Earlier this week, the "moderate" Palestinian Authority (which pays large sums of money to the families of terrorist "martyrs" who murder Jews) barred a pro-LGBT rights organization from holding meetings or conducting activities in the West Bank. Officials were taken by surprise by a recent public gathering of a group called Al-Qaws, but indicated that they wouldn't be caught flat-footed again. A ban is now firmly in place, to be enforced by the police -- with everyday Palestinians being exhorted to report any LGBT people connected to the group:
Palestinian Authority bans LGBT activities in West Bank.
— Benjamin Weinthal (@BenWeinthal) August 18, 2019
The ban came after LGBT group Al-Qaws was planing to hold a gathering for its members in Nablus. By @KhaledAbuToameh @Jerusalem_Post cc: @ronzheimer @PeterTatchell @PaulSchindler @GayCityNews https://t.co/BkzSsHCfp4
Earlier this month, Al-Qaws held an event in Nablus about sexual and gender diversity in Palestinian society. The PA police, however, learned about the event only days after it was held. Explaining the decision to ban the LGBTQ group from operating in PA-controlled areas, Luay Zreikat, spokesperson for the PA Police, said that such activities are “harmful to the higher values and ideals of Palestinian society.”...He accused unnamed “dubious parties” of working to “create discord and harm civic peace in Palestinian society.” The PA police will chase those behind the LGBTQ group and see to it that they are brought to trial once they are arrested, Zreikat warned. He further appealed to Palestinians to report to the police about any person connected to the group.
A number of people wondered how super-Woke leftist warriors Ilhan Omar or Rashida Tlaib might respond to this development, in light of their demonstrated hatred for Israel -- which actually protects the rights of sexual, racial and religious minorities, unlike virtually all of their neighbors. We got our answer from Omar last night:
Pretending that this act somehow balances or mitigates Israel violating the dignity & rights of Palestinians - or undermines case for defending Palestinian rights - is deplorable! https://t.co/ISzkNXT3eL
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 19, 2019
It appears that much like Tlaib's grandmother, the LGBT community has been informed that their interests must be subordinated to Israel hatred. Everything is a "distraction" from singling out and punishing the world's only Jewish country. Also, notice how the tweet to which Omar responded didn't even mention Israel. The subtext was there, sure, but it was a post exclusively about Palestinian officials' threatening and jailing of gay people. Omar instantly twisted it into an attack on the world's lone Jewish state, ignoring the substance of the story itself. In a subsequent tweet, Omar typed some nebulous slogans, then returned to her clear priority, lest there was any confusion:
Here’s the follow-on vague, non-specific wrist-slap for rank, codified anti-gay bigotry, followed by the inevitable BUT + pivot back to the (((real villain))) in all of this: https://t.co/CqfNToLSuR
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) August 20, 2019
'We must support human rights of gay people, but...' I went on to suggest that perhaps Omar could pause her anti-Israel boycott long enough to go sample Tel Aviv's Pride week next year, then compare and contrast it with equivalent events in Ramallah or Gaza City (links not found). Meanwhile, in their press conference performance yesterday, Omar and Tlaib spread all sorts of false and misleading information, fueling their well-trod narrative of grievance and victimhood. They stated that they planned to meet with 'good' Jews, who criticize Israel, including those who oppose the life-saving security barrier that has drastically reduced successful terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. Tlaib was especially adamant about this "injustice," or whatever, apparently ignorant of (or unmoved by) the relevant history:
In the infamous 2001 Sbarro pizzeria bombing, 15 people, seven children, were murdered by a female bomber. Among them, six US citizens were hurt, and two were killed—including a two-year-old girl. Since 2001, the Palestinian Authority has paid those responsible for her murder nearly $1 million. This kind of violence goes back at least to the progroms of the 1920s. The Sbarro bombing came on the heels of Palestinian leadership rejecting yet another peace deal. It wasn’t a deal authored by the Likud party or by Netanyahu, but the center-left Israeli government. President Bill Clinton, not George W. Bush or Donald Trump, brokered the negotiations.
Clinton would later, on numerous occasions, blame the Palestinians for walking away from a generous deal that included virtually everything Yasser Arafat had asked for, other than the “right of return” — which, of course, would be suicide for Israel. Instead of embracing peace, Fatah, Hamas, Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Islamic Jihad, and others initiated a concerted war on civilians, with hundreds of suicide bombings and terrorist attacks that led to the murder of 1,000 Israelis and tens of thousands of cheering Palestinians. The present-day checkpoints and wall system that Tlaib is complaining about were built to combat the nihilistic violence she will never condemn. The walls worked, of course, with bombing attacks dropping to nearly zero since then (if you don’t count the thousands of rockets that are launched from Gaza every year.)
Palestinian leaders -- and not just the full-blown terrorists elected in Gaza -- have repeatedly rejected extremely generous peace deals from all manner of Israeli governments; various other unilateral land-for-peace concessions by Israel have ended badly. Israel, on the other hand, has repeatedly been forced to beat back attempted invasions and waves of targeted violence from its neighbors. Yet the Omars and Tlaibs of this world place the blame squarely on Israel, all while scolding Israel for failing to act as a suitable US ally. This hypocrisy is ludicrous and intolerable:
In her presser, Ilhan Omar complained about Israel supposedly mistreating an “ally.”
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) August 19, 2019
Omar has called/voted for *boycotts & sanctions* against Israel! In what way is THAT the behavior of an ally?
One hallmark of anti-semitism is an imposition of double standards against Jews.
You need to ignore your own laws and let us perform our agitations, or else you're a bad "ally." We must be permitted to stir up hatred against your country, on your soil, with a one-sided propaganda agenda, including promoting our pro-boycott and sanctions stance -- or else you're a bad "ally." It's laughable. I'll leave you with the latest nuggets we've learned about the radical organization that was set to sponsor and facilitate Omar and Tlaib's nasty little adventure:
Miftah, the Palestinian NGO that co-sponsored @RashidaTlaib and @IlhanMN's trip to Israel, ran an article by Assad's media advisor Bouthaina Shaaban claiming Israel "steals Ukrainian children" to harvest their organs.https://t.co/AOFnkyTr7I pic.twitter.com/NhY94156y4
— John-Paul Pagano (@johnpaulpagano) August 20, 2019
.@RashidaTlaib and @IlhanMN's "Squad" centers their progressive opposition to racism, which they say is at the heart of their opposition to Israel.
— John-Paul Pagano (@johnpaulpagano) August 20, 2019
Miftah, their Palestinian NGO sponsor, ran a piece about Israel called "America's Tar Baby".https://t.co/MdRCtFm68y pic.twitter.com/uWnmfjcSls
Lovely tour guides you've linked up with, ladies.
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