Rehashed Liberalism, the Accusation of Radical Purity, and the Alibi of the “Personal”

In five chapters, Sa'ed Atshan explores the question of queer Palestinian identities in complicated and contested local, national, and global frames. He argues in the first chapter that the queer Palestinian movement in Israel/Palestine “is mostly submerged and latent as a result of Israeli subjugation of Palestinians and Palestinian patriarchy and homophobia” (29), and through ethnography attempts to give voice to the queer Palestinians he argues are excluded from NGO participation and media representations. Chapter 2, titled “Global Solidarity and the Politics of Pinkwashing,” elaborates “the split among queer Palestinian solidarity communities between those who name both Zionism and homophobia as systems of oppression that queer Palestinians face and those who prioritize Zionism and see recognition of homophobia as reinforcing a central feature of pinkwashing rhetoric” (75). How this split plays out in transnational activism and boycott politics from gay pride parades to the Boycott, Sanctions, Divestment (BDS) movement is...