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Thursday, April 14, 2011

Gay shame

Israel is sort of participating in the 'gay pride' festival in Berlin in June. I say 'sort of' because like good dhimmis, Israel's participation will be entirely incognito.
Berlin Municipality invited Tel Aviv to take part in the main festival, which will be taking place ahead of the gay pride events. But the Israeli delegation decided to leave out any state symbols at the stand, as well as in any performances by Israeli artists taking part in the festival.

Thus, there will be no Israeli flags and the emphasis will be on Tel Aviv as a global city – pluralistic and liberal, which accepts members of the gay community no matter where they're from. Moreover, visitors to the festival will receive information about Tel Aviv which will include a map that highlights LGBT entertainment centers.

A source within the tourism industry told Ynet that "in the past it has been proven that the correct and smart way to 'export' Israel, especially these days, is through emphasizing brands it excels in, without using anything that symbolizes the state of Israel. Unfortunately, the Israeli flag or Star of David can cause antagonism among many."

The Tourism Ministry understands this new reality and explains: "Unfortunately, this is the smart way to market Israeli brands abroad." It should be mentioned that the ministry promotes some Israeli sites and destinations without mentioning the word Israel.
One would think that Israel would (and could) at least appeal for some credit from the gay community for being the only country in this region where gays are not the subjects of 'honor killings' just because they are gay. But sadly, that is not the case. And now that we have expediently rebranded Israel into something other than the Jewish state, we aren't even going to try to get credit for the things that we do for which other countries do get credit.

Now you all see why I was (and remain) so angry with the Foreign Ministry's Brand Israel program when it was introduced to bloggers two and a half years ago. Israel's gay community should be ashamed of itself for accepting creating these terms of participation.

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2 Comments:

At 2:56 PM, Blogger Juniper in the Desert said...

"Tel Aviv, a global city"...like Tehran, Damascus, Cairo, Kabul, Rafah... where gays are welcomed with open arms....

 
At 12:29 AM, Blogger Esther said...

Hashem is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. Why should Jewish people publicise that they are transgressing a Torah prohibition. You want the magen david to be associated with that? In this case it is wonderful that they won't allow Israeli/Jewish symbols.

 

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