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Gay Pride Toronto organizers have caved in to pressure from Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA), allowing this inflammatory group to join the 2010 parade once again. Only a month ago, Pride Toronto’s Board of Directors had voted to ban the term “Apartheid” from all Pride-related events. But that decision was met by resistance from QuAIA which successfully framed opposition to its presence as a free speech and censorship issue. After QuAIA garnered enough support, Pride Toronto surrendered.
In a disturbing sub-standard report in support of QuAIA, propaganda and outright lies against Israel are brazenly displayed. The reporter falsely states that reception to QuAIA was mostly positive with the exception to a couple of people. Not true, it created a furor.
Click here to watch this appalling video.
Despite the deceptive portrayal of this event as being well received, it has stirred up considerable controversy. Traditionally, gay pride has been widely noted as a boisterous, yet peaceful parade. When QuAIA entered the scene, it immediately became a divisive, and fear-inducing event. From a National Post report:
Pride’s reputation will suffer, with material losses to the city.
It’s no good pretending the vicious anti-Zionism of the apartheid crowd is free of anti-Semitism. Many Jews do feel threatened by it, and rightly so. Some will no longer attend the parade out of discomfort. Typically of others I interviewed, lesbian Denise Alexander told me that the 2009 parade was “the first time I’ve ever felt unsafe as a Jew in Toronto.” It wasn’t only the words, “Down with Israel” or “The end of Israel”: “It’s the tone … and the veins sticking out in their necks, like in Nazi Germany.”
Upon getting complaints about use of the phrase “Israeli Apartheid,” even Toronto bureaucrats were concerned that the city’s anti-discrimination policy was being violated by the QuAIA’s ominous presence. Leading gay activist and parade organizer, Brent Hawkes, initially expressed that he had trouble with the phrase as well. Pride received a $121,000 grant from the city last year and talks among officials about dismissing future grants were circulating. The outcome of this years’ parade will be telling.
It’s a pity QuAIA was allowed to bully its venomous political activism into this year’s parade. We need to be clear that there is absolutely no policy remotely consistent with the term “apartheid” in Israel. It is a false, inflammatory, anti-Semitic talking point perpetuated by Israel’s mortal enemies. While Gay Pride organizers have relentlessly combated ‘homophobia’, why are they permitting this type of ‘Jew-phobia’?
The truth about Israel is that it is facing threats of obliteration, and it has no choice but to protect its borders against the heinous forces of Radical Islam—the greatest violator of human rights in the world today. QuAIA of all people should recognize this. The people living in Gaza are victims because of Hamas not Israel. And every member of QuAIA will be slaughtered under Sharia Law.
Israel is the only country in the Middle East that gives rights to gays – and myriad gay Arabs flee to safety in Israel every year, escaping torture and “honor” murder in their own society.
Shame on Gay Pride in Toronto.
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