Pinkwashing: “Mother Teresa with a keffiyeh” by marc3pax

Benjamin Doherty Activism and BDS Beat 24 June 2011

“Marc,” a previously unknown “gay activist,” has released his first ever video on YouTube. It’s a perfectly edited, slickly produced, funny but also very sincere inquiry into the Gaza Freedom Flotilla 2.

We like to believe that things like this don’t happen anymore in our community, f***ing unbelievable. I’m not a usually a fan of putting down people in public, but this is a story I felt I had to share- what happened when my LGBTQ network tried to hook up with the flotilla to Gaza. Let me know if you’ve had similar experiences- marc3pax@gmail.com.

This sophisticated YouTube video uses voice over, multiple camera angles, perfect lighting and even B-roll. The organization or government who produced the video and the marc3pax persona must be very proud of their work.

This personal video blog is badly executed and counterfeit.

There is no reason to indicate that anything this actor says is true. He has no history on the internet, no other videos, and no real story. Where did he attend college? What is his last name? Which group did he write to? What exactly did they say?

Some advice

  1. When your gay rights activist talks about emails that he sent or received, be sure to write these emails, forge the headers and show them on the video.
  2. Don’t spend a lot of time making the video look nice. People have believed all sorts of poorly produced, incoherent nonsense that gives itself away in the past.
  3. Amateurism indicates authenticity.
  4. Develop a history for your fraudulent internet persona. Presumably, we should have first met Marc sometime last year.

This is pinkwashing.

This is a transparent effort to justify the oppressive and criminal siege of Gaza—and possible violent Israeli attack on the upcoming Flotilla—by describing Palestinians as dangerous, violent homophobes and misogynists. Pinkwashing is a tactic that pro-Israel groups and the Israeli government have been consciously using to try to divide and co-opt the Palestine solidarity movement and its connection to other movements around the world. Pinkwashing is a phenomenon that Palestine solidarity activists have become vocal in resisting.

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Comments

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Dena Shunra replied on

He extends his "i" sound (as in "flotilla") to make it sound like an "ee" ("floteelas" at 0:35 seconds, for example).
"Viva Palestina" is pronounced exactly as it would be in Hebrew (0:42).

There are various other elements, mostly relating to vowels, and the way he pronounces "th" - but he certainly sounds Israeli to me, inasmuch as one can tell from the less than three-minute sample.

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vickie replied on

the accent is unmistakably Israel. he made the G in Gaza glottal, as in ghaza. Only and Arab or an Israeli would do that.

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Nihal Rabbani replied on

Why doesn't someone reveal this guy's false identity and confront him with his lies? It can't be that hard with his face being exposed. By the way, I think he has a French accent.

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isobel replied on

That is NOT a French accent, not even remotely! It sounds Israeli to me. If someone more aurally acute than I am detects Italian sounds in the voice (the Mediterranean region shares many sounds), that's not a surprise. Many Israelis have a parent or parents from other countries. The accent shows no trace of the person having spent years in the US.

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B replied on

My experience is that many Israelis have an accent that sounds French to people who are not expert in identifying accents.

Stuff like this makes it difficult to support Israel, although I would like to. In short, I would like to find a way to make life better and safer for Israelis *and* Palestinians. The only thing I can say about this campaign is that it may have forced Palestinians to be more aggressive in defending the rights of homosexuals in their own society - in which case it may be a blessing in disguise.

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Clyde Barnett replied on

Thanks for your input...I'm having a dialogue with one of the guys in a statewide Gay support organization wondering why I am finding parallels among the Human Rights of Palestinians and the LGBTQ communities. I think two days ago I introduced him to the term "pinkwashing". Thanks for a real life scenario of how it happens in the Gaza Flotilla arena.

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yossi replied on

he is an Israeli gay parties organizer and a very annoying guy to say the least. And the Israeli accent is really obvious, I can recognize it from the first second as an Israeli myself.

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eGuard replied on

At 1:46 there is a The [Sunday] Times article shown, heading "No dancing and no gays if Hamas gets its way", about Mahmoud Zahar. Both the readable text (e.g. the section right above the red line), and a simple google using the headline show: this article is published in <b>October 2005</b>. Three months before the election ! Now how could "Marc" find this article (without knowing the headline, as we now do)? How could he compose such a complete (alas, one-sided) analysis of Hamas, when as he says only a month ago he could not even spell Flotilla. Why did his clicks on internet not give just one recent page? And, "Marc", did you check whether this is another politician breaking his promise? LGBTQ network -- Netanyahu is gay then?

Benjamin Doherty

Benjamin Doherty is a web developer.