Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism

Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT!) was founded in early 2001 by members of LAGAI-Queer Insurrection and individuals formerly associated with DAGGER (Dykes

Dyke (slang)

Dyke is slang terminology referring to a lesbian or lesbianism. It originated as a derogatory label for a masculine woman, and this usage still exists. However, some attempt to use it in a manner they see as positive, or simply as a neutral synonym for lesbian...

& Gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

Guys Emergency Response), which was active during the first Gulf War

Gulf War

The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...

Goals

According to the pro-Israel organisation Anti-Defamation League

Anti-Defamation League

The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...

, the group "supports divestment, the right of return for all Palestinians, immediate Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territories

Palestinian territories

The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries as the State of Palestine or simply Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the...

and describes Zionism as racism

UN General Assembly Resolution 3379

-The Israeli response:In his address to the United Nations General Assembly the same day, 10. November 1975, Israeli Ambassador Chaim Herzog stated: In his response he also said that the resolution was:...

."

QUIT demands:

That the U.S. Government immediately end all financial and military aid to Israel.
That the Israeli Government end its racist policies of harassment and exclusion of Palestinians.
International protection for the Palestinian people.
That all displaced Palestinians be granted the right to return to Palestine.
An end to the construction of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories.
An end to investment in Israel, including:

Divestment of university and other holdings in Israeli corporations and corporations doing business with Israel.
Divestment by the investment community.
Divestment by the cities we live in of their holdings in corporations doing business with Israel.
A total boycott of Israeli products.

Protests/Campaigns

February, 2002--QUIT! participated in the National Student Conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement
Palestine Solidarity Movement
The Palestine Solidarity Movement is a student organization in the United States which was established in 2000 after the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in Israel. The organization aims to use "divestment as a tactic to non-violently influence a just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." ...

on the Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

campus of the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...

.
June, 2002--QUIT! "initiated" a " 'No pride in occupation' anti-war contingent that marched in solidarity with the Palestinian people" in San Francisco's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...

Pride March.
August, 2002--25 members of the group reportedly "took over" a Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...

in Berkeley in protest of the firm's stores in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

and CEO Howard Schultz
Howard Schultz
Howard Schultz is an American business magnate. He is the best known as the chairman and CEO of Starbucks and a former owner of the Seattle SuperSonics...

's support for Israel.
June, 2003--The screening of an Israeli film, Yossi & Jagger
Yossi & Jagger
Yossi & Jagger is a 2002 Israeli romantic drama film directed by Eytan Fox about soldiers at the Israel – Lebanon border who try to find some peace and solace from the daily routine of war.-Plot:...

, at San Francisco's San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival is disrupted by QUIT! activists. The protest "outraged" Yossi Amrani, the Israeli Consul General and caused a minor local media flap.
June, 2003--QUIT! begins its campaign against the cosmetic company Estée Lauder outside of a Macy's
Macy's
Macy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...

department store in San Francisco. The company is targeted because of Ronald Lauder
Ronald Lauder
Ronald Steven Lauder is a Jewish-American businessman, civic leader, philanthropist, and art collector. Forbes lists Lauder among the richest people of the world with an estimated net worth of $3.0 billion in 2007.-Life and career:...

's, the company's founder, support for Israel and his service as president of the Jewish National Fund
Jewish National Fund
The Jewish National Fund was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Palestine for Jewish settlement. The JNF is a quasi-governmental, non-profit organisation...

.
In 2004, the Estee Lauder Companies
Estée Lauder Companies
Estée Lauder Companies, Inc. is a manufacturer and marketer of prestige skincare, makeup, fragrance and hair care products. The company has its headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.-History:...

boycott campaign titled "Estee Slaughter" was financed, in part, by a $1500 grant from Resist, Inc..

Founder Arrested in West Bank & Israel

In December, 2004, one of QUIT!'s founders, Kate Bender-Raphael was arrested by Israeli authorities while "filming a clash between Israeli soldiers and activists protesting the building of the separation barrier

Separation barrier

A separation barrier is a wall or fence constructed to limit the movement of people across a certain line or border, or to separate two populations. These structures vary in placement with regard to international borders and topography...

in the West Bank

West Bank

The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...

village of Bil'in

Bil'in

Bil'in is a Palestinian village located in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, west of the city of Ramallah in the central West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Bil'in has a population of 1,800, mostly Muslims.-History:...

." Bender-Raphael had been arrested in Israel and deported in 2003 "also for filming the Israel Defense Forces

Israel Defense Forces

The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...

' reaction to a demonstration against the barrier." As a result of her arrest, QUIT! staged a protest outside the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco.

Boycott World Pride Jerusalem

In late 2004, in response to Interpride’s decision that the Israeli group Jerusalem Open House would host the second World Pride parade in 2005, QUIT! launched a Boycott World Pride campaign. The boycott picked up steam after the event was postponed until August 2006 because of the pullout of the Israeli settlements from the Gaza Strip. QUIT and many other individuals and organizations contended that it was inappropriate to hold an event titled “Love Without Borders” in a city bisected by a 30-foot concrete wall. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) decided, in March 2006, not to participate in World Pride Jerusalem, stating, "IGLHRC recognizes that many LGBTI people in the region who wish to attend World Pride 2006, named 'Love without Borders,' will be unable to do so due to travel restrictions and conditions that limit mobility and participation."

San Francisco LGBT Film Festival

In March, 2007, QUIT! and the South West Asian, North African Bay Area Queers (SWANABAQ) initiated a campaign to pressure Frameline, the organizer of the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, to cut its ties with the Israeli government. In an open letter signed by more than 100 artists and writers, including Sophie Fiennes

Sophie Fiennes

Sophia Victoria Twisleton Wykeham-Fiennes , known as Sophie Fiennes, is an English film director and producer.-Career:Following a foundation course in painting at Chelsea School of Art, Fiennes worked with director Peter Greenaway from 1987–1992. She managed the UK based dance company, The Michael...

, Elia Suleiman

Elia Suleiman

Elia Suleiman , is a Palestinian film director and actor. He is best known for the 2002 film Divine Intervention , a modern tragic comedy on living under occupation in Palestine which won the Jury Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival...

, Ken Loach

Ken Loach

Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...

, Haim Bresheeth, Jenny Morgan, John Berger

John Berger

John Peter Berger is an English art critic, novelist, painter and author. His novel G. won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism Ways of Seeing, written as an accompaniment to a BBC series, is often used as a university text.-Education:Born in Hackney, London, England, Berger was...

, Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy is an Indian novelist. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, The God of Small Things, and has also written two screenplays and several collections of essays...

, Ahdaf Soueif

Ahdaf Soueif

Ahdaf Soueif is an Anglo-Egyptian novelist and political and cultural commentator.-Life and career:Soueif was born in Cairo and educated in Egypt and England...

, Eduardo Galeano

Eduardo Galeano

Eduardo Hughes Galeano is a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist. His best known works are Memoria del fuego and Las venas abiertas de América Latina which have been translated into twenty languages and transcend orthodox genres: combining fiction, journalism, political analysis, and...

, Brian Eno

Brian Eno

Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...

, and Leon Rosselson

Leon Rosselson

Leon Rosselson is an English songwriter and writer of children's books. After his early involvement in the folk music revival in Britain, he came to prominence, singing his own satirical songs, in the BBC's topical TV programme of the early 1960s, That Was The Week That Was...

, Frameline was asked "to honor calls for an international boycott of Israeli political and cultural institutions, by discontinuing Israeli consulate sponsorship of the LGBT film festival and not cosponsoring events with the Israeli consulate."

External links

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