This week will go down in history as one of the saddest and most destructive, ever, in the lives of LGBTQ Jews. We became the target of antisemitism disguised as protesting alleged “Israeli oppression.” Anyone who truly understands the history, the context and milieu will clearly access the bottom line and that came in the form of the chant that served to helm the onslaught by LGBTQ protesters at the Creating Change 2016 Conference, who yelled:

“Palestine will be free from the river to the sea.”

CC16The chant reverberated through the halls of the Hilton Hotel in Chicago, as protesters eventually blocked access to attendees at a peaceful, all inclusive, religious Shabbat reception, held by A Wider Bridge (AWB) and to which Israeli LGBTQ guests had been invited.

Creating Change is an annual LGBTQ conference held by the National LGBTQ Task Force, a prominent LGBT organization based in Washington D.C. and led by Executive Director, Rea Carey. The organization notes that the purpose of the conference is for LGBTQ liberation, and that its intention is to be all inclusive.

Ironically the only LGBTQ liberation in the Middle East is fostered by Israel, often serving as a sanctuary for Palestinian LGBT who have been expelled from their homes and hunted by Hamas and Palestinian authority members, who believe gays should die for being gay!

At the beginning of this week we received the shocking news that National LGBTQ Task Force, with mere days to the event, cancelled the AWB Jewish religious event to be held at the Conference. The Shabbat ceremony and reception was then moved by AWB to a different venue. However after an enormous outcry from many people in the LGBT community, including prominent LGBT community leaders and activists, Rea Carey apologized for what she called a “mistake” and the Task Force reinstated the event. That story can be read HERE.

However, it seems that knowing protests were likely, Rea Carey and Creating Change failed to protect the Jewish participants and the protests led to bedlam. I am wondering if this protest was allowed to get out of control so that Carey could justify what she had stated in her initial excuse for cancelling the event? If it is true that Task Force had received threats that the event would be disrupted, then why was Task Force and Creating Change not prepared for what occurred? It is one thing to protest; it is another to call for the death of fellow LGBT Jews. It is one thing to proclaim a safe space for all; it another to allow it to be anything but a safe space for some. It is one thing to invite all voices; it is another to shut some down!

The protesters were not interested in dialogue, because if they were, surely they would have allowed the Jews and their guests a peaceful Shabbat and then attended the forum Creating Change asserts it had established for people to discuss their views on the issues at hand. Or at the very least protested in a respectful manner.

Chicago publication, Windy City Times wrote a flagrantly biased Article about the event, by failing to interview Jewish LGBT activists, to counter the radical assertions made by those quoted, which interviews all came across as ignorant, biased and anti-Semitic. The video used, and many others floating around the internet, serve as evidence of the antisemitism.

However, Windy City Times did quote Arthur Slepian, (not Slebian) the Executive Director of A Wider Bridge, about the disruption and not the issues:

“The crowd gathered outside the reception as guests tried to make their way in. A few protesters entered the room just as introductions were being made. The guests from Jerusalem Open House did not make their presentation…….

Creating Change rules dictate that anyone with a conference lanyard can be admitted to any session. The protesters stayed in the gathering space for the entire time, according to AWB Executive Director Arthur Slepian.

“We got our guests from Jerusalem out of there very quickly, to ensure their safety,” he said, adding, “We came here with a message we wanted to bring, and I think there are lessons to be learned here. What happened tonight was contrary to all the important liberal values our society holds dear. I also felt there was a strong undercurrent of anti-semitism.”

In a separate statement put out by AWB, Slepian noted:

“Last night the values of free speech and respectful communication that we all value and that should be the hallmark of the Creating Change conference were replaced by a disgraceful authoritarian-like action that seeks to silence the voices of anyone the protestors feel don’t adhere to their rigid dogma.”

Lies and gross distortions about A Wider Bridge and Israel were being repeated throughout the conference and at the protest.

Initially when cancelling the event, Task Force cited security concerns. It was clear that they had been threatened and protests were likely. But what did the organization do to protect the Jewish group and its guests when all hell broke loose and guests were denied entry or had to be shuttled out quickly for their safety?

Screen Shot 2016-01-23 at 1.21.51 PMI am not going to get into the merits of any arguments for or against Israel. And I do have a lot to say about the bogus notion of “Pinkwashing.” I am going to reserve that for later. Because the bottom line of what occurred is in that one chant – which says it all. I will say that from the chants and behavior of the protesters, all possible accusations against Israel fall by the wayside, when the chants call for the destruction of Israel and in effect all Jews. And that is what those protesters did, evidenced by the video at hand.

It was clear they were not interested in the all inclusive dialogue to which they had been invited. It was also clear that their purpose was not only to disrupt the event, but also to make it known that they did not believe the State of Israel should exist at all and that all Jews should be driven into the sea. I imagine they are clever enough to realize that includes tens of thousands of LGBTQI Jews in Israel including many Jews of color, and Palestinians and Arab LGBTI in Israel too.

In effect those LGBT chanters were there to voice the mission of Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS and other known terrorist groups with the chant :

“Palestine will be free from the river to the sea.”

Yes, that would mean free of gays too! The intended mission of Hamas and Hezbollah -What a bunch of hypocritical idiots! And Task Force and Hilton Hotels provided the platform.

This known chant that denotes the desire to drive all Jews into the sea, in effect is a genocidal chant that includes the only tiny bit of LGBTQ liberation in the Middle East. That is why they were there, to call for the death of Jews and Israel, and Task Force, through its failure to keep the space safe, was at best negligently complicit: Here is one comments I saw on Facebook by John Becker, a well known LGBT personality and equality activist:

“Assuming they mean the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, this chant would suggest that they do not support a two-state solution that preserves a vibrant, stable, and independent Jewish homeland. This is unacceptable and bigoted, and I’m disturbed and disgusted that this kind of anti-Semitism is embraced by some of my fellow LGBT progressives.”

While we here in America applaud and make room for protest, given the context, this crossed a line and should not have been allowed.

My own comment on Social media:

“The take over of Creating Change – an LGBT conference – by other outside agendas is disconcerting. It is a misuse of the event that Task Force should be able to control. The LGBT agenda should be at the fore of such event and those there for that purpose should be protected. Lack of control requires some serious revisiting about the event and its purpose. Those in charge should be accountable. No protest should ever be so seriously divisive to the point of it being unsafe to be in an LGBTQ space that was designed for all LGBTQ participate in.

I wonder how many of those protesters have ever lifted a finger to help a single LGBTI Palestinian who needed shelter and protection when escaping the wrath of parents and local authorities (Hamas) – just for being gay! Well I know many Israelis and Jews who have done just that! How many of those protesters have called on Hamas or ISIS or the Saudis or Egyptians or the Iranians to stop targeting their LGBT citizens for torture, arrest and death?

But they will call for the death of Jews who have fought off their own religious extremists in the Knesset to attain a large measure of equality for Israel’s vibrant LGBTI community. The only sense I can make of this is pure anti-semitism.

Outside agitators organized the attack on the 2016 Create Change LGBT Conference in Chicago.Some have speculated that it was because the task Force, organizers of the conference had refused to endorse BDS

Our program last night featuring Jerusalem Open House (JOH) was an important victory for A Wider Bridge, as more than 100 people came to our reception at Creating Change to learn about our work and to hear from the leaders of JOH.

Sadly, part way through the reception, a handful of anti-Israel protestors entered the room and later commandeered the stage, denying the leaders of JOH the opportunity to tell their powerful story to the more than 100 participants, Jews and non Jews, who had assembled inside after JOH showed its powerful video. In the hallway outside our program, about 200 protestors blocked many others from entering the room, and turned the LGBT Task Force’s conference and the Hilton Hotel into a fire storm of hate that felt truly unsafe and threatening to many of our participants, and especially to our Israeli guests.

These remarkable LGBT leaders from Israel, who do great work in the very diverse and challenging city of Jerusalem, had spent the last six months helping their community heal and recover from the trauma of a barbaric act of anti-gay violence at last summer’s Jerusalem Pride March. They expected to be supported and embraced by the U.S. LGBT community at Creating Change. Instead, the protestors denied their humanity and silenced their voices, and the conference tragically did little to provide for their safety and security.

Last night the values of free speech and respectful communication that we all value and that should be the hallmark of the Creating Change conference were replaced by a disgraceful authoritarian-like action that seeks to silence the voices of anyone the protestors feel don’t adhere to their rigid dogma.

Lies and gross distortions about A Wider Bridge and Israel were being repeated throughout the conference and at the protest. We look forward to working with the leadership of the Task Force to ensure that Creating Change can be a welcoming and safe space for LGBT people, Jews and non-Jews, who care about Israel.

We will never be dissuaded from building bridges between the LGBTQ communities of North America and Israel.

I don't keep up on this topic, but it's good to know that lgbt people are fighting against racism and colonialism.

Unbelievable. They've called for the destruction of the only Middle Eastern country that protects LGBTQ rights Why did the task force at creating change tolerate this?

F**ing Jewish voice for Peace organized the attack on the Creating Change Conference. What arrogance - their cis white male organizer Ben Lorber directed the onslaught against the LGBTQ participants.

It backfired sooo badly. JVP got Black Lives Matters to storm the hotel (black-washing?) It always looks good if POC are involved. But they didn't understand the issues, and a Jew got assaulted- and the local gay paper filmed it, and that looks really bad for us.

By 2017, everyone will have forgotten,so its no biggie, really

“It is important that LGBT Jews and other Jewish allies understand that they do not stand alone in their extreme disappointment, sadness and disagreement with events this past weekend at Creating Change. Contrary to the stated goal of creating a safe space for everyone, what took place sent a message of exclusion and disrespect to many Jewish members of our own community and to non-LGBT Jewish allies, who have been some of the staunchest advocates for LGBT equality and social justice both in the United States and around the world.

A Wider Bridge, one of two organizations at the reception shut down by some 200 protesters, is an American organization that aims to encourage pluralism in Israel and strengthen the country’s LGBT community through connections with LGBT communities in North America. The other organization, Jerusalem Open House, is a community center that, true to its name, opens its doors to all — Jew and Arab, religious and secular. Rather than representing the Israeli government and its policies, the organizations encourage cooperation and coexistence between people with differing backgrounds and views. The attacks on fellow LGBT organizations simply because they work with Israel’s LGBT community is deeply offensive to many Jews and non-Jews alike. To read about the experience of EQCA Legislative Director Alice Kessler with A Wider Bridge, click here.

The events at Creating Change did a disservice to the broader LGBT movement. We are disappointed that after cancelling the reception and then inviting back A Wider Bridge and Jerusalem Open House, conference organizers failed to take appropriate steps to assure that the reception could occur in light of expected protests and did not ensure that conference participants could attend. They also failed to protect the safety of and respect for participants and conference guests. The verbal and physical intimidation on conference participants who wanted to attend the Wider Bridge event was unacceptable.

We also are extremely disappointed that the conference organizers failed to defend these organizations and correct the false information and gross distortions that were used as a basis for an unfair attack on LGBT people and organizations that serve them. National and state organizations that provide leadership for the LGBT community and movement should always attempt to serve as a moral compass and stand for truth, fairness, respect, and inclusion.

In this case, the Task Force needs to do more to adhere to these values.

AN OPEN NOTE TO TASK FORCE FRIENDS
Dear Rea, Russell, and Sue --
You may have noticed that I was one of many movement activists, lawyers and/or scholars who publicly expressed concern following your abrupt cancellation earlier this week of the A Wider Bridge reception at this year's Creating Change conference. I also was one of the many commentators who publicly thanked Rea for reversing the decision and apologizing for the cancellation just before the start of ‪#‎CC16‬.
Rea did the right thing by reversing the cancellation. The accusations of anti-Palestinian and pro-Apartheid “pinkwashing” against San Francisco-based A Wider Bridge and its guest speakers from the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance, were misinformed at best and defamatory at worst. Even a cursory look into the organizations’ respective missions, alliances, donors, and activities will show that they are far from puppets of the Israeli government, are expressly pro-Palestinian in their positions, and both serve and include LGBTQ Palestinians in their work. The Jerusalem Open House, in fact, was invited to speak partly about its work countering religious conservative extremists in Israel, like those responsible for the stabbing of six marchers (and the murder of one) at the 2015 Jerusalem Pride Parade it organized. An eminently worthy topic of discussion at any national LGBTQ conference.
The logic of the so-called “‪#‎CancelPinkwashing‬” protestors was so faulty, in fact, that if applied to the US would have required the cancellation of Creating Change itself in light of the US Government’s abuses in Guantanamo and in immigration detention centers. An absurd demand, but no more absurd than the demand not only to silence but to ban AWB and Jerusalem Open House from Creating Change.
I was glad, then, to attend the start of the reception last night and catch up with old movement colleagues and then, once the program started, to hear the initial presentation from the A Wider Bridge leaders. But as you know, just as the organizers started to introduce the guest speakers from Jersualem Open House, protestors stormed the stage, took control of the microphone, forced the scheduled speakers to flee, and proceeded to scream at the organizations’ representatives and the reception attendees about not caring about People of Color, supporting the killing of People of Color, celebrating over the blood of innocent lives, etc., etc., apparently not realizing that quite a few of us in the crowd identified not only as POCs but also as strong supporters of the Palestinian cause.
Then, again as you know, the rest of the protestors stormed the doors, shut down the event, and basically blocked those of us who wanted to leave from exiting. I was able to squeeze past the crowd blocking the hallway and exit through a back doorway and stairwell but after only considerable effort and, frankly, what can only be described as harassment.
And all of this while Task Force staffers, for the most part, looked on. I did see Sue in the back of the room initially try to quell the tension, but ultimately she, and the event, were overrun and overwhelmed. Once the protestors took control of the stage, they were allowed to keep it.
In fact, what was most concerning to me was that although the event was put back on the schedule, the Task Force did very little to ensure that the program, and especially the important presentation from Jerusalem Open House, could go on as planned, safely and without disruption. Instead, the protestors were allowed to bully the speakers off the stage, and then to bully and harass the attendees out of the room.
It was a de facto cancellation by heckler’s veto, in other words, with apparently the Task Force’s full consent, assent, and even endorsement. The Hilton Chicago, and the CC16 as the conference tenant, after all, are private spaces under principally your control for the span of the conference.
All told, I found the experience, and the not-so-lightly-veiled anti-Semitism in the run-up to Creating Change this week and especially on very vivid display last night throughout the protest, to be profoundly disturbing. I suspect – in fact, I am certain – that you do as well.
I’ve also found that the messages from the plenaries and sessions so far have been much more akin to the amorphous, sometimes incoherent “radical chic” anarchy-light demands of the Occupy movement than the much more substantive, productive, tangible resource-building messages of past Creating Changes, and as you might know, I've been to a bunch of Creating Changes since I was on staff at HRC (1997 to 2002).
I’ve heard much more about the abolition of prisons, police, borders and the state itself -- really, the abolition of authority of any kind -- at this Creating Change, than I have about grassroots organizing, lobbying, and GOTV work. In fact I’ve heard nothing of the latter. I’ve heard much more about who does not belong at Creating Change, who should be silenced, and who should be excluded from or pushed out of the tent, than I’ve heard about the importance of diversity and inclusion. Yet isn’t diversity, community, inclusion, and dialogue what Creating Change has long been about?
Suffice it to say, I've heard from other longtime Creating Change attendees that they no longer feel welcome, or even physically safe, at this conference.
Last night’s appalling incident has cast a shadow of anti-Semitism, insularity, and reckless extremism over what have long been jewels in the LGBTQ movement’s crown – the Task Force and its marquee annual conference. Creating Change has become overwhelmingly negative, fractured, even at times dangerous and toxic.
Until and unless the Task Force addresses the harm(s) done, course-corrects, and distances itself from the anti-Semitism, bullying, and censorship soaking this conference, I am afraid I can no longer support the Task Force in any manner nor attend another Creating Change. I also will no longer recommend that my LGBTQ and allied students attend the conference, and will strongly encourage other academics and administrators across the country to do the same.
I wish you only the very best. I have no doubt that you too are hurting over this mess and I feel very badly about that too. I also am certain that you will do what is necessary to ameliorate the wrongs, and fix Creating Change while retaining and building upon what makes it so powerful and precious to all of us. I have faith in you.
If I could help in any way at all, please do not hesitate to contact me. I would be happy to help you brainstorm a way forward.

It could have been a scene from the early days of Nazi Germany: a raucous mob surrounding a gathering of Jews, chanting vicious slogans, screaming epithets, all the while their faces distorted by a hatred that is as irrational as it is stunning.

But this was not 1930s Berlin; it was the Hilton Chicago hotel just last week. Perhaps the so-called “progressive” liberal Jews and Israelis at the LGBT rights conference there thought that their prior public criticism of Israel would protect themselves from attack—a kind of verbal “Iron Dome” similar to Israel’s ingenious missile defense system.

They were sadly mistaken. The 200 thugs who showed up Friday at a Jewish reception were not interested in dialogue. They comprised an enraged gang filled with Jew-hatred, bent on intimidating and silencing LGBT Jews who have any connection to the state of Israel. And the sponsor of the “Creating Change Conference,” the National LGBTQ Task Force, knew full well the potential for violence, and did absolutely nothing to safeguard the lives of more than 100 participants at the reception.

The back-story is known to those who’ve been following the saga. One of the events at the 28th annual conference was a reception created by the Jewish LGBT group known as “A Wider Bridge.” It was to feature leaders of “Jerusalem Open House,” a left-wing organization whose then-leader, during the 2014 war in Gaza, called on Israeli soldiers to disobey their orders.

Despite those leftist bona fides, anti-Semitic radicals convinced the Task Force to cancel the event. The ensuing uproar over that decision prompted Task Force executive director Rea Carey to apologize for and reverse the cancellation.

But that humiliating debacle was soon overshadowed by the assault that took place against those at the Wider Bridge reception. As wild-eyed as they were ignorant, those in the horde cheered in support of one leader of the attack who yelled “We’re going to challenge these Zionist racist motherfuckers!”

They blocked those who wanted to attend the reception from entering, and held prisoner those already inside the conference room. Several entered the room and commandeered the stage.

As that was taking place inside the room, in the hallway there were the usual cries of “End the occupation!” which in the twisted belief of the extreme left is the source of all evil in the Middle East, if not the world. There was a huge banner and smaller signs reading “Cancel Pinkwashing,” the despicable, discredited and deeply moronic theory that Israel’s stellar record on LGBT rights is simply a smokescreen to cover its treatment of Palestinians. And there were charges of Israeli “apartheid” from those who are clueless about what apartheid really means, and who don’t understand what an insult that is to the South African blacks who truly suffered under that system.

It must be pointed out here that while criticism of Israeli government policies can be legitimate, the extreme left has crossed the line into anti-Semitism, a term from the 1800s that simply means hatred of Jews. The imbeciles yelling in the hallway of that Chicago hotel did not care that the leftist Jerusalem Open House works to protect Palestinian gays, because they don’t really care about the Palestinians. Their entire obsession is with the only Jewish country in the world, Israel, and their desire to see the Jewish state and its inhabitants destroyed.

Israel is the only country in the region where gay people live openly, equally, with all the rights and protections of an enlightened society. Yet this is the country these radicals focus on. Have they ever protested outside the embassy of Saudi Arabia, where homosexuality is outlawed and gays are flogged, imprisoned, and executed? Have they organized a demonstration outside the embassy of Iran, where gays are hanged for the crime of “consensual sodomy”? Did they show up to decry Russia’s new anti-gay law in 2013? Do they attempt to derail events connected to countries that oppress gays?

Of course not. They are preoccupied with Israel and Israel alone. Why is that? Why are those brutal regimes, the true offenders, ignored by these extremists? The answer is clear. Throughout the course of history, Jews have been demonized, boycotted, and murdered. Now, Israel is the Jew among nations, subject to the same kind of baseless hatred, lies and mistreatment that we have seen for centuries. Coincidence? I think not.

The bullying, verbal abuse and threats aimed at those participating in the Jewish reception in Chicago (described by Bridge executive director Arthur Slepian as a “firestorm of hate”) was, however, just half of that night’s disgrace. The other half was the National LGBTQ Task Force’s utter abandonment of the Jews who were attending its conference.

In a press release explaining why the Talk Force was reversing its initial decision to cancel the Jewish event, executive director Rea Carey wrote, “We want to make it quite clear that the Creating Change Conference will always be a safe space for inclusion and dialogue for people with often widely different views.”

The Wider Bridge event at the conference, in reality, turned into exactly the opposite: a dangerous and intimidating space in which no dialogue was possible, a moment in which Jews, Israelis, and supporters of Israel were excluded from the wider community.

The responsibility for this outrageous failure lies squarely with the Task Force, which knew exactly where this was heading. In fact, in her statement, Carey wrote “I have been concerned about the intense escalation that has occurred over the last couple of days and the threats towards people who hold a range of views.” In other words, she knew this could get of hand, yet did nothing.

In my opinion, there is only one logical explanation for the Task Force’s inaction in relation to providing safety and security for the Jewish group, and that is the resentment and anger felt by its leadership over the events of the previous days. I believe there was a conscious decision to allow this mob of so-called “protestors” to shut down the Bridge event, and to let the Jewish participants and their allies fend for themselves.

This was, essentially, a punishment by the Task Force for the embarrassment of having to reverse its decision about the Bridge reception. The only reason the chaos did not culminate in physical violence was the admirable restraint on the part of A Wider Bridge and its supporters, who allowed their event to be ruined in order to protect those in attendance.

This was not simply a mistake by the Task Force leaders, and they must be held accountable for this obscene, shameful and inexcusable fiasco.

Reports from the Creating Change conference say that Jews were called “motherf—king racists” and “Ku Klux Klan.” While shocking, such rhetoric is not surprising. Increasingly, words mean nothing in the struggle against Israeli “apartheid” or “genocide” or “racism.” Is it not possible to critique the occupation without these terms? Of course it is, but then the criticism wouldn’t sting as much, wouldn’t seem as powerful to those who utter it.

It’s a thrill, really, to utter terms like “apartheid” or “anti-Semitism.” I’ve faced the temptation several times in this column alone. You say the talismanic word, and an imaginary hush falls across the room. Oh, you went for it, you said it, you are strong.

Garbage. Without a two-state solution, an Israel-Palestine ruled by Israel will indeed become a state of apartheid, with two classes of citizens, one superior and the other inferior. But that is not yet the status quo, and outside the Israeli right’s imaginary bubble, the world will not stand for it. Using the term unseriously is irresponsible, and creates heat rather than light.
Likewise with terms like “genocide” and “racism,” which have formal definitions, but which are lobbed instead as insults.

Ironically, when maximalist rhetoric such as “from the river to the sea” is used at protests and other events, such rhetoric is, itself, genocidal — unless we are to believe that six million Jews are meant to live peaceably as a hated minority within Greater Palestine. Yet there has been a total failure by Jewish Voice for Peace and other anti-Israel groups to persuade their allies to avoid such rhetoric.

Just as Adelson’s propaganda inspires and radicalizes the BDS movement, so this brutal rhetoric inspires and radicalizes Israel’s nationalists and their allies. It is disgusting, it is counterproductive, and it is ubiquitous.

It all comes down to this.

The first ever Palestinian LGBT film festival was held a few months ago- in Israel!

http://variety.com/2015/film/global/palestinian-kooz-queer-festival-opens-new-borders-1201652356/


Kuz you know this wouldn't fly in Ramallah- or Gaza