Black Laundry and World Pride Jerusalem 2005

This is an attempt to clarify Black Laundry's position on the World
Pride celebrations planned for Jerusalem in 2005, and the calls to
boycott the events. There is a diversity of opinions and positions in
the group about World Pride and what actions we should take during the
event. However, there is a fairly wide agreement that we won't join the
call for a complete boycott of the events

We know that the relative freedom and visibility of some queers in
Israel is cynically used for Palestine bashing, by groups that don't
care in the least about our rights, and we've been outspoken in
opposing both the occupation and homophobia in Palestine. But we also
trust the organisers and the activities of the Jerusalem Open House,
one of the only places where Palestinian gay men have any sort of
visibility and community. This is regardless of what some of us may
think of the wisdom of the decision to hold World Pride in Jerusalem.

We don't actively encourage anyone to visit Israel to take part in
World Pride events, or in any kind of global consumerist gay culture,
but we will organise events and present radical alternatives to
international queers who do decide to visit. We hope that queers coming
to Jerusalem for World Pride will consider joining our activism against
the occupation and for social justice in Israel and Palestine.