Berlin Pride's Israel stand draws ire of LGBT activists angered by surrogacy law
Rainbow-colored Israeli flags and balloons declaring "I love Israel" studded the 400,000-strong crowd at this year's Berlin pride festival, vastly outshining German flags during the city's 40th year marching for gay rights.
But the outpouring of love, sponsored by the Israeli embassy in Berlin, came at a sensitive juncture in Israel's relations with the LGBT community, after unprecedented protests against a new surrogacy law that excludes gay fathers in a country that touts itself as one of the most gay-friendly in the world.
An Israeli stand located at the festival capping off Berlin's annual Pride Parade has become a tradition in recent years. This year, the planned performance of Israeli Eurovision winner Netta Barzilai (cancelled last minute due to a severe storm waning) boosted the demand for Israeli flags.
At the stand, revelers could also get ‘I love Israel’ stickers, information booklets about the State of Israel and its traditions, and a button with their name written in Hebrew. At the same time, a promotional video by Israel’s Tourism Ministry, marketing a combined trip to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, was played on repeat on a jumbo screen next to the festival's main stage.
But the timing – a week after tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets in protest of a discriminatory surrogacy bill that excludes the gay community – not only evoked criticism from local BDS activists, but also sparked outrage among Israeli LGBT rights advocates.
“The Hypocrisy knows no bounds,” charged Ohad Hizki, Executive Director of the Aguda, the Israeli National LGBT Task Force. “One arm of the government is denying the LGBT community’s basic rights and the other arm is marketing the country to LGBT tourists from around the world.
“It is time to implement in Hebrew what the state is telling people in English, German and French – a country that invites LGBT persons not only as guests but first and foremost, as citizens with equal rights.”
Yair Hochner, founder and director of Tel Aviv’s LGBT Film Festival, also attended the parade on Saturday. “It pained me to see how our country is using the amazing Israeli LGBT community while at the same time, it passes laws against us and creates legal hurdles for us,” he wrote the following day on Facebook.
The government-sponsored Israeli stand “spits in the face of the gay community in Israel,” he added. “We are being exploited to promote an economic touristic agenda and false propaganda, as if everything is peachy for the LGBT community in Israel. If I can think of one word [to describe this], it is Pinkwashing.”
"Pinkwashing" is a term activists have used to describe what they say is the Israeli government's drawing attention to the country's relatively open attitude towards gay rights in order to divert attention from its policies regarding Palestinians and other restrictive policies, including marriage rights.
Hochner announced that in protest, he will no longer collaborate with state-funded Israeli queer film festivals abroad and called upon others to stop performing at LGBT events abroad.
“Stop helping the government to cynically use us to promote their lies as if we have full rights and we are happy. We can’t let the Israeli government exploit the Israeli gay community abroad while it deliberately harms us in Israel.”
A few days before the parade, the Israeli embassy held the third Israeli Queer Movie Night, featuring a film about a teenage lesbian love affair, a documentary on the emergence of the gay community in Israel in the years 1979-1998 and a mockumentary telling the story of a transgender Holocaust survivor aspiring to be an actress.
But a Q&A session with documentary director Yair Qedar escalated to a shouting match in the audience, when an activist for “Berlin Against Pinkwashing” hijacked the debate.
A handful of BDS activists also gathered outside, holding the banner “No Pride in Israeli Apartheid,” but was kept at arm's length by embassy security guards and German police. One activist that registered for the event, was denied entry.
“I’m Israeli, I’m a lesbian and I’m not allowed to enter,” she told the people waiting in line. “They are calling me a security risk.”
Protesters against Pinkwashing also attempted to disrupt the activity of the Israeli embassy’s stand. “They just showed up, pinned some stupid sticker to my shirt and kicked the sign,” one staff member told i24NEWS. “But German police were quick to respond.”
Some two dozen Israelis, Jewish activists and supporters took part in the march, waving signs like “100% hummussexual” and “I hava your nagila.” Some of them handed out Israeli flags and stickers to onlookers.
Some distance from the Israeli group, stood András, a student from Budapest, wearing a rainbow colored kippa and waving a large rainbow-colored Israeli flag at trucks that passed him by. “I made this flag myself, to take with me to demonstrations in Hungary,” he told i24NEWS. “I’m so happy that here I can wave it with pride and not fear.”
“I find it sad that BDS comes here and calls to boycott us for showing our support of LGBT rights,” noted Dalia Grinfeld, President of the German Jewish Student Union. “This is the wrong place and the wrong time for BDS to say that we are not allowed here. Israel should be here, and Jews should be here, to show that also in our religion we stand with the LGBT community.”
Polina Garaev is i24NEWS' correspondent in Germany.