A Rallying Cry for Queer Liberation 2021

Sunday, September 5 

Haifa

Fueled by the latest Palestinian uprising, which has ignited unprecedented feelings of unity and hope, love and anger, exhaustion and frustration, we invite you to join our rallying cry for queer liberation!

We will raise our voices and bring our queer experiences to the forefront to confront violence and marginalization, reaffirming our collective responsibility as a society towards sexual and gender diversity. The time for our collective liberation is now!

This year, we have lived through some intense and emotional experiences, as a colonized population and as queer folks in Palestine. We witnessed and experienced the fierce resistance in Sheikh Jarrah, the popular organizing in the 1948-colonized territories, the uprising in the West Bank against colonial violence by both the "Israeli" military and the "Palestinian Authority," and the horrific bombardment of Gaza which was met with collective resistance all over Palestine.

The past few months brought a wave of transformation; our connection to the street and public space, our relationships with each other, and our understanding of the ongoing struggle against the colonizer in all parts of Palestine. All of this has breathed new life into our vision of liberation, resistance, and hope.

Throughout the uprising, LGBT/Queer Palestinians, feminist activists, and folks who do not conform to patriarchal gender norms, have experienced multiple layers of violence and resistance. This forced us to deal with contradictory feelings of unity and exclusion, and brought up important political questions in organizing spaces.

We confronted “Israeli” colonial policies of pinkwashing aiming to alienate us from our society, and to use our queer experiences to cover up its horrific crimes. This escalating colonial violence only served to solidify our resistance against the colonizer.

We faced patriarchal violence and gender power dynamics that transpired in different forms;  the political discourse prioritizing unity against the colonizer and leaving no space for feminist and queer organizing and discourse, the glorification of a hyper-masculine image of resistance, and the exclusion some of us experienced in organizing spaces. 

Not to mention, different authorities tried to derail the protests and thwart our power in the street. We confronted those patriarchal tactics of blackmail and threats to “expose” women and queer protesters, and other attempts  to sow discord in the streets. However, it only further clarified the interconnectedness of neo-liberal, patriarchal, and settler-colonial oppression and its agents. 

We call on queer Palestinians, allies, friends, comrades, political and social movements, groups, organizations, families, journalists, and activists. We invite you to join us on Sunday, September 5, 2021 at 6pm in Haifa. Join us in raising a rallying cry for queer liberation!