The dispute over politics in the Middle East played out during a small protest in front of the Castro Theatre in San Francisco last week, as activists called attention to Frameline's acceptance of sponsorship and money from the Israeli Consulate.
The June 17 demonstration �" at the beginning of the LGBT film festival �" was to highlight what several groups call a "pinkwashing" of alleged attacks and discrimination against Palestinians by the Israeli government.
Members of the Southwest Asian and North African Bay Area Queers, Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism, and the Arab Resource and Organizing Center took part in the demonstration. They have held similar protests in recent years.
Kate Raphael, an out lesbian founder of QUIT, alleged that in 2008 Frameline, which puts on the LGBT film festival, stopped accepting money and sponsorship from the Israeli Consulate, only to retreat this year due to threats that it would be branded as "anti-Jewish" by the consulate and its allies. She clarified that QUIT has not called for a formal boycott of the film festival.
"Whether people go to it or not is less our concern than that people are not taken in by it," Raphael said. "If people stand up at the panels and ask about that, then great."
A few yards away on Castro Street a less boisterous but equally resolute group of counterprotesters responded with pro-Israel and Zionist slogans, a booklet highlighting Israel's relatively gay-friendly climate among Middle Eastern countries, and a sign that read, "Queers for Palestine is like turkeys for Thanksgiving."
"They're making it about Israel, so we have to show the other side. We have to support Israel," said Bob Pave, a member of Stand With Us and A Voice For Israel, two of the groups staging the counterprotest.
Akiva Tor, consul general for the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco, said that charges of pinkwashing are untrue and that of all the different groups that the consulate works with, it encounters this sort of resistance only within the LGBT community.
"We present our LGBT culture the same way we present our Russian culture, our Ethiopian culture, our Yemenite culture," Tor said. "It just so happens that our LGBT citizens are among our most creative, so it's logical they'd be represented in a film festival."
K.C. Price, executive director of Frameline, denied any threats from the Israeli Consulate and said he is not aware of a decision to stop accepting money, attributing the consulate's absence during those years to a lack of Israeli feature films or of an offer of sponsorship from the consulate.
"Frameline is an arts and culture organization, and we don't take political points of view," Price said. "Most often funds like these are used to bring a filmmaker to San Francisco to talk about their film."
Price said that a $2,000 grant from the consulate enabled Tomer Heymann to attend the screening of his film, The Queen Has No Crown , at the Roxie Theater on Saturday, June 18, and to participate in a question and answer session afterward with the near-capacity audience.
Heymann's feature, shot with a home video camera, splices together intimate footage of Heymann discussing his identity as a gay man with his family �" including his Zionist father, disapproving brother, and blithely accepting niece and nephew �" with footage from anti-gay protesters in Jerusalem as well as military actions by the Israeli government, which Heymann implicitly criticizes.
"A lot of people say that Frameline takes the money because they don't want to be seen as anti-Jewish," said QUIT member Carla Schick, who took part in the protest. "But that doesn't make sense, because there is a huge community of Jews who are not Zionist and who don't support Israel's military occupation of Palestinian land."
On the other side, demonstrators pointed to Israel's pro-gay policies.
"Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are the only places in the Middle East with Pride parades, and the Israeli government even recognizes same-sex marriages from other countries," said Stand With Us member Charlotte Griffin, who identifies as a bisexual woman and Zionist. "It bothers me that that's considered completely unimportant. These protesters seem to feel that human rights and civil rights are less important than scoring political points."