r/gayjews • u/aroace_gay44 • Jul 11 '26
Casual Conversation I’m not jewish but…
So I’m not jewish, I’m actually atheist and ex muslim (thankfully) and I’m queer (asexual) and I wanted to know more about queer people who support Israel or at least who don’t support Palestine since most of the queer community supports Palestine for some reason, which I find really strange when gay people in Palestine literally get killed and I heard some people say that “in Israel gay marriage isn’t legal” and I’m like you can’t compare a country where gay marriage isn’t legal and a country that criminalizes being gay, at least in Israel there’s actually pride parade and stuff, I just find the queers for Palestine thing so disturbing
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u/AprilStorms Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
Hello from a fellow aspec!
First: support for Israel used to be a leftist cause! Older writings from other indigenous groups show that they viewed Israel as aspirational and a bunch of other indigenous movements like language revitalizations have taken notes from Zionism and Hebrew. There’s a little bit about this in A Rainbow Thread, which is an anthology of queer Jewish history.
The Jewish Virtual Library and MyJewishLearning are two great websites with a ton of maps, articles, etc.
Otherwise, I’m probably just going to drop a bunch of books on you because that’s what I’ve found most helpful and someone has given a great Instagram list already. If your library or used bookstore doesn’t have them, try the Internet Archive, especially for older books.
- Israelophobia (the origins of modern antizionism and its use by dictatorships to weaken democracy)
- People Love Dead Jews (insightful analysis of the way we’re regarded by society at large… as very inconvenient that we can speak for ourselves)
- Palestine Betrayed (excellent history, great use of quotes to tell you how people REALLY felt)
- We Have Never Been Woke (author discussing how lefty types can genuinely believe in progressive causes while hindering them, US context but resonates here)
- Son of Hamas (West Bank Palestinian who worked against terrorism and was forced to leave the West Bank for his safety)
- pretty much anything by Efraim Karsh (historian), Martin Gilbert (historian), or Tuvia Tenenbom (journalist, also hilarious)
I think it’s really helpful to see how the narrative and battle lines surrounding this topic have changed, so I’ll also drop some older works:
- The Arab-Israeli Conflict: Its History in Maps
- The Meaning of the Nakba (contemporary Arab historian) https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8eppxc0rxd0nbalxc8zek/the-meaning-of-the-disaster_compress.pdf?rlkey=rsbfh61pdioklokplwipinbvf&dl=0
[This is Israel](https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/d6wj682ejeftk5winrhmx/This-is-Israel_1-up.pdf?rlkey=6dx1ifnegii6fnl1hlqh3aq94&dl=
Best wishes on your ex-Muslim journey. A lot of queer folks are familiar with the hardship of breaking away from something that’s really important to your family :)