Sawant and Durkan Battle Over Pro-Palestine Film

Durkan "disagrees with the viewpoints expressed" in Pinkwashing Exposed. Sawant does not. ULYSSES CURRY

The ongoing battle between Durkan and Sawant heated up this week thanks to a controversial film screening.

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The film, Pinkwashing Exposed, is an hour-long documentary about queer activists in Seattle, who, in 2012, protested an Israeli delegation's tour of the Puget Sound region funded by the Israeli Consulate. In his synopsis of the film, director Dean Spade (who's Jewish, FWIW), describes the scenario this way: "Local queer Palestine solidarity activists exposed the 'Rainbow Generations' tour as pro-Israel propaganda and got some of the events, including the tour’s centerpiece event hosted by the City of Seattle’s LGBT Commission, cancelled."

Shortly after the film was first produced, Seattle's LGBT Commission sponsored a public screening. After some in the Jewish community pushed back, that screening was canceled. But now—six years later—the film is back in the news.

This week, the LGBT Commission, along with the Seattle Commission for People with disAbilities and Councilmember Sawant, once again scheduled a screening of the film, which took place on Thursday evening this week. And there were, once again, plenty of complaints.

Mayor Durkan, herself a lesbian, apparently heard from "hundreds" of constituants who objected to the film. In response to a letter from Stand with Us Northwest, a pro-Israel group, her office said:

The Mayor disagrees with the viewpoints in this film and believes it is regrettable that it is perceived as having the official approval of the City of Seattle. This event is being hosted and sponsored by Councilmember Sawant and two commissions, which are advisory boards that operate independently from the Mayor's Office. Mayor Durkan agrees with your concern that the Commission should have included additional panelists and should have considered multiple perspectives when approving the event. However, the Mayor also believes strongly in the First Amendment, which does allow all voices to be heard at City Hall. At a time with increased anti-Semitism in Seattle and across the country, Mayor Durkan thinks that our community should be focused on coming together to stand against hatred. In response, Mayor Durkan has asked the Office for Civil Rights to host an event in the upcoming weeks to further promote dialogue around anti-Semitism and LGBTQ rights both here and abroad.

The Mayor has the support of the Seattle Times Editorial Board (as well as Jason Rantz, who has the most appropriate name for a conservative writer I can imagine). On Friday, the STEB wrote:

Thursday’s showing of the local documentary “Pinkwashing Exposed: Seattle Fights Back” is a missed opportunity for constructive dialogue. Instead, it seems designed to make up for a controversial decision by the Seattle LGBTQ Commission to welcome an LGBTQ delegation from Israel in 2012. ... The political backlash before and after the 2012 event was canceled is at the heart of the documentary. Speakers in the film call for more cross-cultural dialogue on the conflict. Great idea. That’s exactly what the Thursday event should be. But instead, it is being promoted as an opportunity to criticize Israel and to illustrate how promoting Israel as a gay-friendly place is just “pinkwashing” propaganda designed to distract from the uglier and deadlier parts of the Palestinian conflict. The Facebook page promoting the event, which features an interesting debate on these issues, is filled with posts by the Seattle LGBTQ Commission on human rights violations by the Israeli government.

Rantz put it a little less delicately, calling the screening "a disturbing case of blatant anti-Semitism."

City Council member Kshama Sawant (surprise!) disagrees. In letter to Mayor Durkin sent Thursday, she wrote:

The film recounts the efforts of activists, and the courageous decision made by the LGBTQ Commission at the time to cancel an event that would have legitimized Stand With Us, a right-wing anti-Palestinian group, and the policies of the Israeli Government in carrying out the brutal repression of Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank. The film then goes on to show the subsequent campaign to make the Commission publicly apologize for cancelling the event. In my view, as an elected representative of Seattle’s working people, the most unfortunate aspect of the 2012 events was that the Mayor and City Councilmembers at that time also joined in the chorus of voices demanding an apology from the LGBTQ Commissioners for what was in fact a principled act on their part. ... As socialists, we stand in solidarity with Jewish, Muslim, and Christian working people in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank, and with all immigrant working people in Seattle, regardless of national origin, ethnicity, or religion. We believe that the only way to address the situation in Israel and Palestine is for Israeli and Palestinian working people to organize united movements against the brutal occupation and repression of Palestinian people by the Israeli ruling class, openly abetted by the US ruling class. These united movements should also build the fight for unionized living wage jobs, affordable housing for all, and women’s and LGBTQ rights in the region.

There's a whole lot more, which you can read here.

Spade did not immediately return request for comment, but if you think you can handle this controversial piece of art, it's available, for free, right here: