Gay Event Criticized

TORONTO — B’nai Brith Canada last week urged gays and lesbians to reject an anti-Israel program in Toronto. “Queers Against Israeli Apartheid” was to be held May 23 to “reignite Toronto’s queer community in the fight against apartheid,” the Ontario Public Interest Research Group said on its website. “Israel has now begun to frame itself as a tolerant, queer-positive democracy. This can never be reality under occupation.” The keynote speaker was to be El-Farouk Khaki, co-founder of Salaam: Queer Muslim Community and Toronto’s Pride 2009 Grand Marshall. B’nai Brith said it’s “the height of irony to single out democratic Israel” while gay rights “in neighbouring Arab countries are routinely trampled on.”