In recent years, leftist opponents of Israel have coined the term “pinkwashing” in an attempt to silence any discussion about the fact that the gay rights are respected in the Jewish state even as gays are viciously persecuted throughout the Muslim and Arab world. James Kirchick’s March 2013 COMMENTARY piece gave a thorough analysis of the staggering hypocrisy of gay leftists whose ideological animus compelled them to downplay both Islamist persecution of gays while also dismissing democratic Israel’s sterling record on the subject.
Despite the absurdity of their stance, the left continues to brandish the “pinkwashing” charge at the pro-Israel community. But a front-page feature in yesterday’s New York Times illustrates not only the stark reality of what happens to gays in Islamist countries but also gives readers some keen insight into how a Palestinian state operates.
The piece concerns the fate of Mahmoud Ishtiwi, a Hamas commander and a member of a prominent Gaza family with deep ties to the Islamist terrorist movement. In the summer of 2014, he was in charge of 1,000 Hamas fighters as well as a network of tunnels that were employed for attempts to cross into Israel to kidnap and murder citizens of the Jewish state. But last month Hamas executed him on charges of homosexuality. As the Times notes, there is nothing unusual about Hamas slaughtering one of its own. It happens all the time as the terrorist organization conducts purges and/or attempt to ferret out those it suspects of betraying their secrets to either Israel or their Fatah Party rivals that run the West Bank. But what was unusual was the willingness of the Ishtiwi clan to complain publicly about his treatment.
During the course of a year’s imprisonment, Ishtiwi told his family that he had only confessed to crimes after having been repeatedly tortured. But rather than merely accept his fate or disown him, his family demanded inquiries and appealed to the head of Hamas for his release. But their entreaties fell on deaf ears, and Ishtiwi’s body was delivered to them last month with three bullets in the chest.
That a fanatical Islamist group like Hamas treats gays as criminals is not news. The same is true throughout the Arab and Muslim world. The world was also horrified last fall by news of executions of gays by ISIS terrorists. But the treatment of Ishtiwi is more than yet another reminder of the brutal oppression of gays by Islamists. The story of how the Hamas “justice” system handled him and his family puts a rare mainstream media focus on life in Gaza that goes beyond the usual propaganda about the alleged misdeeds of Israel.
Though Israel’s opponents speak of Gaza as still being “occupied” by Israel, it has, in fact, been a completely independent entity since former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon withdrew every Israeli soldier, settler and settlement from the strip in 2005. Following a bloody coup, Hamas took control of the area in 2007 and has transformed it into a mini Islamist state. Indeed, though critics of Israel continue to clamor for the establishment of a Palestinian state, the government of Gaza is one in all but name. It remains isolated by a semi-blockade by both Israel and Egypt in order to prevent Hamas from bringing munitions and material to build more fortifications and tunnels. But food and medicine flow into the strip virtually every day, including during the time when the Islamists were firing thousands of rockets at Israeli cities.
But though it is an outlaw state whose government constitutes a threat to both Israel and its Egyptian neighbor, the international community gives no thought as to how the Palestinians of Gaza can be freed from the yoke of Hamas. To the contrary, its rule there is inviolate even when it wages war by hiding behind civilians and even using United Nations facilities to store arms and shelter terrorists.
More to the point, if Israel were ever to withdraw from the West Bank, as so many of its American friends urge it to do, both Palestinians and Israelis understand this might mean that Hamas tyranny might be extended from Gaza to that larger and more strategic territory. That would be bad for Israel but also a disaster for the Palestinians.
When European nations and even some American Jews proclaim their support for Palestinian statehood, one must always ask which state are they talking about? Is it the demilitarized one that is prepared to live in peace with Israel that everyone fantasizes about? Or will it resemble the only Palestinian Arab state that has ever existed — the one that has transformed Gaza into an Islamist tyranny in which even the leaders of the group can be purged with impunity.
We may not have much sympathy for Mahmoud Ishtiwi, whose secret private life might have been revealed because of charges of embezzlement. But, like others who refused to conform to Hamas theocratic dictates, there was only one fate possible for him in the Palestinian state. The nature of Palestinian society may not justify Israel holding onto territory that might be traded for peace if an end to the conflict was possible, which is unfortunately not the case with either Fatah or Hamas. But so long as Palestinians are oppressed by theocrats whose priority is a terrorist war to destroy Israel, more Israeli withdrawals are out of the question.
Yet far from being tangential to the question of theoretical land-for-peace deals, there is very little chance of the Palestinians ever embracing coexistence and ending their century-long war against Zionism so long as they are lead by the sort of group that would execute a gay man for the crime of being gay.
As a lively and free democratic country, Israel’s reputation doesn’t need to be pinkwashed because of the freedom that gays enjoy there. But those crying for Palestinian freedom should start by campaigning to free the Palestinian people from their gay-killing Hamas tyrants before worrying about Israel’s actions. Until they do, those claiming that human rights are only an issue if the topic can be used against Israel should be labeled as hypocrites and liars.
