Italian gay rights group rejects anti-Israel ‘pinkwashing’ accusation

The Italian gay rights organization Associazione Radicale Certi Diritti passed a resolution at its national congress this week condemning the de-legitimization of Israel by LGBT rights groups through the accusation of “pinkwashing,” the argument that Israel was a gay-friendly country as a means for covering for its treatment of Palestinians.

The campaign was a distraction from efforts to advance the fight to protect people of all sexual orientations and genders, it said.

“The alarming increase in political calls by LGBTI groups to boycott Israel,” the group said in its resolution, “diverts from the real battle these group should hold, i.e. the advocacy for the promotion of LGBTI rights among the Palestinian people.”

The organization praised Israel for being the only state in the Middle East which protects LGBTI rights and condemned the Palestinian Authority and Hamas for not recognizing the rights of the LGTBI community.

“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 associations for human rights,” the resolution says.

“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.”