News

Palestine is a Queer Migrant Issue!

For Media Contact, further inquiries or interview requests, please contact:

Uchechukwu Onwa – uchechukwu@qdep.org

June Kuoch – june@qdep.org

New York, NY | May 15th, 2021 marked the 73rd anniversary of the Nakba, the day in which the settler-state of Israel expelled over 700,000 Palestinians from their homes in 1948, with the support of the United Nations General Assembly.

The Queer Detainee Empowerment Project (QDEP) is in solidarity with Palestine and groups fighting for the liberation of military-occupied Palestine. We vehemently stand in opposition against European and Eastern European settlers’ attempts to displace and remove indigenous Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, the assault on worshipers at al-Aqsa mosque during Ramadan, one of the holiest times of the year for our Muslim communities, and the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza by Israeli forces.

The liberation of Palestine is interconnected to the liberation of all displaced people throughout the globe. The state of Israel is a settler-colonial apartheid state that continues to violate international law. This is not a conflict, as conflict assumes both sides exist within the same positions of power, this a violent military occupation of Palestine by the Israeli government. Palestinians are subjected to constant surveillance, military checkpoints, brutality at the hands of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), and separation from their friends and families.

QDEP is a queer and trans-led immigrant abolitionist organization. Our organization is made up of members who have sought refuge within the United States in order to live their fullest queer lives. As an LGBTQ abolitionist organization, we refuse the United States and Israel’s use of queer lives to justify their repression in Palestine.

As radical queer and trans immigrants, we refuse to allow our bodies and stories to be tokens for racist colonial regimes to continue to displace Palestinians. Racist ethno-nationalism caused our own members’ displacement, and we refuse “pinkwashing.” Pinkwashing erases the resistance and reliance of LGBTQ Palestinians. Pinkwashing is a racist colonial homophobic tool used to sanctifying and masking Israel’s abuses through its settler-occupation of Palestine. Our queer politic calls for a deep examination of racial, colonial, and gendered legacies that permeate our migration experiences.

As an organization based within the United State, we understand how violence within Palestine is interconnected to the existing prison empire of the US. Suppression tactics used by the IDF are paid, taught, and trained to local police departments throughout America. US military weapons used to suppress uprisings in Ferguson are similarly used in Palestine. As abolitionists, our demands for the defunding of police and liberation of Palestine are one of the same! Moreover, during the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden Administration has prioritized funding $735 million to support Israeli military violence, rather than helping communities within the US still grappling with the socio-economic impact of the pandemic.

Settler fear of displacement and violent expulsion builds upon an assumption that others will react with the same brutality that settlers themselves are currently enacting — in Palestine and throughout the world. Focusing on that concern focuses on deep-seated fear within the patriarchal settler experience and not on liberation of queer indigenous communities. We are in solidarity with those organizing for the liberation of Palestine, and want to center the voice of queer Palestinians throughout the diaspora!

Palestinian refugees should be guaranteed the right to return to their ancestral homeland without feeling the fear and persecution of the Israeli government. We stand with Palestinians fighting to end the apartheid state, and support their resistance efforts and the self-determination of all indigenous people throughout the world.

Resources to learn about Palestine:

The Queer Detainee Empowerment Project (QDEP) assists folks coming out of immigration

detention in securing structural, health/wellness, educational, legal, and emotional support and services. We work to organize around the structural barriers and state violence that LGBTQIA TS & GNC detainee/undocumented folks face related to their immigration status, race, sexuality, and gender expression/identity. We are committed to assisting folks in building lives outside of detention, to breaking down the barriers that prevent folks from building fulfilling and productive lives, and to keeping queer families intact by demanding an end to deportations, detention, and policing. We believe in creating a narrative of thriving, not just surviving.

QDEP is a proud member of the Detention Watch Network, Freedom For Immigrants, New York Immigration Coalition, AbolishICE NYNJ Coalition, as well as the International Detention Coalition. QDEP is a fiscally sponsored project of the Center for Transformative Action (CTA). CTA, an educational 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, is legally and financially responsible for all our project activities.