Queers for Palestine?

Yes, but also punishable by death are fornication, masturbation, and many other Muslim offences still on the books. The fact is that these laws are not enforced in Palestine, just as similar laws are overlooked in the US. It is just an attempt to sidestep and confuse the issue - which is about whether it is appropriate for the US to be sending $3,000,000,000 per year in military support to Israel, when these weapons are used to launch massive attaches against civilians in Lebanon and Gaza (which we, the US, at least in the case of Lebanon, then pay massive amounts of $ to help rebuild). At this point most of the "wars" are a wee bit one sided, thanks to our aid. In the last conflict Israel killed around 1200 civilians bombed the bejesus out of the Gaza, and Israel lost 13, a ratio of 100:1. This is the problem. Nothing about religion or homosexuality. A lot about racism and oppression.

The opinions in this editorial are so grossly oversimplified that I shudder to believe you actually have a college degree. Islam at its core isn’t that much different from conservative Christianity or Judaism. The Torah is every bit as rigid as the Koran is, and yet somehow mainstream American Jews find a way to support gay marriage. That’s because they’re “Reform” – a flattering way of saying they conveniently pick and choose what to believe regardless of what their supposed “God-given” texts say. Islam can just as easily be reformed. The problem is, the Muslim World has been stunted by Western capitalism, and as long as we hold them back from developing economically (and thus socially) they will cling to the one thing they have – faith.Faith, a tool used by extremists Muslim and Christian alike to draw political sympathy. No doubt, it will be a long journey,but the key to human rights for Palestinian gays begins with the liberation of all Palestinians from Zionist Israeli oppression.

I don't like the tarring of all anti-Israeli sentiment as anti-Semitic (most people who object to Israel's overbearing tactics, yet excuse Hamas and refuse to see Israel's need to protect itself are misled, not anti-Semitic), but I do agree with the general gist of Lucas' point; it is ironic, in the extremely non-amusing way, for gays to support violent bigots who wish them dead.

If I created the impression, Stephen, that I believe Israel incapable of committing war crimes or crimes against humanity, that impression is not correct. My disillusion as a gay man rests with the United Nations Human Rights Council which would not act to protect my rights and freedoms if I lived in a country where these were denied, and which does not act to protect the rights of gay men and women who do live in countries where these are denied and where being gay can result in persecution. I believe that the UNHRC is so fundamentally poisoned that however noble Justice Goldstone’s intentions may have been, the report, from the wording of the commission’s task, to the membership of the commission, to the report’s own doubts about the freedom of witnesses to testify without prior intimidation or subsequent victimization, make it for me a flawed document called into being by a Council that, like its predecessor and like its parent body, is a travesty.

It's ironic there are gays out there who support Palestinian Muslims but yet Muslims torture and kill gays and other people on a regular basis. Israeli Jews are gay friendly or at least tolerant. Another irony is that Jews, like most gays, are Liberal and voted for a Liberal president who does not support Israel and kisses Iranian/Palestinian butt.......I don't get it....

Queers for Palestine?? Palestinians=Muslim=supressors and murderers of gays...... Does anyone who's not a stupid fucking liberal see how this doesn't make sense??

It's also not just Richard Goldstone who has documented war crimes in Operation Cast Lead. Many Israeli soldiers have provided testimony to the group Breaking the Silence. The number of violations of the Geneva Conventions is truly stunning. This includes use of chemical weapons against civilians, deliberate attempts to block medical care to civilians, efforts to draw civilians into combat zones and open murder of civilians waving white flags. Banned weapons including white phosphorous and dense inert metal explosives were used. This operation, which killed over 1400 people who were mostly civilians, was launched in response to the death of a single Israeli. The sentiment I'm seeing here is just unbelievable, somehow believing that if, internally, Israel has some level of so-called "LGBT" (what a funny bullshit acronym anyway drawing together very different communities as somehow a single monolithic entity) rights, that somehow excuses their extreme crimes against humanity.

It's funny that you try to smear the Goldstone Report when Goldstone himself has shown nothing but affection towards Israel. He's a Jew who loves Israel and does not wish to see it continue to travel down the path it is taking. I'll lay out my basic viewpoint here so that I'm not misinterpreted: originally Zionism was a very positive movement, and a just response to oppression faced by Jews in Europe, and a progressive desire for Jews to become a normal nation after centuries of lacking just this. However, when the right-wing Revisionist Zionists, who openly proclaimed their admiration for the European fascists, set their sites on conquering by military force areas of Palestine in which Jews were not even the demographic majority, this is where the nationalism went horribly wrong. Today who controls Israel? It is the far-right. Avigdor Lieberman describes himself as the political heir to Jabotinsky. Netanyahu's father was an extremist who hung around with open fascists.

Morr, bchiyat. yes, these people should come to Israeli and the Palestinian areas and see for themselves but so should you. I know a transgender Israeli working with Hamas people on non-violent protests because they both don't agree with the settlers and the army. You also need to visit the territories and talk to Palestinians. It is not as black and white as you think.

Morr, bchiyat. yes, these people should come to Israeli and the Palestinian areas and see for themselves but so should you. I know a transgender Israeli working with Hamas people on non-violent protests because they both don't agree with the settlers and the army. You also need to visit the territories and talk to Palestinians. It is not as black and white as you think.