"Dear LGBTQ organization/group/activist,
We Palestinian queer activists from alQaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian society, Aswat — Palestinian Gay Women, and PQBDS (Palestinian Queers for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions), are writing to you to express our disappointment with the International Gay and Lesbian Youth Organization’s [IGLYO] decision to hold its General Assembly for 2011, this December, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Even after we contacted IGLYO expressing our deep concerns about the problematic political implications of holding the conference in Israel, they published an ‘Open Letter – 2011 GA‘ emphasizing that they are unwilling to reconsider, and even more, defending their decision and misleading LGTBQ member organizations into normalizing and providing a cover to the Israeli apartheid and oppression of the Palestinian people — IGLYO didn’t only decide to hold their General Assembly conference in Tel Aviv, but they also accepted Israeli government money, participating in a world wide campaign to re-brand Israel and pinkwash it’s crimes. We are therefore calling upon you to help us communicate to IGLYO why their action is unjust and unbecoming of an organization devoted to furthering the rights of queer people and human rights in general."
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