Gay Activists Call to Cancel Tel Aviv Pride Parade Over State's Preferential Treatment of Tourists

[Israeli]

Backlash follows Tourism Ministry's $2.9 million investment in campaign to attract tourists coming to Israel to participate in the parade.

Ilan Lior and Jonathan Lis Apr 17, 2016

In protest over the wide gap between the resources allocated to attract gay tourists to the country and the limited support for local LGBTQ organizations, members of Israel's gay community are calling to cancel this year's Tel Aviv Gay Pride Parade.

The call comes following the Tourism Ministry's announcement this month that it would invest 11 million shekels (more than $2.9 million) in a campaign to attract tourists coming to Israel to participate in the parade. As part of the campaign, the ministry will set up an international competition whose winners will be flown to Israel in a plane specially painted in gay pride colors. State support for LGBTQ organizations, meanwhile, amounts to 1.5 million shekels a year.

The Tourism Ministry's announcement caused outrage in the gay community. In a popular Facebook post, gay activist Netanel Azulay asked of the community to unite and announce that "it would not allow the government to profit at its expense and won't allow the government to use it and lie to everyone that LGBTQ people have it good here.

"Once and for all we're setting conditions and fighting for what we really deserve: If there won't be fully equal rights here then there won't be profitable gay tourism," he wrote.

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.714844

[Israeli]

1. Follow ups to April 17th .....

Pinkwashing: Israel’s Rainbow Flight to Nowhere

The state has commandeered the gay community for propaganda. The gay pride parade must therefore include the struggle for democracy, equality and freedom for all.

Aeyal Gross Apr 20, 2016

Apparently one painted plane too many has let the pushback on pinkwashing – Israel’s use of LGBT rights for propaganda – move from the margins to the center.

When it emerged that to woo gay tourists to this year’s Tel Aviv Gay Pride Parade, the Tourism Ministry planned to fly people to Israel on a rainbow-painted plane, even those who considered criticism of pinkwashing an unfounded leftist conspiracy were irked. This was preceded by the ministry’s announcement that it had allocated 11 million shekels ($2.9 million) to promote gay tourism.

The use of LGBT rights to score propaganda points is nothing new, nor is the gay tourism campaign. In his UN speeches, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has never missed an opportunity to argue that Iran hangs its gay people while Israel holds pride parades. And he warmly welcomed Amir Ohana, who is gay, when the fellow Likudnik became a Knesset member.

But the gap between the painted plane and recent Knesset votes nixing LGBT rights bills, as well as between the budget LGBT groups receive and the budget for gay tourism, shows that the state has commandeered the gay community and its less-than-full rights for public-diplomacy purposes.

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.715335

[Israeli]

2. Follow ups to April 17th .....

Did the Israeli government just admit to 'pinkwashing?'

LGBTQ organizations in Israel are threatening to cancel Tel Aviv’s yearly Pride Parade unless the government allocates more money to their groups and causes at home — and not just use the parade to promote Israel as a bastion of progressive liberalism overseas. The government’s response? Pull the international promotional budget.

By Yael Marom

The LGTBQ community in Israel is threatening to hold a huge demonstration instead of the internationally lauded annual Tel Aviv Pride Parade this year. The bold threat is the result of an announcement that the Tourism Ministry was budgeting NIS 11 million ($2.9 million) to promote the event overseas – 10 times the combined yearly budget of all LGTBQ organizations in Israel.

The Israel National LGBT Task Force instead called on the government to allocate a sum equal to the NIS 11 million gay tourism spending — including money earmarked to paint a plane in rainbow colors to fly in LGBTQ tourists — to LGBTQ organizations in Israel. But instead of answering the community’s demands, the Tourism Ministry suspended the NIS 11 million campaign to promote the Tel Aviv Pride Parade overseas, according to Ynet.

I can’t help but welcome the Tourism Ministry’s decision to pull the funding. It is about time that the state stop using us as a public relations tool to cover up what is really happening here: racism, hate crimes, violence, occupation, segregation and separation, intolerable economic gaps, the discrimination and marginalization of various groups in our society. It’s time the state stops using us as a liberal, pink cloak to sell Israel to the world as something diametrically different than what it is. As much as we might want to think we’re on our way there, we are not a tolerant, open or liberal society.

The announcement by the Tourism Ministry, which is headed by a close Netanyahu ally, is an unequivocal admission by the Israeli government that it is not interested in what the country can do for the LGBTQ community, but what the community can do for the country.

Israel figured this game out a long time ago. The LGBTQ community’s struggle for equal rights is one of the most high-visibility social and civil rights struggles in the world these days. What was once taboo has now become a card Israel can play against the West. Instead of talking about the occupation, let’s talk about Dana International. Instead of talking about economic inequality or the creation of monopolies over privatized natural resources, let’s talk about sequins and drag queens in the Pride Parade. Instead of talking about the murder of Shira Banki, let’s paint an airplane in rainbow colors and bring celebrities to fawn over our amazing community so they can tell all the people back home to come visit and spend their money here.

It will take more than a few coats of rainbow paint to cover up the crimes that have been committed against the LGBTQ community in Israel. It will take more than a few layers of paint to hide: the three transgender Israelis who took their own lives last year; the LGTBQ rights bills that never make it into law; the absurdly low budgets for LGTBQ community organizations and campaigns; that “conversion therapy” is still legal; homophobic statements from members of Knesset and prominent rabbis. It will take more than a few layers of paint to hide the fact that “homo” and “lesbian” are still pejorative curse words in our enlightened nation; or the fact that we cannot marry here. It cannot hide the teens who are forced to run away from home to shelters. And it cannot hide the murders. The murders.

Continued @

http://972mag.com/did-the-israeli-government-just-admit-to-pinkwashing/118691/

[Israeli]

3. More controversy regarding the pride parade .....

Tel Aviv's Odd Ad Campaign for This Year's Gay Pride Parade

'Imagine London Without Gays' ad has British commuters asking if Israel's tourism campaign is homophobic.

Haaretz Apr 20, 2016

Tel Aviv's Gay Pride Parade has come up with an advertisement campaign raising eyebrows in European capitals. Electronic billboards in London feature the words" Imagine London Without Gays…. Coming soon!"

"You would be forgiven for thinking" that such a sign "might be something homophobic," the Metro newspaper writes.

But the story goes on to quote billboard owner JCDecaux as denying that the signs are homophobic or unique to London, as there are versions of them being planned for Berlin and Madrid as well.

JCDecaux told PinkNews the advertisements were "part of a campaign for the Tel Aviv Pride Parade 2016, which takes place on June 3.

This year's parade has already caused controversy with local LGBT activists threatening to boycott it if the government doesn't allocate funding for the community to match the 11 million shekels (nearly $3 million) invested in a campaign to promote gay tourism ahead of the parade in Tel Aviv, scheduled for June 3.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.715342

[King_David]

4. Tel Aviv pride 2016

Tel-Aviv's biggest event of the year is almost here

Join over 100,000 fabulous people as they unite for a gigantic celebration in the heart of the middle east. Tel Aviv Pride week 2016 will officialy open on May 29th and feature a variety of events, parties and shows dedicated the LGBTQ community. The week will conclude with Tel-Aviv's Pride Parade on June 3rd and its Saturdays after-parties a day later.

http://gaytelaviv.atraf.com/template/default.aspx?PageId=7


It's gonna be fabulous......

[Israeli]

5. " It's gonna be fabulous." .....

.....for tourists

[King_David]

6. Tel Aviv Gay Pride Parade 2016 - guide

http://www.gaytlvguide.com/component/content/article/12-fp-articles/76-gay-pride-parade-tel-aviv-2016