Pinkwashing, Redwashing, Greenwashing — the multi-colored world of anti-Israel hate
Native American confronts Wesleyan Prof. over denial of Jewish indigenous status in Israel
We’ve written frequently about the ludicrous “pinkwashing” movement, whereby anti-Israel “queer” (their word) activists in academia demonize Israel not for mistreating gays, but for talking about how Israel doesn’t mistreat gays.
The worst crime of all to the Pinkwashing movement is that Israel has the temerity to let people know that unlike its Arab neighbors, including in the territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, Israel does not torment, persecute, torture and kill people because they are gay.
If you want to know what anti-Israel “queer” (their word) hate looks like, watch this video. It’s not surprising that many of the key academic BDS supporters are involved in the Pinkwashing movement.
“Greenwashing” refers to complaints that Israel highlights its environmental successes. It’s one of the arguments used against SodaStream.
But there’s a new movement afoot, “Redwashing.” We mentioned in passing the Redwashing conference held at the American University in Beirut by some of the leaders of the American Studies Association boycott, Chaired by Wesleyan University Professor J. Kehaulani Kauanui.
(Kauanui also is a leader of the Pinkwashing movement, leading a Global Queer Anti-Occupation Activism conference in April 2013. She was one of the founders of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, whose Council recently adopted an anti-Israel boycott.)
As reported by Indian Country Today:
“This panel session aims to document and critically engage the cultural and political formation of ‘redwashing,’ what I define as the promotion of Indigenous Peoples of the Americas as a deliberate strategy to conceal the continuing violations of the Palestinian people,” Kauanui explained in an overview of the panel sent to Indian Country Today Media Network. “In these cases, Israelis typically appeal to Indigenous Peoples by drawing parallels between their respective claims to indigeneity, legacies of genocide (evoking the Jewish holocaust), and ongoing adversity regarding threats to ‘cultural extinction.’”
Kauanui points to a number of examples of redwashing in the recent past: Last April, Kauanui, Warrior and other indigenous scholars wrote to Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly expressing disappointment at his support for Israel and urging him to pursue international relationships that mirror indigenous values and justice.
The letter followed Shelly’s December 2012 visit to Israel where he met with Israeli diplomats and members of the Arizona Israel Business Council and a follow up visit by Israeli farmers to speak to Navajo farmers at a two-day agriculture conference. In 2012, a group representing several First Nations led by Cree First Nation Grand Chief David Harper visited Israel’s Knesset at the invitation of a Christian lobby group to express support for Israel. Also in 2012, 30 young aboriginal leaders from Canada traveled to Israel to study culture and society in the Zionist state as part of “The Youth Leadership Development Mission to Israel” under the auspices of Canada’s Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg.
“And then there was the scandalous 2012 case of Native American poet and performer Joy Harjo (Muscogee) who rejected mass appeals that she abide by the academic and cultural boycott and took up a residency at Tel Aviv University,” Kauanui said.
Here’s how Kauanui described Redwashing in connection with the Beirut Conference, “Redwashing: Israeli Claims to Indigeneity and the Political Role of Native Americans”:
Inspired by Edward Said’s legacy of cultural and political analysis, this proposed panel session aims to document and critically engage the cultural and political formation of “redwashing,” what I define as the promotion of Indigenous Peoples of the Americas as a deliberate strategy to conceal the continuing violations of the Palestinian people. In these cases, Israelis typically appeal to indigenous peoples by drawing parallels between their respective claims to indigeneity, legacies of genocide (evoking the Jewish holocaust), and ongoing adversity regarding threats to “cultural extinction.” In turn, many indigenous groups and individuals have responded….
In an op-ed at Indian Country Today, however, Ryan Bellarose, a Native Indian from Canada who is supports Israel, took exception with the attempt by these academics to usurp the indigenous North American peoples for anti-Israel purposes, and specifically argued that Jews are the indigenous people of Israel.
Don’t Mix Indigenous Fight With Palestinian Rights:
… Judeah and Samaria are not “Palestinian” lands but the ancestral homeland of the Jewish nation. this is easily verified through archaeology and study of the region. The Jewish nation does not lose their ties to their land simply because it was occupied first by Rome and then by the Ottomans. To accept that would be to put our own claims in danger.
Its important for us to examine who these people are who are claiming to speak on behalf of Native americans, because they hide their bigotry underneath our banner.
Lets look first at the ringleader J. Kēhaulani Kauanui. She is not a Native American. She claims she is “part indigenous Hawaiian,” but her experiences are about as Native American as a native Australian’s would be. I am not saying they don’t have their own history of persecution and oppression, but its very different from ours and I am getting tired of reading this woman’s claims. She is doing nothing more than inciting bad feelings towards Israel and pushing her agenda of bigotry and racism.
Lets examine the claims we know she’s made:
She claims that the Palestinians are indigenous, something that only a person with very little knowledge of the Middle East would make. Anyone capable of opening a history textbook knows that Arabs conquered the Middle East in the 7th century CE. The Palestinians self-identify as Arabs. Some may carry indigenous blood, but blood quantum is a white man’s concept. They deny their indigenous culture and heritage and instead follow the culture and claim the heritage of the colonizer people. How is that indigenous? Indigenous status is a complex combination of things, but the most important is the genesis of culture and tradition in conjunction with ancestral lands, which would mean that the Jews of Israel are indigenous, and the Arabs of “Palestine” are not. They can claim indigenous status, but to the Arabian peninsula, which is not the Levant. Ask an Arab where his most holy place is, unless he is one of the tiny minority of Christian Arabs, he will tell you its Mecca, and he will tell you this in Arabic both of which track back to…. the Arabian peninsula. Ask a Jew where their holiest place is, and they will tell you, and they will do so in the language that developed in the holy land.
I don’t think Kauanui understands that by her argument, Americans are now indigenous to Hawaii, because the first white people showed up in Hawaii in the 1700’s about 1200 years after the first “Hawaiins” By using her own logic that conquerors can become Indiegnous through the passage of time, it means that Arabs showed up about 3 thousand years after the first Jews in the Levant, and became indigenous through conquer and time, it follows that 1200 years is really quite insignificant. I somehow doubt that Kauanui will enjoy the conclusion that her logic arrives at when followed in a straight line, these partially educated people rarely do. They do not consider the damage that this argument makes when one is arguing the validity of indigenous rights.
The column continues at great length. Here Bellarose addresses the ASA boycott specifically:
This is not a victory, it has cost Native American scholars credibility, credibility for which we have fought hard….
More and more Native Americans are realizing that in the age of information, we no longer need to listen to these false narratives being spread by people who claim to speak for us. We are educated, intelligent and can speak for ourselves, people like Kauanui, Salaita, and Ashtan should learn to speak for their own people and not pretend to speak for us. I have spoken to many of my people after reading this, and while there are some who are Pro palestinians rights (as I am) we do not accept this Anti Israel propaganda being spread in our name, we can be pro Palestinians and still be pro Israel and pro indigenous statehood
It’s no surprise that the ASA boycotters also seek to deny the Jewish people indigenous status in Israel. It completely destroys the “anti-colonial” and “post-colonial” foundation of the BDS movement.
The inability to come to grips with a fair examination of indigenous rights is not limited to ASA boycotters.
UNESCO first canceled then delayed an exhibition on the Jewish people’s ties to Israel dating back 3500 years after protests from Arab countries, out of fears that such an exhibition would endanger the peace process. The U.S. refused to support the Exhibition for the same reason.
Benjamin Netanyahu was smart to insist that Israel be recognized as the homeland of the Jewish people as part of a peace agreement with the Palestinians. It goes to the heart of the issue. And it’s an issue as to which the Palestinians, and their American boycott supporters, can’t handle the truth.
[Note: The title and featured image of this post were changed shortly after publication.]
(Featured Image source: IsraeliLaundry.org]
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Comments
He’s pulled an interesting thread here, and it is one that asserts the Jewish ownership of huge parts of Saudi Arabia via indigeneity.
“UNESCO first canceled then delayed an exhibition on the Jewish people’s ties to Israel dating back 3500 years after protests from Arab countries, out of fears that such an exhibition would endanger the peace process. The U.S. refused to support the Exhibition for the same reason.”
The hypocrisy and shame of the above is unconscionable. UNESCO and the USA sided with genocidal liars to forge a “peace process” based on lies. Canceling and delaying an exhibition that clearly demonstrates Jewish ownership of all the land the eye can see from I forget which mountain is consenting to Arab erasure of the historical presence of Jews in Israel, Judea, and Samaria, which erasure is a preface to the genocide of Jews if the Arabs get their way.
This is all very entertaining which is what “queers” (their word – and mine) do best. As far as being a serious proposal to achieve a consensus, extremely doubtful if not outright fantastical.
Perhaps Israel should roll out the oldest version of the Old Testament and challenge the opposition to produce comparable trustworthy evidence of THEIR claims. As a cherry on top, Israel could point out that its government COULD have chosen to enforce Mosaic Law across the State of Israel. Instead, a policy of tolerance and even acceptance was adopted despite being in serious conflict with policy of Moses’ time.
My preference? Israel should immediately adopt literal enforcement of the Old Laws, and let the officials in charge choose to pardon people who fall under judgment (if they want). That way, Judaism mercy could be clearly contrasted with Islamic absolutes, on an ongoing basis in real time.
I still have not figured out the logic of constantly trying to appease people whose language does not include the word ‘appease.’
What amazes me is the decadence of these people and this movement. It’s such an amazing, monstrous mixture of bad scholarship, inept thinking, and frivolous claims far too easily debunked.
Are they all pot smokers, whose real goal is to find a comfy niche that doesn’t require any real work (thinking)? Do they write when they are high, and feel all impressed by the wonderfulness of the resulting gibberish?
No, they are all tranzi’s. See the wikipedia article on Transnational Progressivism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnational_progressivism
For a fictional account of where they would take us, read Tom Kratman’s book mentioned at the end of the article.
There seems to be some major holes in this opinion piece, the major flaw would be the ignorance of DNA evidence that shows a co-mingling of DNA dating back to ancient times between Hebrews and indigenous Palestinians.
In addition, there is also a crass attempt at trying to impugn Kauanui:
“Lets look first at the ringleader J. Kēhaulani Kauanui. She is not a Native American. She claims she is “part indigenous Hawaiian,” but her experiences are about as Native American as a native Australian’s would be. I am not saying they don’t have their own history of persecution and oppression, but its very different from ours and I am getting tired of reading this woman’s claims. She is doing nothing more than inciting bad feelings towards Israel and pushing her agenda of bigotry and racism.”
As an Eastern Band Cherokee who faces that kind of logical fallacy and character assassination on a daily basis in Israeli forums I find this line of thinking appalling and more than slimey.
It exposes the author’s actual motivations: She is not “native” enough so therefore she should just shut up and let our Crimes Against Humanity continue.
In modern Israel, a state that only has existed since 1948 there was a huge presence of Arab Palestinians who were ethnically cleansed both pre and post Zionist state.
710,000 or more with more than 450 villages destroyed where Jewish towns were then built upon the ashes; More commonly known as the Nakba (Catastrophe). As a result, there was an ingathering, a call by the nascent Israel to Jews all over the world but primarily from Europe to come to the new state and so they did.
But they bear no relation to the Hebrews that _are_ actually First Peoples as the Arab Palestinians are as well.
The BDS movement, of which I am a strong supporter, in no way seeks to deny rights to the land of ancient Hebrews who can actually trace lineage back through to ancient times primarily through DNA evidence.
The BDS movement in a very principled way seeks to end the Crimes Against Humanity that Israel is undeniably engaged in right now. Case in point. Look to the recent news where as official Israeli policy, there was (and still will be ongoing) a move to ethnically cleanse 40,000+ indigenous Beduoin from their land and force them into some sort of enclave so a Jewish only town could be built in their place.
Just as horrible there is an official plan afoot to simply cut out of Israel more than 300,000 Israeli Arabs and force them into the nascent Palestine against their will simply by virtue of them being Arab Palestinian.
BDS is not “Israel hate” or “Jew hatred” – it is nothing of the sort. It is a pricipled attempt at gathering concerned people together to peacefully protest using BDS to stop the Crimes Against Humanity and end the persecution of indigenous people in Palestine.
Trying to use American Indians as a pawn to justify the colonizer’s (Israel) claims is nothing new but it is insideous and horrible to endure and watch.
We did not have the Hague Convention, The United Nations, or the Geneva Conventions but this time the Arab Palestinians as the indigenous people of Palestine do.
Israelis should be happy with the 78% of the land they got by Western fiat and let the Palestinians alone in the remaning 22%. This does not seem to be too much to ask since they did not even show up until the middle of the last century.
Michael Hess
Santa Fe, New Mexico
“As an Eastern Band Cherokee who faces that kind of logical fallacy and character assassination on a daily basis in Israeli forums…”
Why are you on Israeli forums? Are you trolling?
Trolling? Is it “trolling” learning and sharing factual knowledge about a decades long clonflict that is the lynchpin to world peace?
Now who were you accusing of trolling?
With your: “You’re clearly not.”
If you are incapable of rational and fact-based debate, then what is it you are doing _here_?
I’m glad that BBSNEWS showed up, so readers can understand just how ignorant and deceitful the BDS movement is. There were no “ancient Palestinians.” Palestinian national identity as distinct from the greater Arab population was a creation of the 1960s. That’s why there was no Intifada against Jordanian rule of Judea and Samaria between 1949 and 1967.
The supposed ethnic cleansing during Israel’s creation actually was initiated by Arab armies from as far away as Iraq who tried to drive the Jews into the Sea. They failed. In that failure refugees were created — more Jews fled Arab countries than Arabs fled what now is Israel. That the commenter focuses only on European Jews says everything you need to know about the lack of factual understanding — just like Helen Thomas who told Israelis to go back to Europe. Half of Israelis are refugees from or the descendants of refugees from Arab countries.
The commenter states the usual propaganda about the Bedouin issue (which never even got to a Knesset vote) whereby Israel tried to help the 15% of Bedouin living in shanty towns (some near a toxic dump) in unapproved facilities. They were not being ethnically cleansed for Jewish construction, they were to be relocated to newly constructed towns in the same vicinity.
Also, the notion of DNA tests is just a dodge. As any good leftist academic will tell you, status as a People or Tribe or Nation is not a matter of DNA. That’s a test that BDS wants applied only to Jews in Israel.
You can witness in that commenter the full spectrum of propaganda which typifies the BDS movement.
Good riddance.
But, but, but … the co-mingling of DNA! He cites that as his main point!
So, even if a DNA test proved Elizabeth Warren was, indeed, 1/32 Cherokee, (and she’d probably be the most surprised person on the planet … if the immediate overwhelming relief didn’t kill her) bbsnews would accept this very recent faint trace of co-mingling as full-fledged Cherokee status, with all the claims on resources that might imply?
And then her children and grandchildren and on and on.
How long does this DNA bookkeeping go on? And how far back does it go? Balancing it all out will be quite some chore!
Ward Chuchill, ancestry.com has $99 DNA reports. You might get lucky! (Actually, just his name alone makes him thousands of times more likely to be Winston’s long-lost illegitimate grandson.)
If we’re speaking in DNA, I’m 1/8 Jewish from my Great-Grandma Hirschbein on my mother’s side.
I guess technically I could qualify as a Jew. But I’d be embarrassed trying to push that, and I can just imagine the professor’s hysterical laughing.
But, compared to what bbsnews is pushing, 1/8 is some not so insignificant co-mingling.
It would be ridiculous for me to present myself as a Jew, though.
There’s a lot more involved in being a Jew than DNA.
What’s funny is bbsnews talks about some ages-old co-mingling (there was co-mingling between Native American groups in the beginning, was there not? In each tribe you will find DNA shared with other tribes. Should tribes start some renewed modern warring, making claims against each other now based on traces of DNA? Guard those casinos!)
Now, could you approach your average Palestinian steeped in aggrieved anger through fanatical upbringing and safely say to him,
“Hey, you’re part Jewish! Seriously! Thousands of years ago there was some co-mingling, just as there was in every region of the world. Hey, what are you doing with that knife? Take it easy, man. You know, even further back in time, modern humans did a little co-mingling with Neanderthals. What do you mean you don’t care about that? What do you mean you’ll slit my throat if I call you a Jew again?”
You see, you can do all the DNA/racial/ethnic etc., bookkeeping you like in that crazy little ledger in the fever swamp of your mind.
It doesn’t matter to anyone but you and your BDS buddies.
The Jews are a people with a history and a culture. They were a people with a history and a culture even before DNA was discovered.
Palestinian suicide bombers don’t care about DNA and co-mingling one iota. They just care about killing a people they view as distinct from themselves.
It’s the culture and the history, baby.
I spit on your DNA ramblings. With my 1/8 meaninglessly co-mingled spit.
LukeHandCool (who can go on and on like a passionate, animated Jew sometimes. Maybe he should check his father’s side for any co-mingling)
LCH, that was awesome.
There’s no point in using logic on this nonsense.
There’s a hole; here’s a rock over it. Get back into your hole, under your rock, and stay there.
There are so many lies, fallacies and distortions in your comment that I hardly know where to begin.
Are you implying that the Jews only came to Israel after 1948? What utter nonsense. Pure drivel. Jews have been a constant presence in the Land of Israel from time immemorial. By the 1880s the Jews were a majority of the population in Jerusalem.
As for your claim that the present-day Jews bear no relation to the ancient Hebrews – are you an ethnographer? An anthropologist? An archeologist? A historian mayhap?
Are you one of those bigots who claim that the Jews of today are descendants of the Khazars?
How then would you describe my family who are Levi’im – Levites – descended from the tribe of Levi, even though my parents come from Germany. Are you accusing me of stealing my Jewish identity from some poor unsuspecting Khazar (whoever those may be)? Or even some poor unsuspecting Levite? Please give some details and explanations of how this demographic mystery resolves itself.
Oh good! What a relief! That means you will use anything I can produce but nothing that my downstairs neighbour can produce.
But you have also shown yourself to be a bigot by deciding who can and who cannot call themselves a Jew. i.e. you are denying the right of self-determination to one nation only, and that is to the Jews. That makes you an antisemite.
You obviously have not read Prof. Jacobson’s excellent rebuttals and explanations of the Prawer plan. Go and educate yourself before spouting off.
But..but…but… I thought they WANTED to be Palestinians?! Don’t they WANT and DEMAND a Palestinian state? Why the objection in that case? Are they not claiming to be Palestinians? If so, they should not object to living in a Palestinian state which they CLAIM they want. And since they object to having even one Jew defiling their holy land of Palestine, they have no right to complain if Israel moves the border – not them or their houses – to exclude such racists from Israel.
As for your paean of praise to BDS, I will just recommend you read what the Prof, David Gerstman and many others have written about it. But you won’t, which is why I shall not bother any further.
This Hawaiian red-washing queer pinkwasher doesn’t like Jews. Period. She blames them for being behind Christian missionaries successful eradicating of Hawaiian native propensities to sleep with their sisters and drown their own children in the Hawaiian surf. The Jewish bible is a powerful force, and it is against male homosexuality, sexual deviancy and immorality. Hatred of Jews has no bounds because primitive forces of immorality and licentiousness constantly fight to overcome its civilizing effects.
It also stands against lesbianism, too.
The homosexuals have a huge problem with God, and they continually rage against the Jews through whom God said homosexuality is sin worthy of death.
This can’t be fixed. Some people have viseral hatred towards others. In a sense this is writ very large with Obama.
Doesn’t move Obama ahead by one iota.
Does it reflect badly on people who hate?
Pink graphic. Green graphic. Doesn’t represent any kind of washer you’d buy. Let alone how people hate it when the color pink overtakes a whole load of laundry.
So go look at the pink washer all you like. Remember when white sox and underpants came out pink? How’d that happen? Someone threw a pair of red sox into your load of laundry.
One of the reasons I love Mel Brooks is that he understood the power of humor. So his movie (The Producer) had scenes of a dancing and prancing hitler … And, Springtime For hitler could be viewed as insulting to hitler, but I thought it was funny.
When you meet an antisemite don’t overlook the joke.
Just take a look at the ‘panel’ on this video, I had a hard time understanding what the members of this so-called council are protesting about, except that they are filled with hate.
Can you imagine even one of them with a real job in 5 years?
So far there have been four totally irrational comments appearing after mine. Is there anyone capable of rational and coherent thought on this issue who can converse in a cogent and fact-based manner?
You’re clearly not.
See my comment above.
“Is there anyone capable of rational and coherent thought on this issue who can converse in a cogent and fact-based manner?”
I’m not Jewish, so I’ll defer to the Jews in the LI commentariat who know a lot more than I do about the history and minutiae. You lost me at the beginning of your lengthy comment, with your glaring lack of cogency.
Before you lay down a challenge of cogency, you should reread what you wrote, first, in terms of cogent logic.
It’s a bit odd for you to celebrate the touchdown you threw on the opening down of the game when it’s a pick-six.
A few seconds of reading and I knew you were not to be taken seriously (before that stretch of road where the ubiquitous “Crimes Against Humantiy” billboards you erected crowded out any view of the surrounding landscape of potential common ground.