Repeatedly portraying Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East has long been used to secure continued political, military, and economic support from Western democracies by fostering a “people like us” sense of shared identity and values.
To the Toronto Sun,
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East regarding the opinion piece titled: “Museum gets full marks for hypocrisy on human rights” published on June 21, 2026.
My main concern relates to the final part of the editorial, which specifies what lessons can be learned from Palestinians on the basis that LGBTQ+ individuals living under the Palestinian Authority and Hamas face persecution and ostracism.
This framing is not new. Since the early 2000s, pinkwashing has become a central component of Israel’s public relations strategy, using the LGBTQ+ rights discourse to deflect attention from Israel’s regime of occupation, apartheid, and settler colonialism. Rather than advancing genuine concern for LGBTQ+ people, such narratives are effectively used to portray Palestinians as inherently uncivilized while presenting Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East; as a liberal exception deserving of political and moral support.
In the same vein, repeatedly portraying Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East has long been used to secure continued political, military, and economic support from Western democracies by fostering a “people like us” sense of shared identity and values.
Let us be clear: Israel is not a democracy. It is an apartheid state. All human rights organizations have reached this conclusion, from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch to the world’s highest court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
In its landmark 2024 advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice specified that Israel’s legislative and policy measures violate the international prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid.
In assessing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians under occupation, the Court stated that “[t]he regime of comprehensive restrictions imposed by Israel on Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory […] constitutes systemic discrimination based on, inter alia, race, religion or ethnic origin.”
This is notwithstanding Israel’s administrative detention policy, which enables the detention of Palestinians for renewable periods of up to six months on the basis of secret evidence that is disclosed neither to the detainee nor their lawyer, and where, if Israeli authorities claim there are “reasonable grounds,” detention orders can be repeatedly renewed for additional six-month periods. Practically speaking, this means that Palestinians remain detained for months or even years without being formally charged, informed of the evidence against them, or given any meaningful opportunity to challenge their detention.
This is also notwithstanding the fact that Palestinians brought before Israeli military courts face a discriminatory system, with conviction rates reaching approximately 99 percent.
The editorial’s appeal to LGBTQ+ rights as a basis for drawing lessons from Palestinians therefore is troubling, reproducing dehumanizing tropes under the language of human rights while omitting context regarding Israel’s occupation and apartheid system to justify opposition to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights hosting a Nakba exhibit in Manitoba.
What is even more appalling is the editorial's invocation of LGBTQ+ rights given Israel’s documented instances of exploiting the vulnerability of queer Palestinians for intelligence-gathering purposes. Human rights organizations and researchers have reported cases in which Palestinian LGBTQ+ individuals were subjected to coercion, blackmail, or pressure to provide information in exchange for permits.
The pink washing talking point therefore raises serious questions about the sincerity of appeals to LGBTQ+ rights when it is being used to suppress an exhibit on the Nakba – the history of the deliberate and systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing against Palestinians to establish a Jewish state in Palestine – history that cannot be erased based on the policies of the PA and Hamas.
History is history, is it not?
Lynn Naji
Media Analyst
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East