Submitted by Joel Harden, MPP for Ottawa Centre
Last week the Capital Pride released a “Statement in Solidarity with Palestine”. The statement has drawn support and criticism.
Anyone familiar with Pride events knows that human rights issues (in Canada and elsewhere) are often raised. At its core, Pride festivals are political; they have grown from passionate appeals for justice.
That was true for pushback against police raids of queer and trans spaces in the 1970s and 1980s, and also true in 2016 when Black Lives Matter organizers disrupted the Toronto Pride march over concerns with police violence. So it continues with queer and trans advocacy against the Israeli government’s genocidal war in Palestinian communities.
Some would prefer Pride and Palestinian human rights didn’t mix. They want all participants to feel safe at Pride, which is a worthy goal, and worry that support for Palestinian human rights divides us. So let’s take a closer look at Capital Pride’s statement on Palestine, which is worth quoting at length.
The statement’s stated goal is to “reaffirm our commitment to solidarity as the core principle guiding our work. While our mandate is focused on queer and trans communities in the region”, it explains, “the violence and instability we are witnessing around the globe have had far-reaching impacts on many members of our local communities. These issues demand our attention.”
“We are committed”, the statement continues, “to creating spaces where all queer and trans people feel safe to celebrate Pride together. To that end, we are deeply concerned by the rising tide of antisemitism and Islamophobia we are witnessing here in Canada. As a community facing rising levels of hate-motivated crimes, we know all too well how hate erodes our security. In this climate, we reaffirm that intolerance has no place in our events.”
That sounds like a unifying message to me.
The statement then condemns the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack by Hamas where 1200 Israelis, including many civilians, were killed. It also condemns Israeli attrocities in Gaza and the West Bank, noting international reports of a plausible genocide, with 39,000 killed according to Gazan health authorities.
Should we be silent about this at Pride? When Canadian firms are involved in arms shipments to this unfolding catastrophe? When Israel’s Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, suggests it is “moral” to starve two million Gazans but “no one in the world would let us”? When Netanyahu labels his critics “useful idiots”? Surely not.
International human rights law is clear
The International Court of Justice just ruled that Israel must dismantle its settlements in Palestinian communities, and end its 57-year military occupation. The International Criminal Court has requested arrest warrants for Israeli leaders and Hamas leaders for the commission of war crimes.
This is the Vietnam War moment of our generation, and it will end, like the Vietnam War, with people organizing for justice. Canadians (including Jewish and Palestinian Canadians) have been organizing for months, and that has made a difference.
Our House of Commons passed a motion on March 18, 2024 (introduced by MP Heather McPherson) to demand peace. It called for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, the prosecution of all war crimes, a two-way arms embargo, and sanctions against extremist Israeli settlers wreaking havoc in Palestinian communities under the fog of war.
But the carnage continues. The question now, for us, is how we work for peace.
Amid fears of a wider regional war in the Middle East, Capital Pride has issued a call for action. They offer concrete steps to push for cultural awareness and a peaceful resolution to an unfolding human rights disaster. I salute them for doing so.
Pride is political, and human rights are global. Capital Pride is attempting to humanize this moment, and to urge a political solution so Palestinians and Israelis can live in peace. The violence must end, and we can play a role.
That is a unifying message, while silence divides us.