The following transcript has been edited lightly for length and clarity.
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"There can be no free Palestine without queer liberation." "The struggle for liberation in Palestine is intersectional," Shafie says. Murad and Shafie spoke to Democracy in Exile in a joint interview to discuss the queer and feminist movements in Palestine that persist under the shadow of both Israeli occupation and apartheid-and how their fight for LGBTQ+ rights is inextricable from their Palestinian identity. "And within this context, to also act as the savior of the Palestinian and to constantly try to create one form of identity, and whoever doesn't fit into this identity is not accepted." Shafie went on to co-found Aswat, the Palestinian Feminist Center for Sexual and Gender Freedoms, which is based in Haifa. "Israel's pinkwashing is an international strategy in order to paint a false picture of progressive, modern, gay-friendly Israel, while at the same time to create an image of a Palestinian who is homophobic and backwards," Shafie says.
She expected a welcoming and queer-friendly city, based on the familiar image of Tel Aviv, only to be told by her Israeli friends to change her name, so that it would "sound more Israeli and less Palestinian," she recalls. Ghadir Shafie, a Palestinian activist and feminist who was born in Israel, in the still-predominantly Palestinian city of Akka on the Mediterranean, had that feeling when she moved to Tel Aviv as a teenager. And then in your own community, you'll be fighting against conservative norms, but also carrying the message of Palestine with you." And so you'll be fighting for Palestine, and then people will tell you Palestine doesn't exist. As he recently described one of his songs to NPR, it is "about the feeling of not feeling like you belong anywhere. Born in East Jerusalem in the early 1990s, Murad captures the layers of dislocation that define the lives and experiences of many Palestinians. "A Palestine that does not discriminate based on religion or based on gender or sexual orientation." Through his songs and video art, the openly gay pop singer champions LGBTQ+ rights within conservative Palestinian society and under Israel's occupation. "For many queer Palestinians, and many Palestinians who believe in absolute freedom, it just comes as second nature that when we fight for a free Palestine, we're fighting for a Palestine that is free in all ways, not just free from the occupation," says Palestinian artist and musician Bashar Murad.
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