Italian gay advocacy group denounces BDS movement

“These organizations must reject all the ideologies opposing the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state."

By LIDAR GRAVÉ-LAZI
Anti-Israel protestors force their way into the A Wider Bridge conference for US-Israel LGBT cooperation in Chicago (photo credit: COURTESY A WIDER BRIDGE)
Anti-Israel protestors force their way into the A Wider Bridge conference for US-Israel LGBT cooperation in Chicago
(photo credit: COURTESY A WIDER BRIDGE)
The Italian lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender- intersex (LGBTI) advocacy organization Associazione Radicale Certi Diritti approved a resolution condemning the “pinkwashing” theory as a political movement that promotes the delegitimization of Israel and the BDS movement by exploiting the LGBTI cause.
The organization became the first European LGBTI group to denounce the practice during its national congress held in Turin November 18-20.
“The alarming rise of political calls by LGBTI groups to boycott Israel distracts from the real battle for human rights of Palestinian LGBTI, and advances the boycott of Israeli, Jewish and Zionist associations as well as any group that has ties with Israel,” the resolution said.
The resolution praised Israeli LGBTI activism for its “advancement of human rights” while condemning the pinkwashing movement for “silencing voices” who attempt to reveal the Arab world using a “social and political dialogue on LGBTI issues to pursue a hostile agenda to the Jewish state.”
“The battle for the recognition of LGBTI rights in the countries where this community is persecuted, including the Palestinian Authority and Hamas’s ruled Gaza Strip, should be a commitment of all the human rights advocacy associations,” the resolution concluded.
“These organizations must reject all the ideologies opposing the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, [the only country in the Middle East protecting sexual orientation and gender identity].”
Leonardo Monaco, secretary-general of the Associazione Radicale Certi Diritti said the resolution is “a response to the widespread European BDS movement, to which the pinkwashing movement belongs.”
The Associazione Radicale Certi Diritti was founded in 2008 as a constitutive subject of the Nonviolent Transnational Radical Party (PRNTT), created by liberal, pro-EU and pro-Israeli leader Marco Pannella (1930-2016).
Certi Diritti is a member of the international network of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA).
Among its many initiatives, the organization imported to Italy the method of strategic litigation and has been running advocacy campaigns on marriage equality since 2008.