The Queer Paradox of Hamas
In the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, it’s no secret that much of the international queer community has rallied behind the people of Gaza. As a symbol of that solidarity, a new flag appeared—bursting with cheerful colours and crowned with a saccharine little heart.
It’s as if the LGBTQIA+ flag and the Palestinian flag had a love child: a Frankenstein hybrid of two antagonistic ideologies, where one genuinely embraces the other, while the other only pretends to reciprocate. Pink‑haired Abdul is more than welcome at a gay rooftop party in London, but in Gaza (and in many other Islamist regimes) he risks being thrown off that very rooftop.
The 700‑kilometre tunnel network of Hamas is therefore not only a smuggling route for AK‑47s, but also an escape route for queer people who would rather not die. Not necessarily out of fear of Hamas or the dozen other terror groups active in Gaza, but of their own families, who might lynch them in the name of “family honour”. That’s not unique to Palestinian culture: in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Somalia, Mauritania, Afghanistan, Brunei, Pakistan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and northern Nigeria, homosexuality is a crime punishable by death—both through honour killings and under state law.
Yet the suffering of queer people under Islamist rule doesn’t seem to weigh heavily on many of their Western counterparts. It’s apparently far more entertaining to chant “Free Palestine” en masse at a gay parade in Ibiza than to worry about a crushed Palestinian who was not killed by the IDF.
Dead Gazans are only useful for confirming a certain worldview when Jews can be blamed. Hamas terrorists, on the other hand, are recast as philanthropists fighting for Palestinian rights. And they supposedly care about queer people too, because those queers are “in solidarity” and wear keffiyeh scarves ordered online.
One day, this community may realise that its hebreophobia is practically the only bridge that still connects it to jihadist ideology—and that gender fluidity, hormone treatments, and other hallmarks of contemporary “woke” culture do not exactly align with the ethics this supposed ally wishes to impose on a future Eurabian caliphate.
Until then, it is free to keep dreaming of a Palestinophile world with glittering mosques full of thrilling freedom fighters. Hypocrisy, you say? Certainly—but above all, naivety and a flagrant lack of critical thinking. Image credit: Graphic created for BeNews (Canva)
