Buycott Target to counter anti-Israel extremists

From our friends at San Francisco Voice for Israel, the Bay Area's direct action Israel advocacy group:

ACTION ALERT: BUY-COTT EVENT TO COUNTER ANTI-ISRAEL EXTREMISTS NEXT SUNDAY DECEMBER 1

On Sunday December 1 from 3-4 PM, anti-Israel extremists from a group called QUIT (Queers Undermining Israeli Terror—yes, an LGBT group that tirelessly advocates the destruction of the only society in the Middle east where they themselves wouldn’t get shot or hanged!) will be holding a protest at the Target store in San Francisco located at the Metreon (789 Mission St). The specific object of their rage that day will be the highly successful Israeli company Sodastream, because it dares to have a factory across the Green Line in which it employs Palestinian Arabs at Israeli wages and with Israeli-level benefits.
 

If you haven’t already seen it, there’s a wonderful 8 minute video that shows how the company actually helps bring Jewish and Arab workers together, and even sets aside a room and time for the Arab workers to pray; you can see it here:



Coexistence with the Jewish state, of course, is what fanatical groups such as QUIT hate the most.

Now groups like this claim that their protest is solely because Sodastream has a factory across the Green Line. But their goal is not a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians that will turn that territory into a Palestinian state, because they resolutely oppose the existence of a state of the Jewish people within any borders whatsoever. Their efforts are made not in the name of peace, but in support of the 65+ year jihad against the Jewish state.

The best strategy against this type of hatred isn’t going onto the streets to confront them; it’s to enrage them by making a special effort to buy THIS product from THIS store at THIS time. Nothing will ensure that Target will continue to carry Sodastream products better than a record day of sales!

So if you were thinking about buying a Sodastream device, go to the Target on Mission Street this Sunday and buy one. If, like me, you already have one, then at least buy a bottle or two of the soda mixes; and maybe even buy a Sodastream for a Chanukah gift for friends or family. You can even organize a group from your synagogue to make a mass purchase. And whatever you buy, make sure that you walk by the protestors and hold up your purchases—so they can see how they actually caused MORE sales of Sodastream products that day!

Many of you may prefer to shop at smaller locally owned stores rather than large chains such as Target. In that case, we’re happy to suggest that you buy Sodastream products at Cliff’s Variety at 479 Castro Street (between 17th and 18th), a locally owned business that has also been targeted by the same hate group.

UPDATE

Target Fights back and delivers a happy smiling "F**k You" to the BDS Cru. The front page of their flyer features Sodastream among the  "Best gifts ever".  Smooth move and right on Target

Queers Undermining Israel Terror (QUIT )undermines individual freedom

There's always a local angle.  Its a small world, after all.

From an article written by David-Elijah Nahmod  originally appearing in the South Florida Gay News.

In his article, "Queers for Palestine. What do they stand for?", David ponders the question,  "Can the queer movement can  align itself to the Palestinian liberation movement?",  reminding his readers that according to a 2010 report published by the International Lesbian and Gay Association homosexuality is illegal in the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip, and is punishable by up to ten years in prison. 

Sign at Frameline Film festival counterprotest :Queers for Palestine is like Turkeys for Thanksgiving

David brings up an incident several months ago, when a venerable San Francisco institution, Ciff's Variety Store was besieged by QUIT, a self identified queer anti-Israel group. Why would a queer group harass a local institution with a clear commitment to individual freedoms?

On Christmas Eve, 2012, representatives from QUIT Palestine (Queers Undermining Israeli Terror) entered Cliff’s Variety, a family owned hardware and housewares store in San Francisco’s predominately gay Castro district. The store first opened its doors in 1932.

 “They did not identify themselves when they entered the store,” Cliff’s manager Martha Jasten said to SFGN. “We felt ambushed. I had no idea what they’re after.”

After singing a mock Christmas Carol, the protesters loudly announced that the store was supporting the allegedly apartheid and genocidal policies of the Israeli government towards the Palestinian people. Store employees and security guards took the protesters by their arms and physically escorted them off the premises....

 Cliff’s Variety has been a vocal supporter of LGBT equality since the 1970s, according to Jasten.“The weekend after Black Friday is set aside as a fundraiser for the Harvey Milk Academy,” she said. “We also donate to the AIDS Emergency Fund.” The Milk Academy is a high school for LGBT youth located a few blocks from the store. The AIDS Emergency Fund provides financial assistance to low-income people with AIDS.

 
QUIT also regularly protests the Frameline LGBT film festival.  David points out that QUIT spokesperson Kate Raphael  has stated that QUIT takes no position on marriage equality, yet posted on her Facebook page  “We’re here, we’re Queer, and we don’t want marriage equality.” Why would a queer group consistently take positions that undermine the voices of the LGBT community?  It begs the question-how much of their actions are motivated by  perverse contrarian  pathology, rather than a genuine desire for social change?

Incidentally, nine months of unrelenting attacks on Cliff's appear to have ended. Sodastream is still being sold, and QUIT is searching for a new target, one perhaps with a bit less backbone than Cliff's.

Will QUIT silence Palestinian Queer voices?

Rumors abound that extremists from QUIT (Queers Undermining Israeli Terror) are planning on disrupting tonight's showing of "The Invisible men" at the Frameline LGBT film festival. Premiered at the Amnesty International Film Festival (Movies that Matter) this film won the special jury award at the Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival.

QUIT, along with the Arab Resource Organizing Center has picketed the film festival before, because they dare show Israeli films, and take support from the Israeli consulate to facilitate this. After several years of having their picket lines ignored by theater go-ers, QUIT organizers discussed ratcheting the pressure up a notch- by entering the theater and disrupting the film. They've already expressed their disdain for Frameline by vandalizing posters promoting the festival.

Just what are they blindly protesting against?

From the Times of Israel

The Invisible Men’presents the untold narratives of Louie, 32 years old, a gay Palestinian who has been hiding in Tel Aviv for the past 8 years; Abdu, 24 years old, who was exposed as gay in Ramallah and then accused of espionage and tortured by Palestinian security forces; and Faris, 23 years old, who escaped to Tel Aviv from the West Bank after his family tried to kill him.”

Asked about allegations of "pinkwashing" Yariv Mozer narrator, writer and film producer of the "Invisible men" replied

"I just don’t see the connection between gay rights and the occupation. The facts are that Israel is undoubtedly much more tolerant towards gay rights and against homophobia incomparably to the situation in the Palestinian occupied territories, as in the whole Arab world. Unfortunately, the Palestinian conservative society does not respect human rights in general, and that includes for example women rights and of course gay rights.

Another undeniable fact is that Palestinian people are still under the occupation in all of its faults.

I don’t think that there is an official Israeli policy to highlight gay rights in order to undermine the occupation and its consequences.

Abdu said a smart thing during one of our last screenings: the day the Palestinian people will liberate themselves, they will be liberated from the Occupation.

It’s a radical thing for a Palestinian to say, but it’s the smartest conception of the conflict."

Queers Undermining Israeli Terror haven't quite made the intellectual leap that there's a big difference between being pro-Palestinian and being anti-Israel. Will QUIT firmly establish itself as a hate group in the Bay area by silencing the already marginilized voices of Palestinian queers? Or will they ultimately chose to open their hearts and minds and actually listen to the stories of those they claim to support? We will find out this evening.

QUIT: The new face of Intolerance

Imagine if the Westboro Baptist Church vandalized an ad for an LGBT film festival? Imagine if the if tea partiers disrupted a LGBT movie? We'd all be appalled and angry at this hateful and intolerant act.

Now imagine if QUIT did.

Its not going to be too hard. Here's a peek at their handiwork from BART:



QUIT- Queers for Undermining Israeli terror is not stopping at simply vandalism- they're plotting to interrupt Israeli films at the Frameline film festival in San Francisco.

How is their hatred and their intolerance any different from that of the Westboro baptist church? How is their hatred any different from the forces that left Matthew Shepard tied to a fence post in Laramie? Kate. Jack. Zac. What gives you the right to decide whose voice get heard? What gives you the right to silence the voices of those who disagree with you?

QUIT is planning on interrupting a Frameline showing of the Invisible Men, and silencing the story of a young gay Palestinian man. Why? Simply because the man you gave him a voice was an Israeli- director Yariv Mozer

From the Frameline website:

"In a tumultuous region fraught with religious, cultural and political tribulations, simply being oneself is a luxury that gay Palestinians cannot afford. Threatened with violence and death by the their families, outed gay men such as 32-year-old Louie have fled Palestine for Tel Aviv. But while the Israeli urban center may arguably be the most LGBT friendly city in the Middle East, it is still a space where gay Palestinians have a very tough time living legally and getting by.

His face scarred by his father’s blade, pensive Louie has been hiding in Tel Aviv for almost ten years, eluding police who knock on his door, and living a life with no passport, no bank account, and a cloud of fear following him.Though asylum in a third country is his only legal option, Louie is reluctant to move: the Middle East is, quite simply, his home. While other refugees such as 24-year-old Abdu, who was tortured, has no such qualms about moving to Europe, Louie is torn: he can be in Europe and be free to love, or he can be in the only land he has ever known. He can never have both.

Examining the multiple layers of identity that add up to make a person, award-winning director Yariv Moser’s intimate film sheds light on a world where one cannot be gay in Palestine, or a Palestinian in Israel. In this world, they truly are The Invisible Men."

QUIT's vendetta against the dastardly Israelis who dare accept people regardless of their sexual identity isn't stopping here.

Social media is supposed to be organic and spontaneous- yet QUIT and the hate Israel team continue to manipulate it for their own narrow aims. Local haters have been called to twitter bomb the local LGBT film festival with anti-Israel messages, and to inundate Frameline's management with emails.

What are people of conscience going to do about this? Nothing. We're going to let them hate. We're going to let their frothing at the mouth intolerance be exposed for the world to see. We know sunlight is the best disinfectant.



We also know this: Out of Zion comes pride

Our Queer Family In Palestine

No, this is not a follow-up to 'Our Mutual Friend', written by some edgy experimental heir to Charles Dickens. It's a phrase taken from a flyer distributed by Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (yes, that's really their name), at a demonstration in front of the Castro Theater on Friday.

Why was QUIT protesting at the Castro Theater? I'll let them try to explain that themselves:

 In case you cannot read it, the cute little pink umbrella says "Israeli pinkwashing does not make me wet!". 'Pinkwashing', a term shamelessly stolen from breast cancer activists, is the new hip term in the BDS movement, for 'mentioning that Israel has a sterling human rights record on LGBT issues'. This is so true that they can't stand it, and must create little derogatory terms suggesting that allowing same-sex partners adoption rights, sending transgendered Israelis to represent the country at major music festivals, and acknowledging same-sex marriage from out of the country are all things Israelis have done simply to change the subject, and try to cover up their unspeakable evil.

Hey, we're not here to ruin anyone's good time, the flyer continues. We just want the same freedom to go out and have fun for all queers. But our queer family in Palestine doesn't have it. Many of them live under military occupation, and all of them live under a rigid system of discrimination and segregation very similar to apartheid South Africa.

This is the passage that makes me consider this otherwise fairly innocuous flyer perhaps the most chutzpahdik piece of writing that I've ever seen in a world full of terrible lies about Israel. Even coming from QUIT, this is a remarkable piece of chicanery. The deception comes in two layers. First is the expected one, which involves  throwing out words like 'military occupation', 'segregation' and 'apartheid', mischaracterizing and spinning the situation of Palestinians living under their own governments in disputed territories.

Second, however, is an almost breathtaking lie of omission. Apparently, you see, the reason our 'queer family in Palestine' is not getting to go out and have a fun day at the Palestinian Gay and Lesbian Film Festival*, is because of the Israelis.

Not because sex between men is a criminal act in Gaza. Not because there is no legislation either by the PA or Hamas to protect gay and lesbian Palestinians. Not because government-sanctioned and enacted violence against LGBT Palestinians is common in both the West Bank and Gaza. Not because gay Palestinians are routinely accused of being collaborators with Israel, a charge that carries the death penalty. Not because gay Palestinians have been pressured into becoming suicide bombers to expiate their shame. Not because in order to live as an out gay man and survive, many young men have made their way illegally into Israel, the luckier ones finding support and shelter within the gay community there.

No, it's not because of this nightmare of socially sanctioned hate and violence against queers of all stripes that 'our queer family in Palestine' isn't having a lovely time marching in the Ramallah Pride Parade*. It's because of Israel.

QUIT's website and print propaganda contains no mention whatsoever of any sort of oppression of LGBT Palestinians by anyone except the ever-convenient Israelis.

They clearly believe that mention the LGBT Palestinians dead at the hand of the PA police, murdered by their own families, or living on the street in Tel Aviv, trying to stay alive and find a place to belong, would be too morally complex and inconvenient to their narrative.

They are betraying those they pretend to claim as family.

*The Palestinian Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and the Ramallah Pride Parade do not exist, except in the blogger's overactive imagination. May they someday exist, in a region filled with peace.

Note to Bay Area Anti-Zionists: How does it Feel to be irrelevant?

The spectacular San Francisco Davies hall hosted the Israeli Philharmonic on Feb.27and 28th. The 2,743 seat venue was filled to capacity with lovers of fine music and lovers of Israel.

An attendee reports:
I think that people who attended the IPO concert really appreciated the warm welcome from all of our people with the beautiful Israeli flags. There was some buzz about it all. Very festive! I was happy to look out at intermission and to see the police and security people.
As for the concert, it was out of this world! People jumped to their feet at the end of Mahler's 5th. Sensational!
Tonight, the orchestra played an encore. It was Johann Strauss waltzes, and the audience was so enthralled with the Viennese schmaltz. It was beautiful. I imagined myself in a tremendously graceful waltz with someone I like very much.
I think the most moving part of each evening was at the start of each program. The IPO played the Star Spangled Banner and followed with HaTikvah. They stood, and so did every single person in the symphony hall. There were also the flags on the stage - the American flag on the left and the Israeli flag on the right. You can imagine the height of the pride!

Contrast that with the press release sent out by Jess Ghannam to the Al Awda mailing list, highlighting the self absorbed narcissism of Camp Hate. Even the title of their press release "Bay Area community members say “Drown Out Apartheid” at Israeli Philharmonic in San Francisco" shows the extent of their denial of reality. No Jess, the Bay area community showed their support of the only democracy in the Middle east by turning out in thousands to hear the orchestra. The two dozen haters you sent over from QUIT were simply irrelevant.

Offensive sign at Sundays' anti-Israel protest


February 27 – Fifty members of the Bay Area human rights community protested the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s (IPO) performance at Davies Symphony Hall on Sunday evening, using chants, songs and street theater to highlight the IPO’s role in whitewashing Israel’s apartheid policies against the Palestinian people. The orchestra’s performances are being met with protests in six of the seven cities on its US tour, including a protest last Tuesday at Carnegie Hall in New York and at Seattle’s Benaroya Opera House on Saturday night.
Concert-goers were greeted with a checkpoint proclaiming “Palestinians Must Stop, Israelis Can Go Around,” modeled after checkpoints wait in the West Bank where Palestinians are frequently forced to wait for hours. The checkpoint was guarded by soldiers armed with musical instruments morphing into guns. Protesters carried signs reading, “Don’t Harmonize With Apartheid,” “Israel Fiddles while Palestine Burns,” and “Justice Presto, Not Lento.”
The protest also featured a kazoo band. Demonstrators banged pots and pans and blew whistles while chanting “drown out apartheid.”

Jess went on to make this scurrilous accusation " One fur-clad concert-goer tore up the mock program and stuffed it down the brassiere of the woman who offered it to her". To which I can only say: She would have needed the "Jaws of life" to accomplish that feat.

Giving out fake flyers

A Tale of Two Cities: A Photo Essay

Living in the San Francisco Bay area, you are lead to believe that Israel is the root of all evil. With over 60 groups dedicated to Israel's destruction locally, and hatefests almost daily, it's not surprising many people have a skewed world view.  There is an Anti Israel group for haters of all political beliefs in the bay area. Whatever flavor your pathology takes, there's an anti Israel group to fit your needs.  Hate Israel because you feel it has betrayed it's socialist roots.?  Try International Answer.  Hate Israel because you want to see the entire Middle east as an Islamic caliphate?  Al Awda's your ticket.  Hate Israel because you felt mom and dad never loved you.?  Try  the international Jewish Anti Zionist network. Hate Israel because you're queer and reject Jewish patriarchy (but somehow embrace Islamic patriarchy?). Try QUIT. Hate Israel because  all your friends do?  Try Jewish voice for peace.  

Are you smart enough to know you have nothing smart to say ?  Then Mimes for Gaza is waiting for you!
Too dumb to know you have nothing smart to say?  Code Pink  just might be the right match.  There is a veritable buffet of anti Israel hate clubs out there.   For the rest of us, it  should be reassuring to know that the Bay area is exceptional in America in it's red/green obsession with the destruction of the only democracy in the middle east

New York City might very well be the reverse of the spectrum.  Even the ordinary grocery stores are full of Israeli products.  You can buy your Dorot garlic without fear that it has been vandalized by some Kate Raphael  wannabe.  And you can buy it in both Key Food and the Supersol.

Why, yes, that is "Zohan" brand hummus in the handy squeeze bottle! Harry Potter in Hebrew? No problem.  The NYC cable TV lineup includes JLTV, channel 120- a Jewish station with a strong Zionist bent. And Freedom Square Park in Queens is dedicated to Israeli Independence.


The base of this Flagpole in Freedom Square park in New York City reads "Theodore Herzl: Fighter for freedom". It is located in the Kew Gardens Hills Zionist District. And it has been there for years, without graffiti, without vandalism, without uproar.     Ahavat Yisrael is so strong in some neighborhoods, that its increasingly common to find buildings faced with  gleaming white Jerusalem stone.

Its easy to be a Jew, and a Zionist in New York. Much easier than here in the San Francisco Bay area, considered one of the 5 hubs of delegitimization of Israel by the Reut Institute.

Proud of Israel? Pride in Israel!

The LGBT International Film Festival opened Thursday June 17 at San Francisco's beautiful Castro theater. In addition to the expected huge lines, there was an unusual twist. There were protesters. No, it wasn't the Westboro Community Church, but rather QUIT (Queers doing something regarding Israel- does anyone remember what their acronym stands for anyway?). QUIT was upset that the film festival had the audacity to allow the Israeli consulate to endorse the festival, and formed a picket line claiming “There is no justification for queer institutions to ignore this request for solidarity.” Yet not a single person honored their picket.

QUIT calls Israeli sponsorship of the festival "pinkwashing", claiming the Israeli government uses its liberal policies on gay rights to deflect external criticism. Why does Israel's progressive record on gay rights upset gay activists? Perhaps its because they keep wanting to frame Israel as a right wing theocracy, when it just refuses to fit into that mold.

Israel remains one of the most progressive countries in the world on LGBT issues and QUIT just doesn't want you to know this. But luckily, the intrepid activists from San Francisco Voice for Israel were there.

From the SF voice for Israel handout:
LGBT Rights in Israel:
* Gays have had full civil rights since 1992
* Gays have full rights to serve in the military
* Gays have partner adoption rights
* Gays have partner benefits for governmental employees
* Same gender marriages preformed abroad are recognized.

LGBT Pride in Israel
* The first transgender person to win the Eurovison contest was Israeli Dana International with her song "Diva".
* Openly gay singer Ivri Lidder is one of Israel's most popular entertainers.
* Openly gay movie producer Eytan Fox has created such popular movies Yossi and Jagger, Walk on Water and The Bubble
* Openly gay politicians have served in the Kenneset and on many local councils.

Just as the LGBT community wants equality, Israel strives for equality amongst the family of nations. Israel must be treated as an equal in the United nations. Israel must be treated fairly by the international news media, and must be recognized by its neighbors with normalized relations. With this in mind, San Francisco Voice for Israel will be marching again in the San Francisco pride parade on June 27, celebrating not just Israel's progressive record in LGBT rights, but acknowledging Israel's striving for equality in a very judgmental world.

QUIT Turns Out To Protest Gay Israeli Films

Several people came up to me as I stood in front of the Roxie Theater on 16th Street with my Israeli flag and asked for clarification--who were we? And why were we there? And who were the other people?

You have to love San Francisco. Here is what was going on...

The Roxie was showing Eyes Wide Open,a film about an Orthodox man in Jerusalem, struggling with his sexuality. This was part of Out In Israel, a month-long celebration of things LGBT, Jewish and Israeli, organized by the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco.

Now, if this had happened a month earlier, the Westboro Baptists might still have been in town, and they could have come and protested the gayness, but instead they had moved on, and the film was being protested by QUIT. That's Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism. No, I did not make that up.

QUIT was there because they hate the State of Israel. They were there with pink banners, complaints about 'pinkwashing', and very creepy signs. My friends and I were there because they were there. We were showing support for films about closeted gay men in Jerusalem by holding Israeli flags, rainbow flags, and signs that were much more delightful and amusing than those held by QUIT.

I was struck, as always, by the passion and intensity of the people I find myself across the lines from at these events. The jumbled tangle of anti-Semitism and vague left-political platitudes, turned into something so irrational, heartless and strange that I can barely make out what these folks think they're doing.

The question I wanted to ask, and didn't get a chance to, was this: "Is there another country on earth, no matter what its human rights record, that you would protest gay films from?"

The answer, of course, is 'no', as one of my fellow flag-wavers said briskly. But it does highlight the unique place Israel holds in the minds of her haters--the only nation on earth with no right to even make films about its LGBT citizens, reviled by these 'activists' far more than nations that, say, just KILL their LGBT citizens.

Strange world. Queer, even, one might say.