On August 6, Ottawa’s taxpayer-funded LGBTQ+ rights organization Capital Pride, issued a “statement in solidarity with Palestine.” While claiming that they are “committed to creating spaces where all queer and trans people feel safe to celebrate Pride together,” the organization issued a statement which alienated Ottawa’s Jewish LGBTQ+ community and their allies in the strongest of terms.
After paying the usual lip service with condemnations of Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attacks, the statement went on to condemn “the endless and brutal campaign in Gaza and mounting violence in the West Bank, where innocent Palestinians—many of whom have friends, families and loved ones in our communities—are being slaughtered, dehumanized and dispossessed of their land.” Capital Pride ended this diatribe by repeating a non-existent quote from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), widely repeated by anti-Israel activists claiming that there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza, a statement which not only does not exist in the court’s rulings, but which is a total bastardization of the court’s view. According to Joan Donoghue, the now-retired judge who served at the time of the ICJ’s provisional ruling, “the court did not decide, and this something where I’m correcting what’s often said by the media, that the claim of genocide was plausible.”
Beyond the dishonest falsification of the International Court of Justice’s view, this statement did not address Capital Pride’s own stated goals – to make sure that all members of the LGBTQ+ community feel safe. How can Capital Pride purport to represent all its constituents when it shamelessly demonstrates how cheap Jewish blood is in their eyes? What message is given when only Palestinian lives are worth mentioning, when only violence done to them is to be condemned? What about the many thousands of Jewish Canadians who also have “friends, families and loved ones” in Israel who have either lost their lives or who face dispossession and violence? After all, thousands of families in northern Israel have had to flee their homes to avoid the daily terror attacks from Hezbollah, with more than 90 000 people still internally displaced. What about the families of the hostages still being held by Hamas? Not only did Capital Pride seem to forget how this war started, but they also ignored the impact that it has had on Israel’s civilian population, instead demonizing the Jewish State.
The statement made familiar accusations of pinkwashing against Israel, who they accuse of “portraying itself as a protector of the rights of queer and trans people in the Middle East” in an effort to deflect from human rights abuses against Palestinians. This is a confusing criticism to make, given that factually speaking, Israel is the only state in the Middle East that protects the rights of LGBTQ+ people, with the region’s largest pride events (and indeed the only regularly held and state sanctioned events) occurring there. Even more confusing, the statement went on to say that “to withhold our solidarity from Palestinians in the name of upholding 2SLGBTQIA+ rights betrays the promise of liberation that guides our work.” This is a particularly baffling position for an LGBTQ rights organization to take: ‘we aren’t going to prioritize the rights of the people whose rights it is our mandate to defend.’ The fact is, same-sex relationships are illegal in Gaza – a fact that Capital Pride doesn’t even seem to think is worth mentioning.
As Charlie Senack recently wrote in The Ottawa Citizen, “How an LGBTQ2S+ organization can support a country that’s killed people for living as their authentic selves is beyond me.”
Finally, Capital Pride ended its statement with a list of commitments that they plan to uphold, in order to demonstrate their desire for a ceasefire and an end to the war, including implementing BDS and recognizing the non-existent ‘genocide’ against Palestinians at their events. This is a ridiculous position to hold if one is sincere in a hope for a ceasefire, given that it is Hamas and Hezbollah, not Israel, that is perpetuating the war. All one needs to do is listen to the rhetoric coming from their leaders to know that a ceasefire is not possible when the stated goal is to eliminate the Jewish state and commit a genocide against its people. Only the most extreme mental gymnastics would allow someone to conclude that Israel’s defending itself against an attack by a genocidal terrorist regime constitutes genocide of their attackers.
Further, the adoption of the BDS (boycott divestment sanctions) campaign means that the provincial government can no longer support Capital Pride, either monetarily or conceptually, since the 2016 adoption of The Standing Up Against Antisemitism Act, which states “a public body shall not enter into a contract with a person or entity that supports or participates in the BDS movement.”
HonestReporting Canada has communicated directly to all of Capital Pride’s sponsors that they now also have an obligation to condemn in the strongest possible terms this ludicrous statement, and to withdraw their funding going forward. If Capital Pride is so committed to their demonization of Israel, those who have pledged support must withdraw it immediately, lest they also be complicit in such an antisemitic position.
