Pinkwashing is a PR technique that aims to use opposition to homophobia to legitimise Israel and undermine support for Palestine. We campaign against pinkwashing, and mobilise LGBTQ people and our supporters as part of the struggle for Palestinian freedom.

Our Letter to the Pet Shop Boys - Don't Perform in Israel

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To the Pet Shop Boys
May 2013

Dear Neil and Chris,

We are writing to ask you not to perform in Israel. We make this request, as LGBTQ activists and organizations and supporters, in the name of justice for the Palestinian people.

Dusty Springfield courageously took a stand against apartheid in South Africa, when she walked out of a tour after finding out she was playing to segregated audiences. Today, Palestinians also face apartheid and segregation. Dusty sang with you 'what have I done to deserve this'. Palestinians are asking the same question – what have they done to deserve occupation, racism and apartheid?

The Palestinians have made clear calls for global solidarity. Your public presence in Israel would provide support to an occupation of Palestinian people which continues to defy international law and UN resolutions. From Palestinians living under siege in Gaza to those living as second-class citizens in Israel, the occupation of Palestinians continues unabated in 2013. From the system of apartheid enforced in the West Bank to the millions of refugees who live in exile, Palestinians require the support of the international community.

As Palestinian Queers for BDS (PQBDS) point out in their call for support for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel: 'Violations of human rights and international law, suppression of basic rights and civil liberty, and discrimination are deeply rooted in Israel's policies toward Palestinians, straight and gay alike'.

Israel and its supporters use several public relations techniques to attempt to refocus international attention from its war crimes and violations of human rights. One important strand of this PR is the cynical use of gay rights to cover up these violations – or 'pinkwash' them, with an attempt to portray Israel as somehow a 'progressive' state, where the right of lesbians and gay men to serve in the army is supposed to trump the fact that those very soldiers are used to suppress and control the Palestinian people who are suffering under Israel's illegal occupation.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other prominent South Africans have likened the situation of the Palestinians to their experiences of apartheid. The challenge of apartheid in South Africa was fought with the non-violent international campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions. Today Palestinian artists, trade unionists, teachers, writers, film-makers and non-governmental organisations have called for a comparable boycott of Israel, as offering another path to a just peace, noting: "At a time when the international movement to isolate Israel is gaining ground in response to the escalation of Israel's colonial and racist policies, we respectfully urge conscientious academics, artists and intellectuals from around the world, including those who visit the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), to refrain from visiting Israel to participate in any event or encounter that is not explicitly dedicated to ending Israel's illegal occupation and other forms of oppression. Regardless of intentions, such visits only contribute to the prolongation of injustice by normalizing and thereby legitimizing it, and inadvertently support Israel's efforts to appear as a "normal" participant in the "civilized" world of science, scholarship and art while at the same time practicing a pernicious form of apartheid against Palestinians."

Boycott is a tactic which allows people to apply pressure on those wielding power in an unjust way. Please do reconsider your decision to play in Israel – do not allow yourselves to be used to encourage and support Israel's attempt to 'pinkwash' its crimes against the Palestinians.

Yours in solidarity,

No to Pinkwashing (www.nopinkwashing.org.uk)
Fundacion Arcoiris, Mexico
ILGCN (international Rainbow Cultural Network) Information Secretariat - Stockholm
Left Front Art
Nordic Rainbow Humanists
Nordic-Baltic-Polish-Belarus-Russian LGBT Network
Panteras Rosa - Frente de Combate à LesBiGayTransfobia (Portugal)
Tupilak (Nordic Rainbow Cultural Network)
Tamara Adrián, ILGA's World acting Trans Secretary
Dalit Baum
Eileen Best, UNISON National Women's Commitee
George Binette, Camden UNISON Branch Secretary and Camden Trades Council chair
Ben Collins
Terry Conway, co-chair SERTUC LGBT committee, UNISON national LGBT Committee
Sarah Colborne, Director, Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Steve Ellis
Denis Fernando, musician
Darienne Flemington, UNISON national LGBT Committee
Sean Fox, Joint Branch Secretary Haringey UNISON
Boti García Rodrigo, President of FELGTB Federacion Lesbian Gay Transgenero Bisexual, Spain
Beatriz Gimeno
Ray Goodspeed, Hackney Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Geoff Hardy, Gay Liberation Front original member, founder of Rainbow Film Festival
Frankie Green, 1970s Gay Liberation Front and anti-apartheid activist
Dave Landau
Diane Langford, Palestine Solidarity Campaign founder member
Jackie Lewis, Palestine Solidarity Campaign Executive, UNISON national LGBT Committee
Robert Lugg
Miriam Margolyes OBE
Ian Parker
Cris Piccoli
Jon Rodgers, UNISON NEC
Thierry Shaffauser
Marsha Jane Thompson, Vice Chair, Labour Representation Committee
Colin Wilson, Co-Convenor, Queers against the Cuts
Neil Young

Noel Halifax, SWP
Hanif Leylabi, NUS LGBT Committee (2010-2012)
Petrina Ennis, Co-chair UNISON Greater London LGBT Committee
James Nowlan, UNITE
Beverley Sinton
Ramzy Kumsieh, Palestine Link
Maxi Bee
Lynne Segal, Jews for Justice for Palestinians
Mandy Merck
John Fletcher
Hichem Maafi, Sussex Friends of Palestine
Anthony Bird
Jordan Rivera, Joint branch secretary, Homerton Hospital UNISON
Michael Dance, NUT LGBT Advisory Committee
Mark Dee Smith, Luton TUC Policy Officer
Zoe Lawlor, Limerick Palestine Solidarity Campaign
David Ruffell
Siusaidh Caimbeul
Don't Play Apartheid Israel (DPAI)
Will Hadwen, Welfare rights adviser
Stefan Bohorquez Gerardy,Director, Comité Ecológico del Litoral
Miranda Pennell, British Artists for Palestine
Angela Martin, Member, Sheffield PSC
stien, Volunteer in Palestina Solidariteit vzw, Belgium
Mary Beaman, Merton PSC
Mike Cushman, Convenor, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods
Ellen Graubart, UNITE
Suzanne Byrne, IPSC
Shane Cormac Dillon, Gaza Action Ireland
Jenny Morgan
Seymour Alexander, Remember Dusty
Veronica Planton
Chris Andrews
Mohammed Amin, Al Qasim
Jonatan Stanczak, Managing Director of The Freedom Theatre in Jenin
Claudia, Parliamentary Assistant
Michael Shanahan, PSC member
Dave Cosgrave, Greater London UNISON LGBT Committee co-chair
Pete Firmin, Chair, Brent Trades Council
John Greyson, filmmaker
Richard Kuper
Chris Lymbertos
Darnell Moore
Leehee Rothschild
Dean Spade
Kevin Partridge
Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Nancy Elan
Susan Wood
Sara Bennett, UNITE Executive Council member
Gaelic Neilson, FreeMedia
Mark Kerrison
Marianna Frau
Thomas Suarez, violinist
ila
Felim Egan, Artist in Dublin
Kelvin Bland, RIBA
Janet Green, Camden PSC
Rudi Affolter
Sinead Dunn
Eugene MacDonald, Guests of Nature - Singer, Producer
Gerard Shaun Barker
Lewis Backon
Wil Hutton, Mid Sussex Labour Party
Tariq al-Bosni, Leeds University Palestine Support Group
Sarwar Shah
Assia Barigou
Jeneen Hadj-Hammou, Leeds University Palestine Solidarity Group
Leehee Rothschild, Israeli bisexual activist, Boycott From Within
David Lewzey, Leeds RevSoc
Jennifer Collins, Glasgow Caledonian Amnesty International Society
Patricia Miqdadi
Harry Shotton, Leeds University Palestine Solidarity Group
Isobel McMillan, Retired teacher, NUT
Peter Bisson
Christian Wangler, Retired sound technician from current affairs TV broadcasting
Terri McLaughlin
Huseyin Murad, Friend of Palestine
Shir Hever, Alternative Information Centre
Sylvana, BDS Nederland
Yalcin Murad
Kathy Glavanis-Grantham, Cork Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Abd Elkrim Ouhab, Provet
Satah Pala
Suzanne Weiss, Not In Our Name
John Doumani, a fan and humanist
Jo Siedlecka, Editor Independent Catholic News
Daphne Hussein, Merton PSC
Sasha
Joe Meadors
Theresa Gallagher, PSC
Stephen Williams, Lambeth/Wandsworth Palestine Solidarity Camapaign
Dhahi Once
Didi Rossi, Queer Strike
Sandy Cheyne, Artist
Thelma Leckie, Camden PSC
Gerard Barrong, Human rights activist
Gonzalo
Mar Gijón
Mick Breen
Jacqui O'Riordan
Christina MacDonald
Phil Mc Cullough, West Belfast, Ireland, Sinn Féin
Alan Mann, Secretary - Leeds Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Deborah Fink, Co-founder, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods
T Sironphuq
Malcolm Chapman
Tony Dickinson
Margaret Sheffield, mother, grandmother
Sarah McGrath
Brink Radler
Ton Barry
Arthur Leahy, community gay activist
John Porter
Conall Ó Dufaigh, Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Ruth Tenne, Israeli human rights activist
Geoff Dexter, West Midlands Love Music Hate Homophobia
Tom McVitie
Anne Dyas
Mohammed Amin, Al Qasim
Mags O Brien, Chair, Trade Union Friends of Palestine
Jamie Anderson
Sylvia Shalev
Clare Quinn
Alex Pilcher, Iraq Occupation Focus
Christine Gilmore, Leeds Friends of Syria
Christine Drummond
Sophie Bolt
Bunny La Roche
Laura Butlin, Friends of Palestine, Lancaster University
Reshima Sharma, Exeter University Friends of Palestine
Asif Choglay
Dave Rendle, West Wales
Sylvia Ferreira, Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Catherine Girdwood
Catie Harvey
Sophia B
Erin Buelow
Chloe Rahall
Helen Powell
Sandra Easton-Lawrence
Ian McNeill, Solar-max
David Bland
Mick Scott, Oxford Brookes University
Karen Van Dijck
Neil Lawrence
Emrah İnandım
Tansy Feltis
Audrey Yassein, mother and wife of Palestinians
Nada Twan
Mohamed Taha, retired
Liz Taha, retired
Serkan Delice
Dafyd L. Powell-Palaitis
Sean Carter, fan
Sian Leppik
Chantal Cameron, Palestine Solidarity campaign
Jenna Mills
Eran Efrati, Boycott From Within
Rob Sharrock
Sylvia Posadas
Petre Mioara
Cedric Pontet
Viorica Tache
Ilinca Goia
Merlin Reader, CWU LGBT committee member

All individuals are in personal capacity, descriptions are for identification purposes only