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Arab activists question Israel-linked GayMiddleEast.com

By Benjamin Doherty – Electronic Intifada – 06/23/2011

A group of Arab activists and human rights organizations have issued a statement about the Israeli-linked group GayMiddleEast.com. This organization was founded in 2003 by Shabi Assaf Gatenio, and has recently appeared in the media after the exposure of the Amina hoax presenting itself as the credible and authentic voice of LGBT Arabs.

Titled Que(e)rying the Israel-linked GayMiddleEast.com: a statement by Arab queers, the statement opens:

As queer Arab activists working on the ground in several countries in the Middle East, our initial disagreements with GayMiddleEast.com were political in nature. But rather than respond to them or engage in dialogue with us, GayMiddleEast.com resorted to playing the victim and shrugging off those concerns.

GayMiddleEast.com’s disingenuous response to what it sees as a “smear campaign” against it not only obfuscates the legitimate reasons many queer Arab activists take issue with its work, but also presents lies so blatant that a simple Google search is enough uncover the truth. It is duplicitous to claim that pointing out GayMiddleEast.com’s extensive ties to Israel is more dangerous than those ties themselves and its lack of transparency about them.

In the statement, which has been endorsed by a growing list of organizations across the Arab world and globally including MidEast Youth, Al-Qaws, Meem, Engender, Khomsa Network and Decolonize Queer, the authors take GayMiddleEast.com to task for four issues: unwelcome and unsolicited intervention; co-optation of Arab voices; pinkwashing Israel; and violations of the Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).

They also present compelling evidence that GayMiddleEast.com (GME) has systematically tried to conceal its founding in and extensive ties to Israel and that GME representatives Dan Littauer and Shabi Assaf Gatenio are not being honest about themselves.

Mounting criticism

GME has been the subject of mounting criticism from Arab and Palestine solidarity activists at least since last year (see #lgbtME: We Do Not Live in Vacuums! and GayMiddleEast.com’s Zionism). Most recently, Kaw at Mideast Youth posted Whose Gay Middle East(.com)? and asked three questions:

  1. Why are activists not fully informed of GayMiddleEast.com’s Israel connection, so as to make informed choices about whether or not to get involved with the organisation?
  2. Or better yet, why is the information not made publicly available on the website?
  3. While GayMiddleEast.com claims to oppose pinkwashing, why have the grassroots campaigns by Palestinian queer activists to counter Israel’s pinkwashing been neither highlighted, nor endorsed?

The people behind GME have tried to evade these questions about their origins, methods and standards and about the identities of their representatives in English-language and Israeli media.

On 19 June, GME responded to what it called a “smear campaign” saying:

  • GME is not an Israeli organisation. Nor is it Zionist. It is not owned or run by an Israeli.
  • The site’s executive editor is Dan Littauer, a German citizen (with only a German passport) who lives in London. …
  • GME’s website was registered in Germany in 2003 by Shabi Gatenio, GME’s Israel Editor on behalf of a number of Arab LGBT activists.

GayMiddleEast.com’s history

In my own research on GayMiddleEast.com, I found the history of their so-called advocacy very troubling. Using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, I reviewed the content produced by GME from 2003 through 2008. Some of the people currently or previously associated with the site–namely Dan Littauer, Avi Ozeri, and Scott Piro–have a background in the tourism industry and public relations, and until 2009, GME tried to be a tourism resource.

Before 2009, their site had a section about tourism to Arab countries with cruising tips. The site offered up coming out stories that were both implausible and prurient. They noted sodomy law and age of consent information for each country.

Sodomy laws and age of consent have been important indicators of sexual freedom and equality in many countries. In fact, the United States had sodomy laws until 2003 when the Supreme Court ruled that they were unconstitutional. In other countries, they are also a colonial legacy of laws authored by European powers which persisted after independence. With cruising tips, age of consent, sodomy law information and tourism advice, the GME project looks more like orientalist sex tourism rather than human rights advocacy. […]

Mainstream media role

In light of the activists’ latest statement, it is important to note the role of some prominent media in perpetuating these kind of shadowy organizations who ventriloquize Arabs. The Guardian for example avidly promoted the Amina hoax. After the Electronic Intifada exposed the Amina hoax, The Guardian rushed to feature the hoaxter on their front page, giving him more publicity and oxygen. It then published an article called “The real world of gay girls in Damascus” by a pseudonymous author who credited GME with helping to place it in the media. GME heavily promoted this article through Facebook and Twitter. GME used the Amina hoax to promote themselves as authentic authorities on Arab sexuality, but in fact, GME merely reproduces the main elements of the hoax: anonymous male authors speaking on behalf of unseen female native informants. Foreign Policy also published a version of the article.

While posing as liberatory, GME revels in voyeurism and titiliation about a supposedly sexually repressed orient – classic orientalist themes.

The statement from Arab organizations serves as a powerful antidote.

June 23, 2011 - Posted by | Deception

2 Comments »

  1. [b]This is a very urgent appeal [/b]- I hate asking people for money as I know that we are all in a tough economic position at the moment. We are all struggling to pay the bills, rent, mortgage, child care costs. I know this so I am sorry to catch you at this time. I just hope that you may feel that you can donate even a dollar, euro or pound as every little will help the Samouni convoy it really will. We really need all the help we can due to an unexpected £70,000 ferry quote to get from Turkey to Egypt- Yes really they quoted us £70k!! The only other alternative is to go via Syria which we would like to avoid if possible given the present situation there. So if you can help, I can assure you that your pound dollar or euro will be welcomed and appreciated. I reckon that if 70,000 people gave a euro each , this would do it – We only have eight days left to raise this – Thank you – Elle

    [b]ABOUT US[/b]
    We are a group of humanitarian volunteers who will be travelling overland to Gaza on the 2 July 2011 from London delivering aid, school equipment, medical supplies, furniture, clothing and looms, bee hives (the latter is to allow the Palestinian people to eventually be self sufficient via trade NOT aid which is what they want!)- the convoy uk co-ordinator is the well know human rights activist Ken O’Keefe who renounced his US citizenship and now lives in Ireland. He was also a passenger on the Flotilla (Mavi Marmara) last year when it was attacked and many human rights volunteers killed.

    We have come together from all corners of the world with one sole purpose – to provide aid, relief and support to the people of Gaza and in particular the Samouni family whose lives were shattered so comprehensively by the Israeli forces during Operation Cast Lead in 2009. Of all the horrors visited on the civilians of Gaza in this war the fate of the Samounis, a family of farmers who lived close together in simple breeze-block homes, was perhaps the gravest.

    In what was to become known as the Zeitoun District Massacre, the Samouni family suffered the well publicised loss of 48 family members who were systematically shelled by the Israeli forces as they sat in a house – a house the Israeli’s knew to be full of children and women as they had moved them to the house “for their protection”.
    Around a dozen homes in this small area were destroyed. What the Israeli soldiers were to leave behind were the bodies of men, women and children trapped beneath the rubble of what was once their community and their home.

    Most disturbingly of all, after decimating an entire family, and their village it was widely reported in independent media outlets that graffiti was then daubed on the walls of what remained of their home. Some was in Hebrew, but much was naively written in English: “Arabs need 2 die”, “Die you all”, “Make war not peace”, “1 is down, 999,999 to go”, and scrawled on an image of a gravestone the words: “Arabs 1948-2009”. There were also several sketches of the Star of David flag. “Gaza here we are,” it said in English next to one.

    The area is now to stand as a defiant symbol to this disgraceful act and we intend to build a Community centre complete with classrooms to provide educational needs to the local community. Work has already commenced on the school/commuity centre.

    No one with a conscience can look away from what has happened in this region, and this is why we (just ordinary, unremarkable individuals) will be travelling to Gaza in the next ten days to support the local community and the Samouni family and to help re-construct the pieces of their lives (no support or aid has been offered to this family since 2009) and to continue the building of a Community Centre and school complete with classrooms.

    The intention is also to set up the Samouni Inter-Trade Palestine organisation which will look at the long term aim of supporting the Palestinian people as a whole through trade and not aid – so we have been looking to purchase such things as looms, bee hives etc so the Palestinian people can be self-sufficient which is what they really desire.

    In the very short time that we have been fundraising – each volunteer has raised admirable sums of money, contributed valuable supplies such as school books, medical equipment, clothing, shoes, sports equipment, furniture, computers and software, baby food and medicines and will be able to deliver this aid simply because of the vast generosity of many outside donors. Without their help, the convoy would not be possible. It really is as simple as that and we are all aware of this.

    We have recently run into a huge snag which may put the convoy in jeopardy – we are hoping not! As we are travelling overland our intended route was to pass through Europe until we get to Turkey and then travel by Turkey to Egypt by ferry – this was until we were recently quoted the very high price of £70,000 to do so – We are simply unable to afford this and are putting out last minute urgent requests for fundraising! Nevertheless, we are still determined to get to Gaza even if it means having to travel through Syria if feasible to do so.

    I am asking all who are able for their help at this time. Admittedly I am not an accomplished fundraiser. I never have attempted to raise funds for any cause and like so many people, I have often become rather “crisis weary”, You only have to switch on your TV to be faced with tragedy upon tragedy affecting most corners of this earth. There is often a sense that nothing tangible can be done to resolve these problems and that “even a small donation will hardly make a difference”. Well, I can say in this instance, that even your one pound, one euro or one dollar contributions will help to make this humanitarian aid convoy possible.It really will. Every little has to help.

    Many people over the last few weeks have said to me that they admire what I have chosen to do. I have never seen it this way. My role in this project is of less importance than that of all of the people who have proved to be so generous and supportive to date. It is these people who deserve recognition and not myself and it is entirely as a consequence of the alturism of others that this humanitarian mission will be made possible and our aims achievable.

    If you are in a position to donate, we would be hugely grateful. More than you could imagine. We are leaving the UK on the 2 July 2011 from London. In the interim I would like to direct you to the following websites and links which will tell you a little more about our convoy:
    http://youcantoccupyasmile.com/alsamouni
    http://www.trade-not-aid.net/
    and the donations link
    [b]https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=4Ysp9dBbSooplYqDZRaDOut7VUH_yZMNyZqwnTnmi0YboBB1T3sgRd7r3Pq&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8deaa77efc63a6eb429928d42bdf5d9d2c
    [/b]
    One pound each is all we ask – Can you help?
    [b]http://onepoundforgaza.blogspot.com/[/b]
    Peace to you all
    elle from
    Samouni Family Convoy to Gaza
    SAMOUNI PROJECT
    BOX 2208
    OFFICE 6
    SLINGTON ROAD
    RANKINE ROAD
    BASINGSTOKE
    HAMPSHIRE
    RG24 8PH

    Like

    Elle C's avatar Comment by Elle C | June 23, 2011 | Reply

  2. […] Arab activists question Israel-linked GayMiddleEast.com aletho | June 23, 2011 at 10:15 am | Categories: Deception | URL: http://wp.me/pIUmC-7ai […]

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    Pingback by Arab activists question Israel-linked GayMiddleEast.com « MasterAdrian's Weblog | June 23, 2011 | Reply


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