w]e amplify a global cause, advocate and carry the voices of activists. We support a growing global movement and celebrate LGBTIQ lives everywhere.” This cannot be true if Outright continues to be complicit in violence against Palestinians and fails to meet the following four demands.

AMPLIFY THE STRUGGLE TO DECOLONIZE PALESTINE

Since the war started, Outright International has only made one sign-on statement on October 27, 2023, calling for a ceasefire but has not made any further public communications or statements about Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza and the genocide of the Palestinian people. Since then, many of the demands initially made have been crossed or ignored by Israel including:

➔ Blocking the facilitation of the delivery of lifesaving assistance and access to basic emergency food distribution, healthcare, safe housing and shelter, electricity, and clean water.

➔ Blocking humanitarian convoys from reaching the United Nation’s facilities, schools, and hospitals, many of which have been destroyed by Israel’s bombing.

➔ Lack of protection for civilian life and humanitarian staff at NGOs who are risking their lives to keep the Palestinian people alive.

➔ Indiscriminate killing of Palestinian civilians, which their sign-on statement notes would “amount to war crimes under international law.”

➔ The forced displacement of millions of Palestinian people, including LGBTIQ individuals and activists.

We demand Outright International condemn the genocide of the Palestinian people and use its resources and advocacy network to provide relief.

SUPPORT LOCAL LGBTIQ PALESTINIAN ORGS WITH FUNDING

Outright International boasts that it provides 3.5 Million to organizations across the globe, working towards LGBTQ equality. Shamefully, they claim not to have any local partners to be able to support them in Palestine. Besides not having prior relationships with groups in occupied Palestine, which is already a failure, Outright should have jumped into Rapid Response and sourced local groups and organizations to offer emergency relief and assistance. Outright International’s website names the Palestinian LGBTIQ civil society group alQaws, an anti-colonial and queer feminist organization that works against sexual and gender-based oppression at all levels of society. However, according to Outright’s Form 990, they have never granted any funds to support groups in Palestine. This inaction is in stark contrast to Outright’s launch of an emergency Ukraine Fund in 2022 that has disbursed grants to 142 partners as of December 2023. We demand that Outright fund queer-led organizations working for remaining or fleeing Palestinians such as alQaws, MASGD, Denizens Society and Project Watermelon.

ADVOCATE AT THE UNITED NATIONS TO STOP US-SUPPORTED HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

Outright International has consultative status as a United Nations Economic and Social Council organization which gives them year-round access to advocate for the human rights of LGBTIQ people directly with representatives of Member States and UN agencies. They are a co-founder and Secretariat of the UN LGBTI Core Group which collaborates to mainstream LGBTIQ human rights at the United Nations and includes member states US and Israel. They engage in sessions and events including with the UN General Assembly and the Security Council. Their standing in the United Nations and relationships with member states should be used to pressure the United States to end the vetoes on ceasefire resolutions and halt military assistance to Israel, and to educate member states on pinkwashing and its usage to perpetuate the genocidal campaign against Palestine.

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