‘LEZBOLLAH’: Lesbian club at Columbia University hosts ‘free Palestine’ black lesbian film night, says ‘Zionists aren’t invited’
“It’s FREE PALESTINE over here: Zionists aren’t invited. See you soon, LionLez.”
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“It’s FREE PALESTINE over here: Zionists aren’t invited. See you soon, LionLez.”
Columbia University's LionLez club is hosting a black lesbian film night to support the "free Palestine" movement and "Zionists aren't invited."
The flyer advertises the films Rafiki and Shakedown, before emphasizing "It's FREE PALESTINE over here: Zionists aren't invited. See you soon, LionLez." The post was shared by Jewish Journal author Blake Flayton, who told The Post Millennial that it was sent to him by a former Columbia student.
https://twitter.com/blakeflayton/status/1716812963636793404?s=20
Rafiki is about a lesbian relationship in Kenya and the difficulties the women face living in a repressive society where their families disagree with their lifestyles. Rafiki was banned in Kenya. Shakedown is about an underground black lesbian strip club in LA. It streamed on Pornhub.
"Lezbollah," one account replied.
The event, originally planned for October 27, was rescheduled after LionLez claimed that they needed to hire security due to threats.
A Columbia University student who identified herself as a black lesbian Jew chimed into the LionLez replies on Instagram to say she found the post "cringe."
"I’m a black lesbian Jew and I found your flyer so aggressive and cringey," Nava Delacroix said.
"nope, you do," said "lesbian organizer" and Teacher College student in sociology and education Diana Tibs. She's on her way to earning a master's degree.
"How cowardly of you to crop out the 'Zionists not invited' portion," said another user who goes by tamarmadjar. "you might as well say Jews, 95% of us are Zionists. Btw you might want to check out what Palestinians do to people in the LGBTQ+ community…get a fucking grip."
"Lol," read a reply, "most gays support Palestine but nice try, the Davy Islam isn’t pro homosexuality doesn’t excuse a genocide lol"
"That’s ironic," chimed in another user. "Any queer person who steps foot in Gaza is persecuted. Plus, I’m confused at you throwing around the word genocide - the Hamas charter (Hamas being the leaders of Gaza) explicitly calls for the annihilation of all Jews on the planet? Do you support that?"
"No," LionLez replied not addressing the concern, "we DON’T support genocide which is why we DON’T support Israel."
George-Griffin's interest in colonialism and queerness goes beyond Gaza, and extends to the Dominican Republic, where she believes enslaved persons would have been gay and trans were it not for Europeans coming to the island.
"Like here," she began, asking a question of Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader at a Columbia World Leaders Forum event. "America and other countries affected by colonialism. The legacy of slavery still lives in its laws and practices. Homophobia and transphobia are racist European concepts enforced on enslaved Africans to increase the amount of African children to be enslaved for monetary benefit," she said.
https://twitter.com/libbyemmons/status/1717296213936988191?s=20
"It's time for all these people who believe in intersectionality to get some empirical evidence," said attorney Jonathan Goldstein, who represents clients across the country in a variety of matters and has expertise in firearms law and election law.
"I have on more than one occasion, volunteered to send transgender and gay activists to Gaza so that they can let the leadership in Hamas know that the community stands with them. I think that those communities will find that intersectionality and common cause doesn't mean what they think it means."
"I have the greatest respect for these communities," he said, "but they're wrong about whether intersectionality means what they think it does."
LionLez sent an email accompanying the invitation to the black lesbian film night, which emphasized that the Jewish people of Israel, who were mercilessly and brutally attacked by Palestinian terror group Hamas on October 7, were oppressors guilty in their own slaughter.
"Can you read between the lines of this poem?" Lion Lez writes, "white Jewish people are today and always have been the oppressors of all brown people, just like every other white subgroup. white supremacy is so extreme that even AFTER they (white Jews included) violently went after ALL brown people, they then looked around the room of just thempastyselves and said hmm who is the most different looking here...? And it was the Jewish people! So that means Olivia, and I'm gonna touch your hand when I say this, WHEN I SAY THE HOLOCAUST WASN'T SPECIAL, I MEAN THAT. You got a lot of nerve coming into a Black person's inbox talkin bout 'I'm afraid of brown people as a white Jew'"
"Any of these intersectional people," Goldstein said, "if they went to Gaza, would be thrown off of a tall building, literally thrown off a tall building." Homosexuality is punishable by up to 10 years in Gaza, under Hamas' leadership.
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"With all the information available to us, the only people who support 'Israel' are very stupid and/or very racist," read the rant against "white Jews."
"Stop looking at the news' interpretation of primary sources and look at the primary sources themselves. C'mon," it continues, "aren't we scholars? Look at eye.on.palestine on Instagram. Look at social media from people actually on the ground (that includes 0 Zionists who are in the air dropping bombs). No, white Jewish people in Palestine are not dying on a large scale. No, none of the... people you're referring to are from 'Israel,' colonizer settlers don't just suddenly 'come from' where they forced [their way] into. No, no one cares how much a white girl cried anti-semitism when we say stop the genocide."
Lizzy George-Griffin founded LionLez in April 2020, and since then the "event-based group" has planned gatherings specifically for LGBTQ+ identified people. Her carefully constructed mission statement, on which she "spent a lot of time on the wording," specifically notes that this club is to boost lifestyles that, were she in the Palestinian territory of Gaza, would be illegal and punishable with prison time.
Sex between men is illegal under Islamic law in Gaza, and while it was decriminalized in the West Bank, it is still not a mainstream accepted activity. Many Palestinians have fled to Israel or other nations due to the hostility in the Islamic territories. Gay Palestinians are often blackmailed by the government. Moral codes of conduct are enforced against LGBTQ+ people. Events, like the one planned by George-Griffin, are not permitted by the Islamic government in Gaza or the West Bank.
"LionLez will provide three main assets to the LGBTQ+ community at Barnard and Columbia," George-Griffin's mission reads. "First, LionLez will host events coordinated around Columbia’s lesbian community. These events will be accessible, they will be directed toward minority ethnic groups within the community and reflexive of the beliefs of current BIPOC trans-inclusive lesbian and feminism waves." When she gave this statement in February, she did not explicitly leave the minority Jewish students out of her events.
"Second," the mission continues, "LionLez will prioritize trans inclusivity. LionLez will advocate for trans members on its board and create spaces that center on transgender lesbianism and trans individuals in our community. Thus, our third and final asset is to provide safe spaces for people in the LGBTQ+ community who experience patriarchal exhaustion, triggers in coed settings, or who want to take a Bechdel break in these spaces, minority genders can engage in discourse and activities that do not surround men."
George-Griffin is working on a film called "LESBIANA: The Black Lesbian Masterdoc," which she describes in a fundraiser as "a student film by Columbia University senior Lizzy George-Griffin. A surrealist visual essay, LESBIANA poses the question, 'Am I a lesbian?' through a Black lens that reveals how misogynoir and colonialism lead to compulsive heterosexuality and cisheterosexism."
LionLez provides just a few of the many, LGBTQ+ centric events on the Columbia and Barnard campuses in New York City. There have been many protests at universities across the US, staged by LGBTQ+ activist groups, in support of Palestinians, Hamas, and Gaza.
US textbooks have bolstered the view of extremist Islamists since 9/11 by downplaying concepts of jihad, shari'ah law, and claiming that Christians and Jews are racist homophobic transphobic genocidal maniacs who seek the eradication and genocide of others.
