Mondoweiss Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

• The Occupy movement seeks to change U.S. foreign policy–will Palestine be included?

• Alhamdulillah Thanksgiving

• A brief story of dispossession, American-style – and what you can do about it

• Why is Charlie Rose hugging Seth Klarman?

• A documentary guide to ‘Brand Israel’ and the art of pinkwashing

• What’s my line? I’m Bruce Springsteen of the Middle East, the land of milk and honey

The Occupy movement seeks to change U.S. foreign policy–will Palestine be included?

Nov 30, 2011

Alex Kane

Occupy activists joined a protest in solidarity with Egyptian protesters on November 25
(Photo: OccupyWallSt.org)

One of the main objections raised to the Occupy movement allying itself with the cause of Palestine solidarity is that it would distract from the economic message and allow opponents to paint the movement as “pro-terror,” as Daniel Sieradski told Adam Horowitz earlier this month. But other activists involved with Occupy Wall Street (OWS) are indeed concerned about U.S. foreign policy–particularly in the Middle East. Given that the movement was inspired by the Tahrir Square protests–and advance a structural critique that links economic and foreign policy issues– this shouldn’t be surprising. So the question remains whether the Occupy movement can affect change in the American discourse on foreign policy–and whether Palestine will be included in the discourse the Occupy movement is pushing?

First, the evidence that OWS is concerned with foreign policy, which should put to rest any journalist’s or activist’s contention that the Occupy movement is solely concerned with the economy, and nothing else. This morning, Occupy Wall Street activists attempted to disrupt the 17th annual Aerospace & Defense Finance Conference:

These war profiteers export death in the name of defense. They have obscene influence over our democracy with politicians in their pockets and hundreds of lobbyists working congress. They sell arms to to the 1% so that war can be waged against the 99% in efficient and technologically advanced ways. #OWS will not stand silent as these dangerous parasites take our tax dollars and turn them into arms and profit.

And in response to an Egyptian activist appeal to protest against the renewed crackdown on Egyptians in Tahrir and elsewhere, OWS marched on the Egyptian consulate and promoted a call to protest Combined Systems International, which supplies the Egyptian military with tear gas. Watch a video of the rally here:

There are countless other examples of foreign policy issues being taken up by the Occupy movements–some of which, like the botched move to send “election monitors” to Egypt, were unhelpful. But can it affect the U.S. discourse on war and the Middle East, as it has begun to change the discourse on the economy?

The task may be more of an uphill battle than changing the discourse on economics.

One reason is that the foreign policy discourse in the media, when it comes to the Middle East, is largely dominated by those with an Israel-centric view of the region. For example, labor leaders like Stuart Appelbaum, who may get an airing on income inequality, will not be in favor of, and in some cases would work actively against, showing Palestine solidarity. And the connections between the U.S. economic crisis and U.S. foreign policy may not resonate with the broader public. Still, it is clear that Occupy activists intend to push ahead with a critique of U.S. foreign policy.

But will Palestine be included?  In Boston, it certainly is. In New York?  There’s been more push back, which matters because the New York protests garner the most attention. And there have been less subtle ways that OWS in New York has avoided the Israel question–like not including, in their solidarity with Egypt call, the fact that Combined Systems International also supplies the Israeli military, which has killed Palestinian civilians using the tear gas, and flies an Israeli flag outside company headquarters.

Palestine remains a dividing line on the left, as the Occupy movement shows. But Palestine solidarity activists seek to change that–will it work?

Anthony Alessandrini, an editor at Jadaliyya, had hopeful words for those seeking to organize with OWS activists around U.S. policy in the Middle East:

A generation that has been told that the greatest dream of the rest of the world is to be like “us” (so much so that this dream sometimes turns into its nightmarish, jealous, fairy-tale-villain opposite: “they hate us for our freedom”) has pointed to the place in the world that they have been told is the most backwards, the most “undemocratic,” the place in most dire need of being saved (by force, if necessary)—OWS looks to Cairo and says: we want to do what they have done. We want to make Tahrir in New York. We want to fight they way they fight. One more step (a huge step, a slow, agonizingly slow step) to: their fight is our fight.

OWS declares itself to be inspired by the Arab Spring. Many of those who have made OWS may not necessarily even know what they mean by this, and as recent events show, many of the participants have a lot to learn before a real solidarity can be built. But the good news is that they have not stopped wanting to learn, and if we can keep our patience, we—and I mean all of us—can maybe learn together, as Beckett might have put it, if not to succeed once and for all, at least to fail better each time.

Or so it seems right now. It’s a good moment for wild mood swings. The one thing that is certain is that OWS isn’t going anywhere; it’s going to take its sweet time, and those who have created it have made it clear that they are planning to stay, and to fight. And it’s certainly true that those who are struggling in Egypt, in Palestine (like the Palestinian Freedom Riders), and throughout the world aren’t going anywhere either. Time, as always, to get back to work.

As Alessandrini notes, OWS “has attempted to seize…the time (and, equally necessarily, the space) to have these sorts of important political conversations.” Palestine solidarity work in OWS will have to fight to occupy that important space.

Alhamdulillah Thanksgiving

Nov 30, 2011

Fidaa Abuassi

Mack with Gaza children

I have never celebrated Thanksgiving, nor have I given its concept much thought, for I, being a Muslim, need not a special day to give my thanks to Allah to Whom I am eternally and immensely grateful for His countless blessings and abundant bounties bestowed on me, so it’s always Alhamdulillah, whatever time. Nonetheless, it wouldn’t do us –as Muslims –any harm if we shared this day with our friends, giving thanks to whomever we owe much gratitude. For me, I’d like to give my special thanks to a Gazan taxi-driver for what he did last Thursday, a day that coincides with the one of Thanksgiving.

I think the story, albeit its simplicity, is worth telling at a time when the world has deemed honesty and integrity old-fashioned virtues. If the world has run out of these values, Gaza hasn’t yet. The story goes that my friends (Shahd, my Gazan friend; Lydia, my Dutch friend; and Mack, my Greek friend) and I paid a visit to al-Sammouni who lost almost 30 members of their extended family during the Israeli-brutal war on Gaza in late December 2008. The idea of visiting the family was actually initiated by our Greek friend, Mack, who stands firmly in support of Palestine in general and Gaza in particular, to say goodbye to the family to whom he has grown very attached through his frequent visits.

After we had much fun playing with the kids, laughing and taking photos, we took our leave while watching the sad faces of the kids who entreated us to prolong the visit. We wished we could. Mack was travelling the very next day and his goodbye was as hard on the kids as it was on us all. He loves Gaza and he is loved back by Gaza. I’ve seen him talk, with much love and affection, with children peddling their wares on streets. I’ve felt his warmth as he clutched the kids tightly to his tender heart. I’ve witnessed his kindness while one of the as-Sammouni children held his hand firmly while Mack was standing across the threshold, waving his tearful goodbye with a promise he’d come back to Gaza soon enough. I felt compelled to digress for a moment as a token of my gratitude to this man; though, I would do him an injustice if I mentioned him merely through these few lines which were meant to be not about the good Mack yet about the still-anonymous taxi-driver.

Back to where I stopped to digress, since the place was far away from where we live, we decided to take a street taxi to drive each home. On our way, Mack wanted to visit a Christian family whose daughter happens to be studying in Greece. As the taxi pulled over, Mack asked me and Lydia to accompany him to introduce us to such a wonderful family. They were extremely wonderful, indeed. We enjoyed our wide-ranging, quick talk about a number of miscellaneous things, ending with a heated debate on Politics between Lydia, who wholeheartedly boycotts the Israeli products, and the father who has no choice but to import Israeli products to sell in his shop and earn his living. Amused at Lydia’s adamant attitudes against the racist occupation, I can’t but applaud her for being such a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause. We realized that we had to leave instantly since we promised the taxi-driver that we wouldn’t be long– though we were. And the Christian mom handed Mack two plastic bags to give to her daughter. We hurried back to the taxi while Lydia and I were still negotiating an apology whether we had or didn’t have to make to the taxi-driver for the delay. We made no apologies, however. It sounded a bit unfamiliar to find a taxi-driver in a very relaxed manner, not angry at all, waiting patiently for us, given that it’s the norm that taxi-drivers are the angry young men of Gaza. Even if there was nothing to be angry with, they’d be angry with themselves, probably angry at being taxi-drivers.

Exhausted yet high-spirited, I arrived home. After a little while, a message from Mack interrupted my train of thoughts flooding my congested mind which was still quite taken with the as-Sammouni adorable kids.

Mack’s message: Darling, there has been an idiotic mishap. I forgot the stuff the Christian family gave me in the trunk of the taxi. There is a teeny-weeny chance that he will feel honest and bring them by your place. Just letting you know.

Me replying: Oops! I will let you know the moment I, hopefully, have them. Let’s pray and hope.

Mack again:  I appreciate the prayers, though I am not in the habit myself.

Me again:  Never mind. I’ll pray myself.

Mack: I hope your relation to [God] is great.

Me: ( bragging)  Yes, it is. My prayers to Him are usually answered.

Mack: (half-joking)  Ah, good, skip the bags business, and petition for the liberation of Palestine instead.

Me: ( detailing my own religious philosophy)  Well, God responds to those who have strong faith in him and those who show hard-work and commitment. Like a student, you won’t get a good satisfying grade unless you show your teacher your hard work and commitment, right? Precious things aren’t easily granted. Palestine is worth the struggle. We need first to get united, to show commitment, to work hard on our cause; only then God will help us out…. Pause! What the hell am I talking about! You dragged me into religion and politics all at one! Insha’Alah, the taxi-driver will be at my place by tomorrow.

 Oh my God! How could I be so assured that the driver “WILL”, not “might”, be at “MY” place, not at Lydia’s nor at Shahd’s and Mack’s, and “BY TOMORROW”. I was confidently adamant. Wouldn’t it have been better if I said at least “maybe he’ll”? I turned my heart to Allah and asked him to accept my prayers as He always does. Mack was leaving the early morning. He had promised the Christian mom that the bags would be safely delivered to her daughter. The possibility that we could have the stuff back by the next day was slight since the taxi-driver was totally anonymous to us all. Had we ordered a taxi from a recognized place, the conflict would be easily resolved. However, I prayed, hopefully. I put all my trust in Allah, and I am undoubtedly convinced that that whatever tomorrow would bring us, He knows what’s best for us.

The very next day, I happened to have an eventful day at my work as I had to meet up with the students’ parents to discuss their kids’ levels and grades. Being chaotically busy, I abruptly realized that I should have left a message at home. In no time, I sent my family a message translated as “You shall be informed that a taxi-driver will come to our place today bringing me some stuff. Let me know once you have them.” Again, I seemed to have made another grammatical mistake by using “will” instead of “might”. In fact, I didn’t. Trust knows no doubt. And, I trusted, still trust, none but Allah.

A few minutes later, my dad called to inform me of the long-awaited good news, that the taxi-driver did come and bring the two bags, untouched. A surge of delight swept over me, and I found myself reiterating “Alhamdulillah” over and over again. I instantly called Mack who was on his way heading to the border.

Unbelievably thrilled, Mack reversed to my place to get the stuff.

Right away, Mack sent me:  “Package retrieved and all ok. Alhamdulillah”

I sent back: “You need to start thinking of trusting my prayers. I am so proud of the taxi-driver. I wish I could meet him again to reward him. Gaza hasn’t yet run of honest people. Alhamdulillah”

Mack texted back: “Honesty will never [perish], and God rewards the faithful and upright. I never doubted you, my friend.”

The end.

This story first appeared on Fidaa Abu-Assi’s site.

A brief story of dispossession, American-style – and what you can do about it

Nov 30, 2011

Lizzy Ratner

Signs of oil company encroachment: a bayou in the midst of tribal lands, 2008.
(Photo: Lizzy Ratner)

On this site we talk a lot about dispossession – geographic, political, social, psychic. Mostly, and with good reason, we talk about Palestinian dispossession. But in this post I want to talk about dispossession in this country, dispossession ongoing and endless, dispossession that all too many Americans like to pretend was happily put to rest centuries ago. I’m talking of course about the dislocation and dispersal, murder and devastation of this country’s own original inhabitants: about the Shinnecock and Shoshone, Navajo and Hopi, Blackfeet and Sioux, and about a little known band called the United Houma Nation that, like the rest, is still fighting for its survival.

The story of the United Houma Nation, Louisiana’s largest tribal community, is a particularly imminent tale of dispossession unending. Battered by successive invading forces – European, American, multinational oil conglomerate – the Houma have been displaced not once, not twice, but multiple times, and are currently facing what could be their final displacement. The culprit this time? British Petroleum, the quaint little oil company with the sweet flower logo, and its fatally exploded Deepwater Horizon oil rig. One of the few things that could help weaken the blow? Federal recognition, which the United States government has thus far refused to grant but which the Houma continue to pursue. The question now is, can they turn a grassroots petition that expires tomorrow into an unlikely claim for the government to recognize them?

But let me explain. The United Houma Nation is a band of more than 17,000 men, women, and children who live, for the most part, along the bayous and byways of the state’s southern fringe. Before the Europeans crash-landed on their shores, they lived further north, along the Red River, in an area that has since been converted into the cinderblock horror of Angola Prison. They got on decently with the French but were less keen on the British, and as the various European powers – French, British, Spanish – slugged it out for control of the region, they migrated further and further south to the quiet swamps of the central southern part of the modern-day Louisiana. Call it the first displacement.

For the next century or two, the Houma lived lives of relatively undisturbed peace. They fished, trapped, farmed, and wove together a culture that was deeply connected to the rhythms of the bayou. True, the toxic sludge of southern racism seeped into their lives from time to time; the Houma, like most tribal communities, were in no way equal under the law (in fact, Houma children were not permitted to attend American public schools until the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964). But for the most part, they lived in merciful isolation from the “outsiders,” the “Americans.”

And then, in the 1930s, oil was discovered, millions upon millions of gallons of black gold just waiting under the surface of the lands where the Houmas made their home. Oil speculators rushed in and by hook, crook, sweet talk, and force stole the tribe members’ land. This was the second displacement.

“There was a variety of methods,” explained tribal historian Michael Dardar during a conversation we had several years ago. “They would come into the Indian community, and in dealing with Houma people, who, you know spoke the Houma French language and didn’t speak for the most part English, and most of them didn’t read and write, and so you would get lawyers and land speculators that would come in and say, look, we want to lease your land, just make your X right here, and we’ll pay you $20 a year, etc. And come to find out they were signing away their rights to their property.”

Another favorite ruse? Speculators or government officials, some of whom were one and the same, would show up at a Houma home and tell the owners that their home was located in, say, Lafourche Parish rather than Terrebonne parish, meaning that they’d been paying taxes to the wrong parish. And then they’d take their home. Perhaps the biggest beneficiary of this land grab, according to Dardar, was a company called Louisiana Land and Exploration, now in the hands of Conoco-Phillips.

Though no one knew it at the time, this second Houma displacement also contained the seeds of the third displacement, because the oil companies that stole the Houma’s land also tore up the wetlands on which they lived – and in the process helped create one of the greatest environmental disasters in American history. Thanks in great part to the oil company’s dredging and canal-digging, the bayou – a vast and irreplaceable ecological Eden – is now one of the fastest-disappearing coastal regions on earth. In any given year, as many as 25 to 35 square miles of bayou slip into the Gulf of Mexico, taking homes, gardens, trapping lands, fishing areas, and the Houma way of life along with it. In hurricane years, like 2005 when Katrina and Rita hit back-to-back or 2008 when Gustav and Ike did a tag-team number, the erosion is unimaginably worse. All four storms devastated the Houma, whose homes were often excluded from the levee system, raising the prospect that the Houma would cease to exist sooner rather than later.

“It frightens me like you would not believe because I don’t want it said that under my watch the Houma Nation ceased to exist as it did throughout our history,” Brenda Dardar Robichaux, former principal chief of the United Houma Nation, told me in an interview in 2008. “I don’t want that to happen under my watch. And that could be the case.”

This was the reality the Houma were contending with when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in April 2010, spewing nearly 5 million barrels of thick black crude into the Gulf of Mexico. With 90 percent of the Houma living in the six parishes most affected by the spill, the tribe was knocked swiftly off balance. Many of the Houma fisherman lost jobs, income, their subsistence living while traditional practices like Houma medicine which rely on plants, herbs, and other bayou critters were also threatened . Or as former chief Robichaux wrote in a statement released shortly after the spill, “All aspects of Houma culture and livelihood are in jeopardy from this oil disaster.”

To help minimize some of the danger, the Houma appealed to BP’s Deepwater Horizon Disaster Compensation Fund for assistance. They didn’t ask much – just over $400,000 to implement a four-part “plan of action” to “mitigate the cultural impacts and losses sustained as a result of the [disaster]” – and yet they were turned down, told their claim file would be closed for no other reason than that they are not a federally recognized tribe. Never mind that the Houma have been recognized by the state of Louisiana since 1977; and never mind that they have been agitating for federal recognition for decades and that this federal recognition drive has been stalled at least in part by the lobbying of the oil industry – their claim was turned down in less than 100 bureaucratic words:

While BP indeed processes claims from federally recognized Indian Tribes though this process, our review of your claim submission indicates that the United Houma Nation is not a federally recognized Indian Tribe entitled to assert claims pursuant to the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (“OPA”). Therefore, we are closing your claim file with regard to this matter.

In the hopes of righting this and so many other wrongs, the Houma have created a petition for federal recognition that is now posted on the White House website. Federal recognition would remove at least the first line of excuse that corporations like BP have used to trample Houma rights and deny them aid. But it would also open the way for a host of new rights and benefits, from education and health services from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to resource protection to the right to form their own government. All they need is 25,000 signatures. The catch is they need them by the stroke of midnight tonight.

You might be too late to stop the crimes of Columbus, the pilgrims, and the rest of the colonial crew, but there’s still time to stop the dispossession of the Houma.

Why is Charlie Rose hugging Seth Klarman?

Nov 30, 2011

Philip Weiss

An Interview with Seth Klarman and Charlie Rose from Facing History and Ourselves on Vimeo.

Check out this video from November 1 in New York. Seth Klarman is a big hedge fund manager and philanthropist. He’s never been on the actual Charlie Rose show, but Rose interviews him at an event for Klarman’s organization that fights anti-Semitism, called Facing History.

At the end of the interview, Charlie Rose hugs Klarman. And that hug is the heart of the problem in our liberal media culture.

Seth Klarman seems to be a good liberal. Martha Minow, dean of Harvard Law School, is on Facing History’s board. Klarman’s wife Beth gives money to Barack Obama, Barbara Boxer, and Barney Frank. The Klarman Family Foundation (with an annual budget of about $40 million) gives tons to hospitals and arts organizations, the ballet, Shakespeare, Big Brother, Planned Parenthood, and NARAL. It has also given money to public television. I bet that Charlie Rose’s show is getting support from Klarman– or that Rose is seeking money from him, and that’s why he’s doing this interview.

But being a liberal philanthropist is just one side of Klarman. He is also an Israel lobbyist who is just as rightwing as Sheldon Adelson, the casino owner who supports the Republican Party.

Klarman gives money to settler groups: the Central Fund of Israel,which pays for settlers’ “security needs” in the occupied West Bank, and Ir David, which is digging up East Jerusalem and displacing Palestinians. He gives $1 million in a year to Birthright, the program to send young American Jews to Israel to fall in love with the Jewish state. He supports the rightwing propaganda organization, the Israel Project (he’s on their board), gives big money to the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces, and to top it off, Klarman is chairman of the board of the David Project, the group that has targeted Arab and Muslim intellectuals on college campuses.

Klarman epitomizes the foreign-policy crisis of the liberal Establishment: he supports every traditional liberal cause at the same time as he is a rightwinger on Middle East policy. And he’s hardly alone. I’ve written about other big liberal philanthropists who swing right on Israelhere.

And Charlie Rose knows this. Just ask him! He is dependent on such sources for funding, and the price of that support is not criticizing Israel. Or keeping that criticism faint.

At Minute 40 or so in the video above, Charlie Rose says “Israel is under siege like it’s never been since 1948” and then flatters Klarman about his commitment to Israel. And Klarman tells Charlie Rose that the rise of criticism of Israel is like the rise of Nazism:

I am scared of this moment in history. When you look at the history of anti-semitism… hatred of Jews has shifted to hatred of the Jewish state… When Israel is singled out like no other country….[it recalls the] slow march of Hitler. [There is a] steady march in the world, from college campuses to the U.N. People would love to dismantle the Jewish state…. When Israel is singled out, when Jews are singled out, it’s absolutely terrifying…

When people ask why Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee chairwoman, is to the right of Mitt Romney and Rick Perry on aid to Israel, it’s because Klarman is not alone, the Democratic Party relies on rich conservatives like Klarman. It is because theheart of liberal east coast philanthropy–the same people who endow halls at Princeton and Yale-– also are paying for 81 Congress people to go to Israel last summer, more than to any other country.

When people ask why Barney Frank is afraid to come out publicly against settlements until 5000 Jews in his district take such a stand, it is because he gets support from the Seth Klarmans of the word.

When people ask why Barack Obama changed his mind about settlements, the Seth Klarmans of the world are the reason. Obama is mobbed up with the same people that Charlie Rose is mobbed up with, people who back Barney Frank and Martha Minow. Obama is good friends of Martha Minow.

Seth Klarman gives lots of money to educational institutions. His brother teaches at Harvard Law School. And here is Klarman paying for Harvard Law students to go to Israel–with support from New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, a big funder of Israeli hasbara in the west:

March 19, 2010: A delegation of Harvard Law students is visiting Israel this week as part of a ten-day America-Israel Friendship League (AIFL) educational mission to Israel.
This is the second year AIFL is cooperating with the Harvard Law Jewish Students’ Association and Professor Alan Dershowitz to send future lawyers on a seminar to Israel. The mission was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies and contributions from Mr. Robert Kraft and Mr. Seth Klarman.

Here is Klarman in the Boston Herald, saying that Israel has nothing to do with the unending conflict in the Middle East:

In a recent New York Times [NYT] op-ed, Turkish President Abdullah Gul wrote that, “The plight of the Palestinians has been a root cause of unrest and conflict” in the Middle East. This remark brazenly advanced a dogma that has been decisively discredited by recent events in the Arab world. It is now time to relegate it to the dustbin of history.

And here is Klarman writing that Jews are under siege, and there’s a conspiracy afoot to demolish the Jewish state.

In the West, “Palestinianism” — the notion that an innocent, indigenous people suffers a senseless, cruel oppression by the Jews of Israel (who ought to know better) threatens to become the standard view. It is the basis for an attack by Western radicals on Zionism, Jewish national self-determination, and by extension on Jews everywhere.

A documentary guide to ‘Brand Israel’ and the art of pinkwashing

Nov 30, 2011

Sarah Schulman

(Image: prettyqueer)

On Wednesday, November 23, 2011 I published an op-ed in the NY Times, (Israel and ‘Pinkwashing’). This 900 word piece attempted to contextualize Pinkwashing. Here is a more detailed documentary history of Brand Israel, Israel’s campaign to re-brand itself in the minds of the world, as well as the development of pinkwashing as a funded, explicit and deliberate marketing project within Brand Israel.

2005

According to the Jewish Daily Forward, in 2005 The Israeli Foreign Ministry, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Finance Ministry concluded three years of consultation with American marketing executives and launched “Brand Israel,” a campaign to “re-brand” the country’s image to appear “relevant and modern” instead of militaristic and religious.

“Americans don’t see Israel as being like the US,” explained David Sable, CEA and vice president of Wunderman, a division of Young and Rubicam that conducted extensive and costly branding research for Israel at no charge. His conclusion was that while Israel, as a brand, is strong in America, it is “better known than liked, and constrained by lack of relevance.” Sable elaborated, Americans “find Israel to be totally irrelevant to their lives and they are tuning out…particularly 18-34 year old males, the most significant target.” Brand Israel intended to change this by selecting aspects of Israeli society to highlight and bringing Americans directly to them. They started off with a free trip for architectural writers, and then another for food and wine writers. The goal of these “and numerous other efforts” was to convey an image of Israel “as a productive, vibrant and cutting-edge culture.”

In July 2005, The Brand Israel Group (BIG) presented their findings to the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

2006

In 2006, they conducted a study of Israelis’ own perceptions.

2007

Collaboration between the Consulate General of Israel
and Maxim Magazine. (Image: Reaching the Public)

In 2007, The Foreign Ministry organized a Brand Israel Conference in Tel Aviv, which marked the official adaptation of the campaign. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, appointed Ido Aharoni to head Israel’s first brand management office and awarded him a 4 million dollar budget, in addition to the already established 3 million in annual spending on Hasbara (Hebrew for “explanation” or propaganda) and 11 million for the Israeli Tourism Ministry in North America.

In 2007 Israel began its wooing of young males by first niche marketing to heterosexual men.  David Saranga, of the Consulate General of Israel initiated a project with Maxim Magazine, a photo shoot entitled “Women of the Israeli Defense Forces” which shows model-like Israeli women who had served in the army, in swimsuits. Saranga said,

“Approaching Maxim allowed us to gear our message to the younger generation, especially males, and towards a demographic that did not see Israel as relevant or identify particularly with Israel.”

Follow up study revealed that Maxim’s readers’ perceptions of Israel had improved as a result of the piece. Saranga was pleased but knew he had a lot of work ahead of him.

“Rebranding a country can take 20 years or more. It involves more than just generating more positive stories about Israel. The process has to be internalized and integrated, too. Israelis must share in and believe in what we promote.”

In 2007, The Electronic Intifada reported that Saatchi and Saatchi was also working for Israel, free of charge. David Saranga told PR Week that the two groups Israel was targeting were “liberals,” and people aged 16 to 30. Gideon Meir of Israel’s Foreign Ministry told Haaretz that he would “rather have a Style section item on Israel than a front page story.”

2008

In 2008 Aharoni’s office hired TNS, a market research firm, to test new brand concepts for Israel in 13 different countries.  They also funded a pilot program called “Israel: Innovation for Life” in Toronto. Aharoni predicted

“The execution of a program that will support the brand identity. This might include initiating press missions to Israel, or missions of community influentials; it could include organizing film festivals, or food and wine festivals featuring Israel-made products.”

This of course resulted in the “Spotlight Tel Aviv” program at the Toronto International Film Festival that caught the attention of John Greyson and Naomi Klein (left, the film Greyson removed from the festival in protest).

In 2008, PACBI published a sample contract that Israeli artists signed with their government when the artist was “invited” to an international event, the kind of “invitation” that every Israeli artists craves and must have in order to establish a broad reputation.

The contract text reveals, interestingly, that this is not an “invitation” at all, but rather that it is the Israeli government that is inviting itself to international events. The artist is paid with a plane ticket, shipping fees, hotel and expenses by his/her own government. The contract does not assume any funding from the “host” country.  In return, the template states:

“The service provider is aware that the purpose of ordering services from him is to promote the policy interests of the state of Israel via culture and art including contributing to creating a positive image for Israel.”

Yet…

“The service provider will not present himself as an agent, emissary and/or representative of the Ministry.”

2009

The challenge facing Brand Israel was huge. In the 2009 EastWest Global Nation Brand Perception Index, Israel was 192 out of 200, behind North Korea, Cuba and Yemen and just before Sudan.

That year the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association announced an October Conference in Tel Aviv with the goal of promoting Israel as a “world gay destination.”  Helem, a Lebanese LGBTQ organization, responded with a call for a Boycott.

“For some time now, Israeli officials and organizations such as the Aguda, who are cooperating closely with IGLTA, have been promoting LGBT tourism to Israel through false representations of visiting Tel Aviv as not taking sides, or as being on the “LGBT” side, as if LGBT lives were the only ones that mattered. It is implied that it’s okay to visit Israel as long as you “believe in peace,” as if what is taking place in Palestine/Israel is merely a conflict between equals, rather than an oppressive power relationship. Consistent with globalization’s tendency to distance the “final product” from the moral implications of the manufacturing process, LGBT tourists are encouraged to forget about politics and just have fun in a so-called gay-friendly city…

Even more importantly, Tel-Aviv’s flashy coffee shops and shopping malls, in contrast with the nearby deprived Palestinian villages and towns, serve as evidence that the Israeli society, just as the Israeli state itself, has built walls, blockades and systems of racist segregations to hide from the Palestinians it oppresses. The intersection of physical and societal separations and barriers have justly earned the term apartheid, referring to an historically parallel racist regime in South Africa against the indigenous Black population of that country. Leisure tourism to apartheid Israel supports this regime. It is not neutral, and it certainly is not a step toward real peace, which can only be based on justice.”

The four-hour symposium took place despite opposition. In their newsletter the Travel Association acknowledged and dismissed the protest. Using Palestinians, from the beginning to whitewash Israeli violations of their rights.

“It has been fascinating to us that Tel Aviv has an Arab community living in peace here with the Jewish community,” said IGLTA President/CEOJohn Tanzella, who spoke about the 1,400-member association. “We are meeting gay business professionals from all religions and backgrounds within the Middle East.”

Protests at the event focused on Israeli occupation of Gaza. “They were using our gathering as a means to make their concerns public with all the radio and TV that came to meet us,” Tanzella said. “We certainly welcome freedom of speech, but it should be noted that our focus is to support LGBT businesses around the world, wherever they might be located.

That same year, the Zionist organization Stand With Us told The Jerusalem Post, that they were undertaking a campaign “to improve Israel’s image through the gay community in Israel.”

The Foreign Ministry told Ynet that they would be sponsoring a Gay Olympics delegation “to help show to the world Israel’s liberal and diverse face.”

2010

The January Conference of the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, The Lauder School of Government Diplomacy and Strategy and the Institute for Policy and Strategy brought together representatives of the Foreign Affairs Minstry, Haifa University, The Prime Minister’s Office, Reut Institute, and private communications companies to discuss: WINNING THE BATTLE OF THE NARRATIVE, reaffirming the need for re-branding.

The Conference had some very interesting findings:

– That many criticisms of Israel will stop when policy towards Palestinians is changed.

– Israel correlates with the terms “daring and independent” but not “fun and creative.

– 50% of people in western countries are disengaged and do not have an opinion on Israel, and can therefore be won over by marketing.

– “Narratives of victimhood and survival adapted by Israel over the years are no longer relevant for its diplomatic efforts and dialogue with the West. Nowadays Israel’s opponents capitalize on using the same narratives to achieve and mobilize support.”

– “People respond well when addressed in a familiar language that uses well-known terms and are susceptible to simple, repetitive, consistent messages.”

– “In order to succeed online, one has to detach one’s self from strictly official messages and to develop an online personality.”

By 2010, the Israeli Globe reported that The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had allocated 100 million Shekel (over $26,260,000) to branding.

“The Globe found that the activity will focus on the internet, especially on social networks.  This is following research performed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in which it found that surfers will show sympathy and identity with content that interests them, regardless of the identity of the political affiliation of the publisher.”

Also in 2010, Scott Piro, a gay Jewish Public Relations/Social Media professional, announced in a press release on his letterhead that Israel’s Ministry of Tourism, The Tel Aviv Tourism Board and Israel’s largest LGBT organization, The Agudah, were joining together to launch TEL AVIV GAY VIBE, an online tourism campaign to promote Tel Aviv as a travel destination for European LGBTS.

“Campaign Branding Tel Aviv Gay Destination Underway”
July 21, 2010  Ynetnews.com
By Danny Sadeh

With an investment of NIS 340 million (about $88.1 million), an International marketing campaign is being launched to brand Tel Aviv as an international gay vacation destination. The campaign will be run in England and Germany, two locations with considerable gay and lesbian Communities.
The campaign will include ads on gay community websites and magazines and will display everything the city has to offer by way of gay tourism.
Designated Facebook and Twitter pages will be created to support the effort and promote Tel Aviv as a new gay capital.
A new website has also been built, Gay Tel Aviv. It starts off like with with a sentence encapsulating the very essence of the campaign: “Rising from the golden shores of the Mediterranean, stands one of the most intriguing and exciting  new gay capitals of the world.”
The decision to brand Tel Aviv as an international gay destination was supported by an international study conducted by Outnow, a leading company for Consulting, branding and marketing to the gay community. The company was responsible for branding Berlin as the gay capital of Europe, a move that significantly increased tourism to the city.
Etti Gargir, director of the VisitTLV organization, said that the Tourism Ministry and Tel Aviv Municipality invested NIS 170 million (about $44 million) each in the project.
“The increased discount flight capacity from England and Germany increases the capability of Tel Aviv to compete with other cities in Europe. This is in addition to the Outnow study that found Tel Aviv to be an attractive city to those who like culture, restaurants, nightlife and shopping.
“The study also showed that the city is good for any budget. In other words, there is a range of entertainment and accommodation options at prices that anyone can afford,” said Gargir.
About a month ago, Tel Aviv Municipality submitted an official application to host the International Gay Pride Parade in 2012.
The Tourism Ministry reported that it supports targeted marketing campaigns likely to increase tourism to Israel.

The article was appended with the following comments from readers (verbatim):

1. Surely nothing to be proud of. Shameful

2. Haredim!!!!

3. Gay avek also cute slogan  (Yiddish for go away)

4. Thanks for warning now I know not

5. Yes by all means bring hordes of aids

6. Inviting destruction full speed

Etc.

By 2010, “Pinkwashing” was already in general use by Queer anti-Occupation activists. The phrase was coined in 1985 by Breast Cancer Action to identify companies that claimed to support women with breast cancer while actually profiting from their illness.  In April, 2010 QUIT  (Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism) in the Bay Area, used the phrase “Pinkwashing” as a twist on “Greenwashing” where companies claim to be eco-friendly in order to make profit.  Dunya Alwan attributes the term to Ali Abunimah, editor of Electronic Intifada at a meeting in 2010 saying “We won’t put up with Israel Whitewashing, Greenwashing or Pinkwashing.”

In April 2010, Brand Israel launched Israeli Pride Month in San Francisco. Not a grassroots expression by Israeli queers living in San Francisco, but an event instigated, funded and administered by the Israeli government.  QUIT – an actual queer organization- used “Pinkwashing” in their campaign to counter the cynical use by the Israeli government, through its “Brand Israel” re-marketing project to use the presence of LGBT society in Israel as “proof” of its commitment to human rights.

2011

By March 2011, Ynet reported that for the first time, The Israeli stand at the International Tourism Fair in Berlin, encourages gay tourists to visit Tel Aviv.  According to Tel Aviv Council Member Yaniv Weizman, $94 million of Israeli government money was invested in 2010 in promoting gay tourism to Tel Aviv. The money came from the Tel Aviv Municipality and Tourism Ministry.

According to Weizman:

“The gay tourist likes urban vacations, he forms attachments with the community in the cities he visits, enjoys partying and usually returns to places he had a good time in. This is established tourism which draws in young tourism and sets trends which other sectors of the population adopt.”

The Tel Aviv Tourist Association filed a formal request with the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association to host World Pride in 2012.

In July, The Anti-Defamation League hosted StandWithUS’s Yossi Herzog  speaking on gay rights in Israel and gay presence in the Israeli Defense Force.

In August, the Jerusalem Post reported that :

The Foreign Ministry is promoting Gay Israel as part of its campaigns to break apart negative stereotypes many liberal Americans and Europeans have of Israel. The initiative flies in the face of the swelling protests set against Jerusalem’s Gay Pride parade set for November 10. But even as its organizers are receiving anonymous threats of holy war against them, gay activist Michael Hamel is traveling in Europe and North America working on publicizing Gay Israel. A portion of his work, he told the Jerusalem Post by phone as he sat drinking coffee in a California airport, has the support of the Foreign Ministry. “We are working very closely with them,” said Hamel, who heads the AGUDAH, Israel’s LGBT organization…

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Foreign Ministry official told the Jerusalem Post this week that efforts to let European and American liberals know about the gay community in Israel were an important part of its work to highlight this country’s support of human rights and to underscore its diversity in a population that tends to judge Israel harshly, solely on its treatment of Palestinians. Still, it is a topic that is so touchy he did not want his name used. But David Saranga, who works in the New York consulate, was more open about the need to promote Gay Israel as part of showing liberal America that Israel is more than the place where Jesus once walked. The gay culture is an entryway to the liberal culture, he said, because in New York it is that culture that is creating “a buzz.” Israel needs to show this community that it is relevant to them by promoting gay tourism, gay artists and films. Showing young, liberal Americans that Israel also has a gay culture goes a long (way) towards informing them that Israel is a place that respects human rights, as well, said Saranga.

In Sum

Pinkwashing is the cynical use of queer people’s hard-won gains by the Israeli government in an attempt to re-brand themselves as progressive, while continuing to violate international law and the human rights of Palestinians.

1. Is Israel pro-Gay? LGBT people are included in obligatory military service in Israel. To the American eye, this could look “progressive.”  The state supports events like the Tel Aviv LGBT Film Festival. There are enclaves of Tel Aviv where being out in your complete and daily life is possible, and some people are able to do this.  However, overall, Israel is a profoundly homophobic society. The dominance of religious fundamentalists, the sexism and the proximity to family and family oppression makes like very difficult for most people on the LGBT spectrum in Israel.

According to Aeyal Gross, Professor of Law at Tel-Aviv University, “Gay rights have essentially become a public-relations tool” while “conservative and especially religious politicians remain fiercely homophobic.”

2. How Homophobic is Palestine? The Occupied Palestinian Territories are  homophobic, sexist arenas. The goal of Pinkwashing is to justify Israel’s policies of Occupation and Separation by promoting the image of a lone oasis of progress surrounded by violent, homophobic Arabs- thereby denying the existence of a Queer Palestinian movements, or of secular, feminist, intellectual and queer Palestinians. By ignoring the multi-dimensionality of Palestinian society, the Israeli government is trying to claim racial supremacy that in their minds justifies the Occupation.  Yet, nothing justifies the occupation. “While Palestinians in Israel, Jerusalem, and the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and Gaza constitute one community,” says Haneen Maikay, director of alQaws: For Sexual and Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society.  “Our different legal statuses and the different realities of each of these locations – including, for example, restrictions on the freedom of movement of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza – severely constrain our ability to meet as a community.”

Why Queers Are Susceptible to Pink Washing

What makes LGBT people and their allies so susceptible to Homonationalism and Pinkwashing is the emotional legacy of homophobia. The vast majority of Queers have had profound oppression experiences, often in the searing realm of Family, reflected by the lack of legal rights, and reinforced by distorted representations in Arts and Entertainment. The relative civil equality of white gays in The Netherlands and Germany has only been achieved within a generation, and still does not erase the pain of familial and cultural exclusion. As a consequence, many people have come to mistakenly assess how advanced a country is by how it responds to homosexuality. Yet, in a selective democracy like Israel, the inclusion of LGBT Jews in the military, or the relative openness of Tel Aviv are not accurate measures of broad human rights. By deliberately Pinkwashing, the Israeli government ends up exploiting both the Israeli and Palestinian LGBT communities to cynically claim broad personal freedom that the on-going Occupation insistently belies.

A version of this post originally appeared at prettyqueer.com.

What’s my line? I’m Bruce Springsteen of the Middle East, the land of milk and honey

Nov 30, 2011

Philip Weiss

The Boss

Israel’s rebranders are getting creative. First, an open letter to Bruce Springsteen from an Israeli urging him to play Israel:

Your music and career have always been about grand gestures and small moments – the triumph of human spirit, battling against adversity, the celebration of life and freedom amid the realizations of what the costs are.

Israel embodies all of those qualities as well – we are the Bruce Springsteen of the Middle East.

Next, Tom Neumann is the executive director of the neoconservative Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. He sent out this email the other day (partial excerpt). Note that he says that Mahmoud Abbas does not accept the existence of Israel.

Nothing has changed since the Arabs first rejected Israel. The issue today is what it has always been – the refusal by the Arabs to accept any sliver of land called Israel.
The current reasons stated for Arab rejection of Israel, the so-called peace process and the illusion that Mahmoud Abbas represents a more moderate Arab solution are nothing more than the product of lessons learned by the Arabs about public relations.
Israel remains a modern miracle. It is still the land of milk and honey – a phrase we, unfortunately, haven’t used in a long time.
The original Thanksgiving was celebrated to express appreciation for the miracle of the harvest.
So in this Thanksgiving season, as we remember the pilgrims and the harvest, let us also remember that the greatest contemporary miracle is the continued wellbeing of Israel, not just its existence.

Third, the only comment on that Bruce Springsteen post is to die for:

Well written. You have what appears to be an unfortunate typo: “…battling against diversity…” Perhaps you mean “battling against adversity”?